One of your most beloved films is “10 Things I Hate About You.” You’ve talked about your friendship with Heath Ledger and how his passing affected you. But when you think back to that time, do you ever wonder, “What kept that from happening to me?” So, I was 13, I came from a difficult childhood, without getting into detail, and I got saved somehow. I got put on Broadway, discovered off the street, and I was suddenly an actor without any impetus to be one prior. I often think, had that not happened to me, I’d be dead—no doubt about it. I’m an addict, currently sober—I would’ve been less caring about keeping myself alive. Acting is my reason to live now. It’s my kids and acting, but acting was my reason to live for a really long time, and still is.
When Heath passed away, I knew why he passed away. I had decided a long time ago to never do hard drugs. Heath wasn’t suicidal—Heath had a drug problem. As I get older, it gets harder to deal with Heath’s death because I think about how he would’ve been today, that he died wildly young. It gets more tragic, in a way, that he’s not here.
Drugs are low hanging fruit in this business—and alcohol. They’re easy to do, and I don’t think Heath thought, “Oh, if I do drugs, I’m going to die.” No one thinks that, but I wish I had been more vocal about my worries and disapproval of him doing those things. But you just aren’t in the moment—you don’t want to be a buzzkill or a bummer. Yeah, there are regrets I have about it, but I know for a fact that Heath tried to fix himself right before he died. He understood he had a problem that was dangerous—he came to understand that. It took a really long time, but it was too late.
It gives me pause, not because it could have happened to me—it couldn’t have happened to me—but because it happened to my friend who was a dear man who didn’t want to die, had a young daughter and wanted to live and was full of life. It’s a cautionary tale—I don’t think Heath ever wanted to be a cautionary tale. He just wanted to be a great actor and he was only just beginning.
Brittany Murphy is another one. I’ve rarely ever met, to this day, someone as full of life as Brittany Murphy. She was a shining example of spirit and soul. For that to be wiped out, it can happen to anyone. You got to be careful.