It's easy to understand why a hopeless kid in a brutal slum might feel the need temporarily to transform his nightmarish reality by altering his consciousness through drugs or drink. A thoughtful article in Entertainment Weekly recently pondered that perplexing question. Journalist Benjamin Svetkey leaned heavily on the notion that Hollywood celebrities become vulnerable to devastating addictions precisely because they live in a world that assures them that they needn't worry about the restrictions and dangers that afflict ordinary mortals. In Hollywood, on the other hand, a trip to the Betty Ford Center or another rehab program can actually garner sympathetic attention from your colleagues and even from the public. In a deeper sense, the persistent connection between show business and drugs reflects the unique demands of dramatic entertainment.
Actors earn our respect by their success at pretending to be someone else.
Drugs connect to this creative endeavor with their promise of altering everyday reality and helping the user discover different, unexpected aspects of his character. Substance abuse also mirrors the uneven rhythms of the entertainment industry - with the blindingly intense rush of performance only occasionally interrupting slow, taxing periods of preparation. Of course, the chronic risk-takers who work in the inherently unstable atmosphere of Hollywood become addicted to this process, and any other endeavor can seem pallid and predictable in comparison. Substance abuse, for all of its dangers, provides an exhilarating opportunity to break through to another world - a world of more vivid colors and richer intensity. Producers also hope to hook the audience with the sort of abiding addiction that will keep them tuning in week after week or going back to the multiplex for repeated screenings of a favorite motion picture.