The comeback kid: How 'Terminator 2' star Edward Furlong walked to the edge and found his way back
Edward Furlong, the child actor who sent a wave through Hollywood with 'Terminator 2', is ready to make a comeback and is looking healthier than ever. The actor was caught in a vicious cycle of doing meth and heroin, conveniently ruining his 20s. The abuse carried on till the birth of his son, Ethan, who's now 15, leading the actor into multiple encounters with the law. He had lost his track and now he's making his comeback with a brand new project.
Talking about his recovery and going back on set of 'Charlie's Horse', Furlong told Daily Mail, "It feels great to be back on set and sober too. I didn't feel hungover when I went to work. There's other sober people at work which is weird because if you're not sober, you're not hanging out with the other sober people. It was cool. I really enjoyed it and I feel like I can be more in the moment. I love to work. We'll see what happens. Hopefully I won't end up having to be a prostitute or something like that." The actor's last touch with the law was in 2016 when he was convicted of being under the influence of drugs.
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What happened to Edward Furlong?
The constant substance abuse also ruined his teeth, which he later decided to get back on. Talking about the same, the 44-year-old actor said, "It sounds weird for me to be talking about teeth because I don't live and breathe the way I look but every time I looked in the mirror, it just bummed me out as a reminder of what I had done for all those years. It's nice to get a second chance. It was a no-brainer, I'm super glad I did it." He explained that he got his fresh set of teeth from LA expert Global Implant Dentistry. Furlong's rise to fame was a bonkers story as it almost happened overnight for him.
Furlong's career wreck, rise and comeback with 'Charlie's Horse'
Furlong's downfall in his career was an absolute shocker to his fans. The actor had worked with some serious Hollywood A-listers like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Meryl Streep, Ed Norton, Liam Neeson, and more. He appeared in classic movies playing classic rolled such as John Connor in 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day', Danny Vinyard in 'American History X', and more. A documentary, 'T2: Reprogramming the Terminator' revealed that James Cameron wasn’t thrilled with Furlong’s audition and almost took him off his list of candidates.
But the early exposure to drugs got a hold of this young talent and did what it does best - ruin a life. However, he wasn't without work. After the smasher T2, he went on to star in 'Pet Sematary II', 'A Home of Our Own', 'Brainscan', 'Little Odessa', 'Before and After', as well as hits such as 'American History X', 'Pecker' and 'Detroit Rock City'. In 2006, Furlong also starred in his first TV series with a recurring role on 'CSI: NY'.
The women in Edward Furlong's life
His personal life was in no solid shape, either. In 1992, when he was 15-years old, he reportedly started a relationship with his former tutor, the 28-year old Jacqueline Domac. Furlong being a minor did not help things at all. The whole thing turned nasty with the involvement of Sean Furlong, the star's uncle, who unsuccessfully attempted to sue Domac rape after California changed its statutory rape laws in 1994. Domac went ahead and sued her younger boyfriend Furlong for domestic violence.
In 2003 when 'Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines' premiered Furlong was a mess. While he was contracted to play John Connor it was taken away. He revealed why the part when to Nick Stahl. “Essentially, I overdosed on drugs. I had a contract. And that always really bummed me out,” Furlong admitted.
Furlong married actress Rachael Bella in 2006 and welcomed a baby boy in September of that same year. However, drugs and alcohol saw that marriag wind up in three years. Bella's plea for divorce claimed that their baby tested positive for cocaine when he was born. An enraged Furlong scared off Bella who filed for a restraining order against him. This was the second time Furlong was accused of domestic violence. The 'Green Hornet' actor was arrested after Bella claimed in her petition for the order that he allegedly “grabbed me, bruised me, pushed me … left messages saying he would hire people to come and beat me with chains and bats. He is smoking cocaine and doing other various drugs. He is very unpredictable.” In 2013 he was again arrested, this time for violating Bella’s restraining order. He served six months in jail.
But Furlong fought and found his way back to live a healthy life, and gathered the strength to kickstart his career.
Talking about his overnight success at the mere age of 13, Furlong said, "The whole thing was a shock. I don't know if I ever completely absorbed it. Picked up from nowhere, just auditioned for it and before I knew it, I was doing it. I was in the movie. When I look back on it, I'm like damn, that's pretty crazy. When I was younger, I was pretty driven and somehow manifested that into my life. It was pretty awe-inspiring. I loved movies and I'd seen Terminator but had no idea how it was made. I remember the first day like it was yesterday – getting up at four in the morning and really hating life. Getting to set and just seeing how a hundred people are doing different jobs. There's so much that goes into it and learning very quickly that this is actually a really boring process. When you're running away from a piece of tape or whatever and then you see it all together with the music – you're like wow, these people really know what they're doing. It's pretty wild!"
Edward Furlong regrets his 'bad decisions'
Furlong further explained how he got into drinking and partying and that if he was older, he wouldn't have taken certain decisions. he continued, "When I was younger, I didn't have too many people looking out for me and I was left to run wild. I didn't know how to manage my money. If I was older, I wouldn't have made so many bad decisions. I was never a normal teenager. I had a very un-normal life. I was almost destined for [drug addiction]. In a weird way, I never really felt like I fit in. So, when I was high, I had camaraderie with other people. Just drinking and partying. All of a sudden, I felt like I was with people and I fit in somehow. That's how it started. It worked for a long time. I will say, I used to love tripping and psychedelics. There's some cool good stuff that comes out of that."
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The actor then explains how the hard drugs found a special place in his life. He said, "But it's a whole other thing when you get to the hard drugs. In my twenties, I was partying and wanting to go out every night, but I was so tired and I'd be drunk and want to do more cocaine so I could wake up and drink some more. But that all spirals into, now I'm whacked out of my head and want to go to bed, so now I need something to put me to sleep which would be Xanax or heroin. Then I'm not even going to parties anymore – I'm just wanting to do the coke and come down and I'm sitting there alone. I know it doesn't turn into that for everybody. I'm not anti-drugs or anything. I know it turns into that for me." The actor is now making a comeback with a project called 'Charlie's Horse' and recently finished filming it in Texas with Brad Keller, a director, and producer who worked on the 1991 thriller 'JFK'