In an interview with New Zealand’s Essentials magazine, the Mad Max star spoke candidly about how he almost lost his life to a cocaine and alcohol addiction.
“I’m f**lucky to be alive,” he told the magazine before adding: “I would have sold my mother for a rock of crack.”
The 37-year-old said, “I was a shameful suburban statistic,” he then opened up about some sage advice which saved his life.
“I was told very clearly, ‘you go down that road, Tom, you won’t come back. That’s it. All you need to know.’ And that message stayed with me clearly for the rest of my days,” he revealed.
The London-based actor rose to fame with starring roles in Black Hawk Down and Star Trek: Nemesis, after his quick taste of success the Inception star developed a devastating addiction to harmful substances.
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This resulted in his divorce from first wife, Sarah Ward, and coming close to death on numerous occasions.
In 2009 the father-of-one told the Guardian that he has been sober since 2003, however he believes that there is no true cure for addiction.
“It’s like living with a 400-pound orang-utan that wants to kill me. It’s much more powerful than me, doesn’t speak the same language and it runs around the darkness of my soul. Now I know my beast and I know how to manage it.”
He married actress Charlotte Riley last year and has a 7 year-old son names Louis from a previous relationship.
And it’s his young son which has helped stay on the path to recovery: “It’s no longer about just you. You have to get on with things.”
Fatherhood, he revealed, has helped in stay on the path of recovery.
