Jamie Lee Curtis Reflects on Her 'Worst Day' in Active Addiction
Jamie Lee Curtis is looking back on a tumultuous time in her life.
The Oscar-winner reflected on her past struggles with opioid addiction in a new interview with Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, acknowledging that she probably wouldn't be here today if stronger drugs like fentanyl wore more readily available when she was in active addiction.
"I liked a good opiate buzz,” she admitted in the video interview posted earlier today, July 28, where she discussed drawing on her own experiences with addiction for her role in The Bear. “And if fentanyl was as available—as easily available—as it is today on the street, I’d be dead.”
Getting sober, she said, made that "crystal clear." Now, she's "hyper-aware" of what life could have looked like, especially seeing how many addicts end up in prison. Today, over two decades into her sobriety, Curtis says she's "incredibly lucky."
“My worst day was almost invisible to anyone else,” she recalled. "I'm lucky; I didn't make terrible decisions high or under the influence that then, for the rest of my life, I regret." She thinks about all of the women in prison as a result of drugs and alcohol. "...not because they were violent felons, not because they were horrible people, but because they were addicts," she emphasized. "And I am incredibly lucky that that wasn’t my path. I was headed there.”
She also lost her own half-brother, Nicholas, to a heroin overdose in 1994.
"He is one of millions and millions of people whose lives have been extinguished because of addiction," she said, sharing that he "went out and used one time and died from an overdose."
For the life she lives today, she said, "My gratitude is enormous."