Tom Felton’s memoir ‘Beyond the Wand’ reveals mental health struggles, secret rehab stints.
An aspect of the actor who played Draco Malfoy that has never been revealed. In his recently published memoir, Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard, actor Tom Felton, who played Harry Potter, opens up more than he ever has before.
Although the British actor, who is now 35 years old, does provide his readers with plenty of Potter nuggets and set secrets, as well as a lot of insights about his more-than-friends connection with co-star Emma Watson, towards the end of his book, Felton also makes some unexpected discoveries.
He describes his experience of moving to Los Angeles and becoming overwhelmed by the more glamorous lifestyle of Hollywood stars. When Felton was in his mid-to-late twenties, he “spent more hours, more nights than I care to remember” at a dive pub in Los Angeles known as Barney’s Beanery. He wrote this in an effort to recapture some of the normalcy that he had experienced during his childhood.
According to what Felton says, he wasn’t much of a drinker until he started hanging out at Barney’s when he was “craving normalcy.”
“I went from not being particularly interested to regularly having a few pints a day before the sun had even gone down, and a shot of whiskey to go with each of them,” he writes, adding that he was “drinking to escape a situation.” “I went from being not particularly interested to regularly having a few pints a day before the sun had even gone down, and a shot of whiskey to go with each of them.”
He claims that he was drinking on the set and that he would show up for work “unprepared.”
Felton goes on to reveal that his managers, agents, and then-girlfriend, Jade Olivia, as well as his lawyer, staged an intervention for him. They demanded that he immediately check himself into a rehabilitation facility in Malibu, California, that cost $40,000 a month, or else they would drop him as a client. Felton says that the intervention was staged for him because they were concerned about his substance abuse.
He claims that when he checked in to the facility, the nurse who did the paperwork offered to give him a fake name. His response was, “If people remember me from the Harry Potter movies, it will be due to the appearance of my face in those movies. It will not be due to the fact that my name is listed on the name tag. They are not going to mistake me for him even if you put “Mickey F**king Mouse” on my breast. You have my word on that.”
When he checked into detox, he was placed in the same room as a man who had already been there for three days but wasn’t completely clean yet. After spending the previous 24 hours in the facility, he exited the premises and headed in the direction of Los Angeles and Barney’s Beanery. After arriving at his destination and engaging in a number of chats, he arrived at the realisation that he desired to leave his relationship with his long-term girlfriend Olivia.
“I didn’t believe that my substance use warranted the intervention, but I’m glad it happened because it temporarily removed me from the world that was making me unhappy and allowed me to get some clarity,” Felton writes. “I’m glad it happened because it took me away from the world that was making me unhappy and allowed me to get some clarity.”
After he ended his relationship with Olivia, he checked himself into a facility in California, which he referred to as “a haven for young people who are struggling.”
Felton claims that he did not follow the stringent regulations that were in place at the facilities, and as a result, he was expelled from the programme after being discovered in the bedroom of one girl’s room. He described the programme as “life-changing,” noting that before he started it, “I had been existing in a condition of pure numbness.” He participated in the programme for a total of three weeks.
After that, Felton uprooted his life and moved to Venice Beach, where he started fresh by purchasing his own “shack.”
He states that “life was better than it had ever been.” It came as a surprise thus when the numbness suddenly returned one day, a couple of years later, without any prior warning and in response to nothing in particular.
After that, he claims that he checked himself into a different facility in order to “seek therapy,” describing this action as “one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make.”
Felton goes on to state that he wished to discuss in his memoir a significant portion of his experiences relating to his difficulties with mental health.
According to what he writes, “I’m no longer bashful about putting my hands up and saying: I’m not okay.” “To this day, I have no way of predicting which version of myself I will find when I wake up.”
He argues that he wants to “normalise” rehab and therapy and encourages his followers to seek treatment if they are also experiencing feelings of being overwhelmed.
In a recent interview with The Independent, Felton disclosed that his Potter co-star, Watson, was the one who “encouraged” him to dive into his stints in rehab and his battles with mental health in the book. Watson played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series.
“A few individuals, notably Emma Watson, urged me to tell the complete tale and not just sort of cherry-pick the fluffy bits,” he added. “I was also encouraged by a few other people to tell the whole narrative.” “Not solely due to the fact that it was therapeutic for me. In addition to this, I want to share certain aspects of my life in the expectation that doing so would be of assistance to those who may not be having the easiest of times.”
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