Barry Keoghan is opening up about his battle with addiction for the first time.
In a new interview, the 32-year-old Saltburn actor looked back at his upbringing and recalled that when he was 12-years-old, his mother died due to heroin addiction.
He said that despite this, he was still drawn to drugs.
Keep reading to find out more…“I’m not in denial anymore. I understand that I do have an addiction, and I am an addict,” Barry told Hollywood Authentic. “You know, when you accept that, you finally can move on, and learn to work with it.”
“My father passed away as a result of similar and I lost my mum to it,” he continued. “I’ve lost two uncles and a cousin to drugs. That should be enough to go, ‘OK, if I dabble here, I’m f–ked.’ But your curiosity is a powerful thing.”
Barry also admitted that the birth of his son Brando in 2022 didn’t stop him from using drugs and that moving to Hollywood didn’t help his addiction.
“Even my own son coming into this world didn’t stop me from being curious,” Barry said. “You know, you go to LA, you go to Hollywood, wherever the big scene is. here’s an enormous amount of pressure, and a different lifestyle that is good and bad for you.”
“You’re around the scene,” he added. “You just happen to be the one that ends up doing it.”
He also recalled having to be kept away from his mother as a child due to her struggles with heroin.
“I remember being kids here and hearing my mum scream through the letterbox, asking for us, while she’s battling addiction, while she’s looking for money to score,” Barry said. “And we were just told to stay in bed. We weren’t to go down and hug her.”
The Oscar-nominated actor also admitted that he has injuries on his arms that sustained while using drugs.
“I’ve got scars here to literally prove it,” Barry said. “They’re a result of using. I’m at peace now, and responsible for everything that I do. I’m accepting. I’m present. I’m content. I’m a father. I’m getting to just see that haze that was once there – it’s just a bit sharper now, and colorful.”
As for why he finally decided to go public with his battle with addiction, Barry said, “I just want people to get an insight into where I come from. I’m very proud to carry that, and for people out in the acting world and the industry to understand that there’s a lot weighing on this.”
In an interview from earlier this year, Barry talked about how fatherhood helped him understand his parents.
