Hollywood superstar Robert Downey Jr said going to prison was the “worst thing” that ever happened to him – after his drug addiction spiralled out of control.
In a frank podcast interview the actor – who is set to star in nuclear bomb thriller Oppenheimer – said their were ‘only threats’ behind bars. And how he made a fool of himself in front of inmates as he washed.
The Iron Man actor was just six-years-old when he was given marijuana for the first time by his dad, sparking a decades-long battle with drug addiction, eventually resulting in him getting locked up.
After repeatedly failing to attend court-ordered drug tests following a 1996 cocaine possession charge, the A-list actor was jailed for three years in 1999, aged 34.
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He ended up spending 15 months behind bars before being granted an early release.
(Image: Getty Images)
The 58-year-old actor called it “the most dangerous place” he’s ever been as he compared it to a “distant planet” while speaking with Dax Shepard and Monica Padman on the most recent episode of their Armchair Expert podcast.
Opening up about the moment he was handed his fate, Robert told them: “I’m in court, I’m being over-sentenced by an angry judge, and at some point he said something in Latin, and I thought he was casting a spell on me.”
The Marvel star explained from there he was sent to North Kern State Prison in Delano, California, a “receiving centre” where “they decide where you’re going to go”.
He described it as “arguably the most dangerous place I’ve ever been in my life” because inmates of different security levels were all held together.
“You could just feel the evil in the air, and that was no trouble at all because it was kind of like just being in a really bad neighbourhood,” he said.
He added: “There was no opportunity there. There was only threats.”
(Image: Sygma via Getty Images)
In an awkward blunder during his first days behind bars, the actor recalled how he was “a little spun out” and received some “strong chuckles and jeers” from fellow inmates when he was caught walking to the showers with his underwear on backwards.
He was eventually transferred to the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison.
Describing the moment he first stepped foot into the facility, he said: “Walking onto the yard that you’re gonna be doing more than a year on for the first time, the closest thing I can associate it to is being sent to a distant planet where there is no way home until the planets align”.
He revealed it took him two weeks to come to terms with the reality of the situation.
“We are programmed to, within a short amount of time, be able to adjust to things that are seemingly impossible, and for me, there’s worse things that could have happened than being sent to an institution, by far,” he said.
But he added: “However, we can only go by what we know, and I would imagine if I had to guess, that was the worst thing that happened to me.”
After posting bail in 2000 he was released early from prison and went to a rehab facility.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
But he continued to struggle with his addiction and in 2001 the actor was arrested again for suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance.
He was sentenced to three years of probation and a one-year drug rehab program.
The turning point for Robert came in 2003 when he finally quit drugs for good after being given an ultimatum by his now-wife, Susan Downey.
“I think he saw what we had. There was something magical there, something we couldn’t put our finger on”, she told Harpers Bazaar in 2009.
On July 4, 2003, Robert stopped at a Burger King on the Pacific Coast Highway and threw his drugs in the ocean and in 2005 the couple got married.
Since then the actor has remained sober and despite being shunned from Hollywood during the height of his addiction, he was able to make a miraculous return — going on to star in the Iron Man franchise, Sherlock Holmes and The Avengers.
His most recent film, Oppenheimer, is due to be released next month.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
