Jack Black Opens Up About Struggles With Substance Abuse as a Teen

In a new interview with Parade, Jack Black discussed the substance abuse issues he wrestled with as a teenager growing up in Los Angeles.

“I remember just lots of turmoil from that time period,” he said. “I was having a lot of troubles with cocaine … I was hanging out with some pretty rough characters. I was scared to go to school [because] one of them wanted to kill me. I wanted to get out of there.”

According to Black, he later opened up to a school therapist. “I spilled my guts, telling him I felt guilty about stealing from my mom to get money for cocaine,” Black, now 46, said in the interview. “I cried like a baby. It was a huge release and a huge relief. I left feeling euphoric, like an enormous weight had been lifted from me. It changed me.”

Black has discussed his teenage years in the past, notably in a 2008 interview with Blender. “In ninth grade, I did acid and cocaine,” Black was quoted as saying in the interview (which is no longer online). “I wanted desperately to be an American badass. There’s something so romantic, when you’re a kid, about being a criminal. You want to belong to the tough-guy club. Running from the cops. Hiding in the bushes. Making schemes and plans to get it over on the Man.”

For more on Black, head to Parade.

This article originally appeared on EW.com