Featured Image Credit: Adela Loconte/Variety via Getty Images
Topics: Alcohol, Celebrity, Hollywood, Drugs, Mental Health, Entertainment, Film and TV
Vinay Sharma
Topics: Alcohol, Celebrity, Hollywood, Drugs, Mental Health, Entertainment, Film and TV
Warning: This article discusses alcohol and drug addiction which some readers may find distressing.
Jason Biggs made a generation laugh as the awkward but lovable Jim Levenstein in American Pie.
But while his character was stumbling through teenage mishaps, Biggs was quietly slipping into his own real-life struggles.
Now 47, the actor has opened up about the secret drinking problem that nearly took over his life during his peak fame.
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In 1999, at just 21, Biggs became a household name thanks to American Pie, the teen comedy hit which turned youthful chaos into a box-office success.
But even though his career seemed unstoppable, he was secretly struggling with alcohol and drug issues that got worse in his early twenties.
Speaking on The Blocks podcast with Neal Brennan, Biggs described how he disguised his drinking during parties.
He said, “My alcoholism was the kind where… let’s say we were having a party. I would drink myself upstairs straight from the vodka bottle, just enough to get my buzz on so I could go down to the party, then have a beer in my hand and everyone else would think [I was on my] first beer, beer number one, but I’m already buzzed enough to where I could sort of hang and party.”
The 47-year-old actor admitted that fame hit him harder than he could handle at 21, when American Pie first came out. The sudden success and the freedom that came with it pushed him into some dark habits.
In another chat on The Well with Arielle Lorre podcast, he looked back on being 22 with fame, money, and zero boundaries.
He recalled one night when he promised himself he was done, only to dig through his trash minutes later.
“Before I took the Ambien, I thought, ‘One more.' So I went outside, climbed into the trash bin, grabbed the bag of coke, and went back upstairs to do another line,” he said.
“And then I thought, ‘What the f*** am I doing? This is insane.’”
Later, on his wife Jenny Mollen’s podcast All the Fails, Biggs opened up about his 'high-functioning' alcoholism.
Even while in therapy, he secretly drank a bottle of vodka a day.
“I’m going to therapy, thinking I’m working on myself, but then I leave, go straight to the liquor store, and buy a fifth of vodka,” he admitted.
Mollen was stunned, saying, “I was married to this guy? That’s so weird to me!”
Eventually, the Saving Silverman star got help and went public about his recovery in 2018, celebrating one year sober on Instagram.
He wrote: “Turns out this s*** is hard. After a few false starts, I’ve finally made it to one year of sobriety. I’m as proud of this as anything I’ve done.”
He ended with a message for others battling addiction: “Don’t be ashamed. We can do this.”