For a long time, Corey Feldman had a reputation as a troubled child star. Rising to fame early in life with roles in various movies and television shows, he eventually became a drug user and it wound up having a bad effect on his career. At the age of 18 he was starting to have issues with substance abuse as he was working on director Joe Dante's The 'Burbs, and it apparently became such a concern that the filmmaker and his co-star Carrie Fisher had to confront him about it:
Her [sic] and Joe sat me down and had a very serious talk with me, because at the time I was just about headed over the edge - Postcards From the Edge. And I was right there, and they could see it. She was a very smart lady, and she was very sober at the time, and she looked me in the eyes and she was like, 'Corey, let's be serious. You don't have to BS me. I can see what you're doing. I know what you're doing. Just be honest with yourself.'
Referencing Carrie Fisher's famous book that was adapted into a movie in 1990, Corey Feldman recently talked about his experiences with the actress when he participated in a Facebook Live session with Yahoo!. Feldman was asked specifically about the intervention that was held behind the scenes of The 'Burbs, and he recounted the story, remembering the words that Fisher said that helped him keep himself together.
In the interview, Corey Feldman says that up to that point he had been a drug user, smoking weed in his trailer and using cocaine with comedian Sam Kinison, but was also, as he put it, "getting back to his sober roots." He thought that he was fine at the time, but now believes that Carrie Fisher and Joe Dante must have seen something in him that just wasn't 100 percent right. This apparently helped for a short while, but it ultimately turned out that Fisher and Dante were right to be concerned. According to Feldman, it was a year later that he was a heroin addict, and was arrested for outstanding traffic warrants and possession.
In The 'Burbs, Corey Feldman played Ricky Butler, a neighbor of Ray (Tom Hanks) and Carol Peterson (Carrie Fisher). The story is primarily set in the cul-de-sac where they live, and finds Hanks' character become obsessed with the notion that the new family on the block are homicidal Satan worshipers. The movie was poorly received when it was released in 1989, but has since picked up a cult following.
Of course, Carrie Fisher famously had her own issues with substance abuse throughout her life, and it also played a role in her death last December (discovered during the autopsy when a mixture of drugs were found in her system). Tragic as the whole thing is, it is stories like her intervention with Corey Feldman that help us remember what an incredible woman she really was.
