In his new memoir, Tom Felton talks about how his ex-girlfriend organized an intervention for him and how his lawyer gave him a powerful warning about his life.
In Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard, in which he talked about his mental health issues, the Harry Potter actor, now 35, said he drank a lot to “escape” his twenties.
Harry Potter Star Tom Felton Opens Up On Substance Abuse And Rehab
In his book, published Tuesday, Tom said his drinking was just a “symptom” of “deeper” problems. He wrote that he drank a few pints and whiskey every day before going to rehab three times.
Tom said his manager, who was also his girlfriend at the time, and his agents organized an intervention for him because they were concerned about his drinking and wanted him to get help.
But he said the sad warning about his life from his lawyer at the intervention, whom he had “barely met face-to-face,” hit him “the hardest” and led to his three stays in rehab.
In a quote from People, Tom recalled his attorney saying, “He said to Tom, ‘I don’t know you very well, but you seem like a nice guy.’ I just want to say that this is the seventeenth time in my career that I’ve attended an intervention. Eleven of them have died since then. Don’t be the last”.
The actor, known for his role of Draco Malfoy in the film adaptations of the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling, said that at that point he finally went to a rehab center in Malibu, but he left after less than 24 hours.
He later went to a second rehab center, but when he was found in a girl’s room, he was kicked out for violating the rules.
Although he got his life under control for a while, he admitted that after a few years “the numbness came back.” He then went to rehab for the third time, this time on his own.
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He said it was one of the “hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make,” but he was proud of himself for admitting that he “needed help” and made a plan to get it.
Tom said his drinking was a “symptom” of his “deeper” mental health issues. When he lived in Los Angeles, he said, he spent a lot of time in dive bars and “longed for normalcy.”
“But alcohol wasn’t the problem,” she said. That was the sign. He said the problem went further.
“I was no longer very interested, but drank a couple of pints and a whiskey with each of them every day before the sun went down.”
Tom said he is no longer afraid to admit when he is not well. In the touching excerpt from his memoir, he talked about his therapy and recalled his struggles with alcohol.
“I’m no longer afraid to raise my hand and say I’m not well,” he said. He also said, “I’m not the only one who feels this way.”
“Just like we all get physically sick at some point in our lives, we all get mentally sick at some point in our lives. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not a sign of weakness, he said, and he hopes his honesty will help others see therapy for their own problems as “normal.”
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