Yesterday some quotes came out from Melanie Griffith on how she’s dealing with her longterm addiction. Melanie was in rehab earlier this year to cope with what her husband, Antonio Banderas, explains as a dependence on painkillers following knee surgery. Melanie is a little more forthcoming about what she went through, and likens her addiction as a monster that she has to work to starve. These quotes are from Hello! Magazine (and Hola!, the Spanish-language sister publication) and are part of an epic interview with both Melanie and Antonio that we covered earlier. Since we have access to the print version, I’ll include some more quotes from Melanie that are interesting, particularly her take on her career and addiction. As I mentioned in our story about this on Monday, Melanie and Antonio sound very committed to their relations and their family without glossing over the difficulties they’ve faced. I was kind of impressed by the candid and loving things they said about each other, but many of you found it cloying and speculated that a divorce wasn’t too far behind. You never know.
Melanie, does Hollywood treat older actresses as ruthlessly as it seems to?
“It depends how you see yourself. This industry is terrible for women of a certain age, but if you’re positive and you think you’re good, you can get roles for older women, and you’ll work. At least that’s what I think.”And in a world where everyone’s looking for young actresses, do you manage not to worry about your age?
“I try. They don’t ask me to take my clothes off in movies anymore! It’s so sad! [laughs]”As the daughter of Tippi [Hendren] and actor Peter Griffith, you had every possibility of being a spoilt Hollywood kid. Were you?
“It was a different time. These days the paparazzi crucify the girls, and they don’t have any kind of protection. They make a lot of mistakes and they do it in public. When I was that age, things were different. I did a lot of crazy things, but I wasn’t in the papers every day. These days there’s no privacy.”Quite a few years ago, a photo of you going into a rehab centre set tongues waggin, and a few months ago you went back. How are you now?
“I’m great. When I was 30, I went to a treatment centre for six weeks and that kept me going for a long time. In 2000, I went in for eight days to help me quit pills.”It had something to do with a neck injury…
“Yes, I’d had a car accident and it was really painful. That was a good excuse for me, because I’m an alcoholic and an addict. All my life I’ve fought against it, and I’ve done a good job.“This last time, when I went into treatment for painkillers I was taking for my knee, I got the help I needed and I had all Antonio’s and my daughter’s support, the support of Alexander and Jesse. Now I feel free. I don’t drink, I don’t take pills. Nothing. And it’s fantasic. It’s like getting out of prison.”
With all these obstacles you’ve got past, are you a more positive person?
“Yes, and I’m stronger, because addiction’s a tough enemy to defeat.”Almost like fighting against yourself.
“No, not against yourself. In a way I think of it as a monster. If I feed it, it will always want more and more, so now I’m letting it starve to death in a corner. But it’s always there. That’s why it’s important to keep going to meetings with friends of mine who have the same problems, the same sickness.“Alcoholism and addiction are an illness and that’s a fact. But I think that the hardest part is the way that people look at you because you have this disease. So if there’s something that I can do, it’s help other people who have it, too.”
[From Hello Magazine, print edition, April 26, 2010]
I admire how open Melanie is about her addiction, and how she says she hopes to take the stigma away from it. As for her take on the paparazzi, I don’t think they’re the monsters she’s making them out to be. When you look at what happened to Britney Spears the photographers are partially culpable, but we’ll never know if she would have had the same problems out of the spotlight. Plus people know where to go to avoid the paparazzi and if they’re hitting the Hollywood hotspots they have only themselves to blame when they’re photographed outside drunk off their asses. I would have worse things to say about how the paparazzi pursue families and children, not 20-something young women who should be responsible for their own (drunken) behavior.
Melanie and Antonio were at the premiere of Shrek Ever After last night and they looked just as united and happy as ever – and Antonio cut off his goat beard! The hot but tired-looking Antonio has returned. I’m not seeing a split in their immediate future, but you never know. These things have a way of happening all too frequently.
Photo credit: WENN.com. Melanie is also shown at Coachella on 4/17 and 4/18.
How nice that they seem so grounded. I don’t think they live in the U.S. do they? And this a.m. I read that David Duchovny & his family now live in NYC. I truly think it helps if you don’t live anywhere near Hell-A. It’s just not a realistic place to have, nor is it conducive to, successful personal relationships when you’re in the business. I hope they last as a couple, because it sounds like they’ve been through a lot together as a family.
I don’t think that she’s blaming the paps directly. Her statement is coming off as more of an observation about environment. She admits to debaucherous goings-on in her youth, but she’s lamenting about the scrutiny. I firmly believe that for every Kate Bosworth, who never saw a camera that she didn’t love, there’s an Anne Hathaway who only deals with the paps as much as she has to.
It used to be that these celebrities and their offspring could nefariously fuck up in private and their deeds would be relegated to the stuff of legend and hearsay. There’s something that is romantic in that type of obscurity. Now there’s always some twat with a camera phone about trying to catalogue who sucked off whom, and truthfully the mystique is gone.
I don’t necessarily feel that the paps are culpable. We (even us internet readers) have created a cultural obsession with high-profile members of society-we want to know about their private life. However, I think that this obsession creates a mentality with younger individuals in general, that makes it ok to stumble out of clubs drunk off your ass, flash your hooch, have a sex tape, cheat, lie, etc. The role models for a generation have no mystique, no down-time, all their flaws and mistakes are put online for us to consume. This makes these flaws, mistakes, etc commonplace, and creates an immunity to shock. Think about it: Teenagers today are exposed to violence, drugs, sex, alcohol use, ambien-sex, etc, as something their idols are involved with-so it must be OK! Tiger’s so successful, and look what all he does! The over-exposure means that the hedonistic society, long accepted in Hollywood, is branching out into small town USA-girls don’t have to go to Hollywood to get discovered, all they need is a webcam and a willingness to get naked.
I guess my point is that paps/media aren’t culpable for celebrity behavior, but it’s creating a larger cultural issue and encouraging a removal of shock-value. 🙁
I just realized I sound like an old-fuddy-dud. *sigh*
I don’t think she’s blaming the paps either. It’s just that those starlets can’t make a mistake without the whole world seeing it.
The paps are only half of the equation, if they’re even that much. Taking the pictures isn’t inherently harmful, really. But then someone publication pays a huge amount to get the most unflattering picture and splashes it on their cover. And then a surprising number of people buy that publication, and a dozen gossip sites post the pictures, and hundreds of commenters encourage each other to be cruel, and the money goes round and round.
There IS an industry built around the criticism and destruction of young females in the spotlight, totally. I’m just saying that to blame the paps is way oversimplifying things.
I do think the paparazzi are a problem, esp when it comes to families and kids, but they can’t photograph you drunk falling into a cactus if you’re NOT out running around drunk, falling into a cactus. Just like you can’t get busted for DUI if you’re not driving drunk, caught with drugs if you’re not a drug user, etc. If you behave yourself or at least avoid situations and areas where you know the paparazzi are, you can avoid a lot of the scrutiny. But many celebs just starting out court that kind of attention for their careers.
I’m not a fan of Melanie, but I give her credit for being honest about her struggles, and I hope she continues to do well.
I disagree that she is being “open” about her addiction. It sounds very much like she is DOWNPlaying it.
I have followed this woman for a long time.
She is right about the invasions and intrusion into the “starlets” lives these days. Her incident of being hit by a car when she was quite drunk (age 20) , they would make confetti out of that today. It probably would be recorded and shown by TMZ.
For every 1 Anne Hathaway, there are dozens of Kartrashians. Instead of judiciously granting reputable press pictures and/or interviews, they put everything out there for pubic (whoops, I mean “public”) consumption. So when these little twits spend their lives tweeting about twats, or whatever else they think is important, and courting the media attention they so desire, they have absolutely no right to complain later if it becomes too much.
Now, legitimate stars (Sandra Bullock comes immediately to mind) who haven’t courted the press from the time they could drive, they’re the ones who have my sympathy.
I disagree that he’s downplaying it. She states quite baldly that she’s an addict and an alcoholic. How is that downplaying?
I hope she and Antonio survive the 2010 Break-up Curse.
thank god that goat beard fell off!
It is true, plastic surgery does destroy your beauty. She looks awful and weird and plastic in that first pic.
I don’t think she’s downplaying anything. She’s stated quite plainly that she’s got an addiction, and that she’s made excuses for it in the past, which is why she got help. She says it’s something she’ll always have to deal with, how is that downplaying it?
She said that addiction is an illness and that is a very common way of downplaying one’s responsibility nowadays. But the fact is that you won’t “catch” the addiction if you don’t take the drugs, alcohol, etc. She’s implying that drugs and alcohol are neccessities of life that everyone needs and uses and that she was just one of the few who couldn’t control it. Not so! Can’t get addicted to drugs if you don’t take them, and we’ve all known that for a long time! She’s an adult and should always disclose her addiction to her doctors, but she apparently chose addiction over a little pain and that’s where the problem lies. If her doctor knew of her addictive personality maybe a different medication would have been prescribed. Shame on the doctor if he did know.
Wow, nice to see Melanie G. being so open and forthcoming about addiction in general. She really seems like she’s trying to help others by pointing out that she’s an alcoholic and an addict — first and foremost — and that’s how she ended up abusing pills. Also nice to see that she admits to going to meetings and needing that help to stay sober. Go Melanie!