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Mar. 11th, 2010 11:31 am
This broke my heart
Corey Feldman, on Larry King Live:
"I appreciate the fact that everybody really cares and -- and is trying to show their expression of -- of sorrow right now. But at the end of the day, Larry, where were all these people the last 10 years, the last 15 years of Corey's life?
Corey was living in the Oakwood Apartments with his mom, very broke, very destitute. … He didn't even have a car. Where were all these people to lend a hand out, to reach out to him and say, you know, you're a legend, you're -- you're an amazingly talented, wonderful person who's really never gone out of his way to hurt anybody other than himself. He was there for his mom and he took care of her. He's always been a good person.
In this entertainment industry in Hollywood, we build people up as children, we put them on pedestals and then when we decide that they're not marketable anymore, we walk away from them.
And then we taunt them and we tease them and things like TMZ, outlets like that, where it's acceptable in society, it's OK for society, as a whole, to poke fun at, to -- to point fingers at, to laugh at us as human beings. Why is it OK to kick somebody when they're down?
I don't think it is. And I don't think it should be tolerated anymore. I don't think it should be accepted anymore with our -- within our society, within the entertainment industry, within the world as a whole."
As much as I think doing drugs at all is stupid and people should know better, I do understand that the world Corey grew up in made it all but impossible to avoid that. Only a rare few can escape it entirely. Some young actors can eventually get past it--Drew Barrymore, for instance. Some struggle for years with relapses before they finally get clear. But some just don't ever make it out. Sometimes it's only a matter of sheer luck as to whether an OD episode is deadly and whether we get lucky enough to keep someone like Robert Downey Jr., or unlucky enough to lose someone like River Phoenix.
Sometimes, people with addictions cause enough problems for other people that there's really nothing anyone can do but to get out of their way so you don't get caught in the shrapnel. But other times, maybe just a little more patience and compassion is all that's needed. Perhaps if Corey had gotten that when he was younger, and not been treated as disposable once he grew out of his cute teen idol phase, he'd still be with us today.
"I appreciate the fact that everybody really cares and -- and is trying to show their expression of -- of sorrow right now. But at the end of the day, Larry, where were all these people the last 10 years, the last 15 years of Corey's life?
Corey was living in the Oakwood Apartments with his mom, very broke, very destitute. … He didn't even have a car. Where were all these people to lend a hand out, to reach out to him and say, you know, you're a legend, you're -- you're an amazingly talented, wonderful person who's really never gone out of his way to hurt anybody other than himself. He was there for his mom and he took care of her. He's always been a good person.
In this entertainment industry in Hollywood, we build people up as children, we put them on pedestals and then when we decide that they're not marketable anymore, we walk away from them.
And then we taunt them and we tease them and things like TMZ, outlets like that, where it's acceptable in society, it's OK for society, as a whole, to poke fun at, to -- to point fingers at, to laugh at us as human beings. Why is it OK to kick somebody when they're down?
I don't think it is. And I don't think it should be tolerated anymore. I don't think it should be accepted anymore with our -- within our society, within the entertainment industry, within the world as a whole."
As much as I think doing drugs at all is stupid and people should know better, I do understand that the world Corey grew up in made it all but impossible to avoid that. Only a rare few can escape it entirely. Some young actors can eventually get past it--Drew Barrymore, for instance. Some struggle for years with relapses before they finally get clear. But some just don't ever make it out. Sometimes it's only a matter of sheer luck as to whether an OD episode is deadly and whether we get lucky enough to keep someone like Robert Downey Jr., or unlucky enough to lose someone like River Phoenix.
Sometimes, people with addictions cause enough problems for other people that there's really nothing anyone can do but to get out of their way so you don't get caught in the shrapnel. But other times, maybe just a little more patience and compassion is all that's needed. Perhaps if Corey had gotten that when he was younger, and not been treated as disposable once he grew out of his cute teen idol phase, he'd still be with us today.
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