Tom Felton is opening up about his insane rehab escape.
The “Harry Potter” star details his harrowing experience escaping a Malibu rehab facility less than 24-hours after checking in and the people who “saved his life.”
Felton’s new memoir, “Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up A Wizard,” will be released on Tuesday, October 18th.
Tom Details His Life Growing Up As A Wizard
He writes, “All of a sudden, the frustration burst out of me. I was, I realize now, completely sober for the first time in ages and I had an overwhelming sense of clarity and anger.”
Felton describes screaming his lungs out to the sky.
“I started screaming at God, at the sky, at everyone and no one, full of fury for what had happened to me, for the situation in which I found myself,” he writes. “I yelled, full-lung, at the sky and the ocean. I yelled until I’d let it all out, and I couldn’t yell anymore.”
The actor known for his role as Draco Malfoy in the ‘HP’ films explains how he met “three kings” who ultimately helped save his life.
Tom Says “Three Kings” Helped Save His Life
The three kings include a gas station attendant, an Uber driver and a bartender.
Following his escape from the rehab facility, a gas station attendant gave him a water free of charge and $20.
He describes how his Uber driver was the second person he encountered amid his escape. The driver drove him to Hollywood.
The third person Felton claims helped save his life was a bartender at a local bar he frequented.
His Lawyer Didn’t Want Him To Die From Addiction
The bartender gave the actor a place to stay and a shoulder to cry on.
Prior to this wild escape story, Felton was given an intervention by his manager. He believed he was walking into his manager’s office to discuss a film offer, but quickly realized he walked into an intervention.
Felton was read letters by those close to him including his girlfriend, Jade Olivia.
Shockingly enough for the actor, the letter that resonated the most with him was from his lawyer.
“My lawyer, whom I’d barely ever met face to face, spoke with quiet honesty,” he writes. “‘Tom,’ he said, ‘I don’t know you very well, but you seem like a nice guy. All I want to tell you is that this is the seventeenth intervention I’ve been to in my career. Eleven of them are now dead. Don’t be the twelfth.’”
Felton moved to Hollywood to further his acting career.
His Drinking Got Out Of Hand
“My world became one of crazy opportunity, elaborate nights out and — there’s no other way of putting it — cool free s–t. I enjoyed it. Jade enjoyed it,” he explains in his memoir. “For a while, it was lots of fun. But only for a while. The gleam soon began to tarnish. I never knew I wanted this kind of life. And as time passed, an uncomfortable truth quietly presented itself to me: I didn’t want it … I was in a lucky and privileged position. But there was something inauthentic about the life I was leading.”
Felton missed having authentic conversations with people who didn’t know who he was.
“I missed my mum,” Felton admits.
Prior to moving to Hollywood, Felton rarely touched alcohol, but that quickly changed.
He became a frequent customer at Barney’s Beanery. It’s an old-school bar and restaurant chain in Los Angeles.
Felton was “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…”
His alcohol consumption got in the way of his professionalism on set.
He Escaped One Rehab Facility Only To Get Kicked Out Of Another One
“It came to the point where I would think nothing of having a drink while I was working. I’d turn up unprepared, not the professional I wanted to be. The alcohol, though, wasn’t the problem. It was the symptom,” he explains.
Following his escape from the Malibu rehab facility, Felton entered into a smaller, less fancy establishment.
Sadly, he was kicked out after being found in a female’s room.
“On a couple of occasions, the therapists caught me canoodling with [a young woman] round the side of the building when we were pretending to put the bins out,” he details in. his memoir. “One evening I committed the cardinal sin of sneaking into the girls’ house and into her room. I honestly didn’t have anything particularly nefarious in mind. She had been quiet at dinner and I wanted to make sure she was okay.”
His life turned around for a short period of time before he checked himself back into rehab.
Felton knew he was on the road to recovery when he was able to admit to. himself that he needed help.
