My problem is, I'll drink, and then I'll drink too much. I stopped smoking pot [14 months ago]. I had some weird reaction, which I looked up later, and it was adrenal exhaustion. I still drink, but I try just to drink on weekends. I mostly just drink wine now, but a few years ago I got into cognac for a while — you know, I'd do shots. I'm a happy drunk, but sometimes I drink to the point where I'm not really thinking very clearly. And one of the bad things about celebrity — there's a lot of positives, but one of the bad things is everybody wants to have a shot with you. It's dangerous to go into a regular bar because I can end up doing a lot of shots, depending on the charity of the [other people].
[In 2002] I went to this bar in London, and afterward these girls came up to me, these two girls, and asked me, "So you want to take a walk on the wild side?" So I said, "I guess I do." And then I hopped in the car, and another girl I didn't even know hopped in. We went to my place, and one of the girls was a razzi [paparazzi] or worked for them, worked for the rags. And she got a photographer to come out. That one girl manipulated the other two. I was bummed when they all left together 'cause I knew it was going to happen [an article]. News of the World, it was. I never read it 'cause I didn't want to read it.
I'm not sure how Laura found out, but she did. I was kind of hoping she wouldn't see it. I can't remember the details; I've doubtless repressed it. She never saw the thing. But someone told her.
Laura — this really gives you a sense of the depth of her compassion — what she said to me after finding out was, "That must be really hard for you, to have this shit exposed." She just said that. Now that doesn't mean she wasn't upset. How did I apologize? You know, just your standard Texan grovel. But she forgave me, and we're still together.
That same week [of the tabloid incident], I went to this club and went to get in a taxi. I was trying to pull out the ashtray, and it came out with this screeching eerrrrch. And then I couldn't get it back in, and the driver's screaming at me, and finally I got pissed at him screaming, so I was screaming back. And then the next thing you know, he wouldn't let me out, but I got the door open. Then the guy stopped. He was on the phone — I didn't know if he was calling his mates or the cops, but I didn't want to meet either one of those groups. It turned out it was the cops. I got out, and the guy came after me, and he's on the phone the whole time. And then the cops came, and I was running from the cops. I went to jail. Laura got me out.
It stayed with me because it was one of the worst nights of my life. I wanted to repress it, I wanted to erase it. I would've paid a large sum to just excise that week from my life — the tabloid thing, the incident with the cops. It all happened around the same time. It does happen to me in spurts, trouble.
But I started thinking, there is some merit to this story. Thematically, you have a guy who has it all, doesn't realize he has it all, gets reminded how lucky he is and then has a shot at redemption. There's something about that theme that really resonates with me.
At some point, I wrote a draft of a screenplay, and I merged the two things into one night. Then I put it in a drawer, didn't read it for two years, read it, put it back in the drawer. It was terrible. It was very slow. And Laura was the first to type it up — I wrote it longhand — and she typed up every draft all the way through. I had the idea to shoot it [Lost in London] in real time. But I never thought, my very first time out, I'm going to do a single-camera, one-take deal. Then, once I decided to do that, I thought, "Well, why not just go for it?" Then came the idea: If we're shooting this single-camera in one take, why couldn't we also live-stream it? Is it possible?
It was this big catharsis. It actually did shift something in me, getting that film done. I feel like it was a purging or a letting go and a letting go of some of the guilt. I know that Laura really loves the movie, and that probably means more than anything. Because in a way, it's a love letter to Laura, a weird love letter to Laura.
I frequently think of my situation. Just having this family who has been so loving and so kind to me — like, more than I deserve, maybe. And in some ways I think that has mellowed me. Maybe "mellowed" isn't the right word, but it has softened those areas that were too hard.
I guess there has been a change in me. If I'm honest, I have to say that something has shifted, some kind of basic core disturbance. It's like some post that you're trying to get out of the ground, and it's just so wedged there, you have to push it every which direction, and you can finally lift it out."
Read the full interview at The Hollywood Reporter.
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