"I've been a pothead all my adult life," says Eric. On "Celebrity Rehab," he specifies, "Anything bad or negative that ever happened in my career or in my personal life had to do with the abuse of drugs, completely."
Asked what made him start smoking pot, he tells Samantha, "I liked it, it makes me nice, and I'm basically by nature a curmudgeon, so smoking pot makes you very pleasant." He adds, "I did cocaine all the time for about 10 years."
In the early '80s, Eric's career was full steam ahead, with memorable performances in such movies as 'Star 80,' 'The Pope of Greenwich Village' and 'Runaway Train,' for which he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. But drugs derailed his career, and a car crash nearly killed him.
"I just had to fight for my physical survival after that," says Eric, who had been in a coma. "I was so broke and so hurt, I thought if I don't get well in a certain time frame I'm gonna end this."
Eric married his wife Eliza in 1992. Although cocaine-free, he was struggling with the side effects of prescription medications, and in 1995 his life reached a boiling point: He was arrested for suspected spousal abuse.
Eric Roberts Confessions
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