'School of Rock' actress Becca Brown says she took to drugs at 14 because of abusive mom and school bullies
Filipina actor, musician and theater personality Becca Brown rose to an early fame with the portrayal of Katie in the film 'School of Rock' way back in 2003 at age 10. That was the last movie that she was seen in. Now aged 27, the actress has opened up in a blog post about all the torment and bullying that she had to endure while growing up.
Brown was a shy kid and was subject to a lot of bullying at school because of this. Once she returned back to school after doing the film, things turned worse and kids were not only bullying her but she was also dealing with being sexualized by men who would write "the bassist is going to grow up to be hot" and "can’t wait 'til she’s 18" on message boards on the internet.
She mentioned that her mother would read the comments for hours on end and relay all the negative ones to her.
Brown also recalled an incident that she will never forget from the time when she went back to school after the movie. There was a girl who walked up to her at lunch and asked her to sign her lunch card. As soon as Brown obliged, the girl tore it up and trashed it.
The actress couldn't turn to her parents for support as they were "classic covert narcissists". She writes, "They were emotionally manipulative, sometimes physically abusive and both struggled with disordered eating and body dysmorphia".
Her parent's issues reflected on her and she began to struggle with extreme imposter syndrome, crippling anxiety and body image issues from a super young age. This affected her performance in front of the camera and she would constantly ruin takes. She writes, "And when I looked into the lens what I saw was my entire family saying 'Don’t fuck this up for us' and my bullies laughing at me and calling me fat".
In high school and college, her peers would scream quotes from the movie at her. The experience was embarrassing and annoying and left her feeling trapped. The reason being, they would label her a "bragging snob" for acknowledging people's comments and if she tried ignoring the comments, she got called "a cold ignorant b***ch".
Whenever talks of a new movie would come up, it failed to spark joy within her. Instead, she would think about her mother calling her a piggy for taking a third helping of pasta. All messages from creeps over the internet would flash in front of her eyes and she would think about her abusive ex-boyfriend who started a rumor about her co-star from 'School of Rock' being her sugar daddy.
Things were in a downward spiral for her and she resorted to extreme measures for coping from everything that was happening in her life. "From the age of 14, I used drugs, alcohol, sex, food, and self-harm to numb all of this pain. I’ve survived dozens of toxic relationships and three suicide attempts," writes Brown.
However, she has managed to turn things around for herself. She now lives in LA and is happily working for a skincare company. She still continues to perform and act and has toured the country with a number of plays and bands. She does a lot of cool things now but mentions that nothing will come close to the remarkable feat that she's achieved by recovering from alcoholism.
"No credit or feat is as cool as the fact that I have been in recovery from alcoholism and addiction for two years and frankly, it’s f*cking hard to maintain sobriety, but sometimes the idea of a TMZ headline reading 'That one girl from School of Rock dead from overdose at 27' is all it takes to keep me from a relapse, sadly," she wrote in conclusion.