He was beaten with a stick, a shoe, an ashtray, a phone—anything his mother could give him. By age 11, he was already taking his mother’s “nerve pills,” and by 14, he’d tried every drug imaginable. Despite this, he’s still one of Hollywood’s most prominent actors, with films that have grossed over $10.8 billion worldwide.

“As a five-year-old, I kept wondering: why does he put up with this? How does he put up with this? And why doesn’t he leave her? But he didn’t. He was able to stay calm and composed. He was able to maintain relationships with children. He’s a good man.”

He started taking pills at age 11.
Eventually, his father left the family, telling his son he couldn’t live like that anymore.

His parents separated when he was 15. Although he initially considered his father’s departure “cowardly,” he later realized his father had simply made a decision he believed was best for himself.

After the divorce, his mother’s condition continued to deteriorate.

“She fell into a deep depression and attempted suicide by swallowing ‘a lot of pills.’ She survived, but she was never the same. She lived on the couch and weighed about 70 pounds.”

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