Kelly is a bipolar actress who got hooked on crystal meth and cocaine. In this excerpt from The Eccentrics, we see the irony of her addiction as it relates to her acting career. Kelly is sober and her bipolar is stable now.
From Chapter 6, The Actress:
Kelly M. is often buried in her moleskin notebook, jotting her latest travails. To quote John Lennon: You may say that she’s a dreamer. She has long red hair and dresses colorfully – a lot of all-the-way-down-to-the-floor skirts. Her choice of eye shadow may reflect her moods – dark when she’s feeling gloomy and colorful when she’s cheerful.
The life of this attractive young woman reads like a Wikipedia article of good and bad. Crystal meth addict. Valedictorian. Nervous breakdowns. D.A.R.E. award-winner. Fluent in French. Hallucinogenics. Acting. Anorexia. Weed. Opium. Ecstasy. A suicide attempt. Scissors. Band-Aids. Narcotics Anonymous. Dual Recovery Anonymous. And on and on.
…
“I went to an audition for an [Adam Rapp play]. And the part was to actually play a speed addict,” she says. “I went to the audition and I was coked out for days. I did coke in the car to go to the audition. And I get up there and I did a fantastic audition. The director and the producer and all these people sitting there [were] like ‘Oh my god, she’s really good.’”
Kelly had nailed the audition. But… “The director was like ‘so here’s the deal Kelly. This part, she’s a really heavy user, she’s an addict. I’m like ‘Yeah I know.’ He’s like ‘You just don’t look like a drug addict.’ And I’m like ‘Seriously?’ And he’s like ‘well you know ‘cause she’s gotta look kind of gaunt and there’s only so much we can do with makeup… You’re perfect for this, but you don’t look like a drug addict. It’s not believable.’”
