RDJ: Dad Gave Me Drugs at 8

And they did coke with Jack Nicholson, he says
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 29, 2010 10:40 AM CDT
RDJ: Dad Gave Me Drugs at 8
Robert Downey Jr. and father Robert Downey Sr. arrive at TIME's 100 Most Influential People Gala at Frederick P. Rose Hall on May 08, 2008 in New York City.   (Getty Images)

Robert Downey Jr.’s father started giving him drugs at the tender age of 8—and the actor once did cocaine with his dad and Jack Nicholson. The Iron Man 2 star recalls his history with drugs in a Rolling Stone interview: “All those years of snorting coke, and then I accidentally get involved in heroin after smoking crack for the first time. It finally tied my shoelaces together,” he says of his downward spiral.

Surprisingly, hitting bottom had a silver lining of sorts: In jail, “when the door clicks shut, then you are safe,” he says. “You are actually in the safest place on Earth. Safe from the intruders.” The actor also remembers how his life turned around—a 2003 intervention, rehab, and “the best shrink in America,” the New York Daily News reports.
(More Robert Downey Jr. stories.)

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