Juliette Lewis - from rehab to rock star

Highly charged: Lewis’s physically demanding stage performances mean she has to look after her health
10 April 2012

Juliette Lewis has not always been as healthy as she looks now. Fifteen years ago she had a major drugs crisis.

"When I did drugs I hated myself," she says. "It was a shame-filled time. It was destructive." That all feels a long way off now, though, she adds. "I quit drugs at 22 and I'm 36 now so it feels like talking about myself when I was in diapers."

Lewis, the ingénue actress turned punk rocker, was the original wild child. She was arrested for underage drinking at 15 and has admitted to smoking pot since she was 13.

She admits that later "certain drugs" became too regular a part of her life: she's not keen to revisit the details of her worst low and will never talk about it publicly, she says.

She was admitted to the Narconon rehab programme, which is the Scientology version of Narcotics Anonymous. "You do sauna, you do vitamins, you take all these courses "

She owes her life to it, she says, and is still a Scientologist. "It was do or die. I had really reached rock bottom. I needed to push through it to realise my goals and my purpose." Nowadays her only vice is an occasional pint of Guinness.

When we meet in the bar of the Royal Garden Hotel, she insists I drink a massive blackberry vitamin smoothie with her. (I obediently down it. She is not the sort of person you say no to.) The purpose she discovered post-rehab was punk - which is now even more important to her than acting.

She finds herself in London a few times a year on tour with her band. Her original band, Juliette Lewis and the Licks, split last year and she's now with a new group, the New Romantiques.

In London she usually stays in Kensington because she knows exactly what she can get to eat in the area. She needs to watch her diet as her performances are legendarily physical (read "bonkers").

In the past she has described herself as having "the sensibility of an athlete": "I like to torture myself. I like to push myself until I've nothing left to give."

But her youthful indiscretions have taught her to look after herself. "I really nurture myself. I try to eat well. I'm big into supplements and complementary medicine."

When she is at home in California she walks her chihuahua, Teddy, every day. Although being Juliette Lewis's dog he is not your average chihuahua: "He looks like a miniature werewolf."

She claims to feel younger as she gets older and you can sort of see why. Although her face isn't supernaturally smooth like most Californian celebrities her age, she is blessed with sparkly hazel eyes and gigantic (collagen-free) lips.

She has one of the most expressive faces I have ever seen: you can see how she caught Martin Scorsese's eye when she was just 16. Twenty years on, unlike most Hollywood actresses she is very anti-surgery. Botox is not an option.

She is at the tail end of her British tour and feeling tired: "We're all homesick," she says of herself and her band.

Despite her natural charisma, though, there is still a hint of the permanently wasted about her. Which is helpful for a career as a punk singer: with her spidery self-plucked eyebrows, messy Goth hair and picked-at gold nail varnish, she's like a cross between Iggy Pop and Beatrice Dalle.

And she comes across as having so much energy that she is the sort of person who really should steer clear of drugs - she's on a natural high anyway.

She has a wiry dancer's body - well, you'd have to to wear her on-stage outfits, which include bikini bottoms and Viking helmets and anything that sprinkles "pixie magic", as she puts it.

"I call myself a 'musical interpreter'. I like to get in people's faces in a playful way and I really put myself out there. In a Viking helmet."

Lewis had a charmed early career in acting. She was Oscar-nominated for her performance in Martin Scorsese's 1991 Cape Fear.

She then starred in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers while dating Brad Pitt at the same time, from the age of 16 to 20. They were co-stars in Kalifornia and Too Young to Die? It was in 1996 that she split up with Brad and fell into drugs.

They still see each other occasionally: "It was a very unique time for both of us. We lost our anonymity together. When I think of it now I think it's sweet. The life he's living now, I could see that in him. He has found a great situation. Those two [Brad and Angelina] are remarkable."

She is not averse to marriage (she was married to professional skateboarder Steve Berra for three years in her twenties) but she's not holding out for motherhood. "I don't walk along thinking, 'When can I have children?'"

She has a lot of nieces and nephews. Now, she says, "I'm in a relationship but I'm finding my way with it - he's an artist too."

They've been together a few months. She's enjoying the life she has now because not having any commitments means she can go on the road with the band.

This year she returned to film acting after a five-year break and is currently in Drew Barrymore's directorial debut Whip It.

But you sense that she is just not that comfortable around Hollywood: there is an unhealthy obsession with image, she says.

"Nothing brings out the venom in me more than the fashion magazine culture. It's only recently that I've seen the art in photoshoots. I do own high heels but I want to do all that on my own terms."

All the same, it would be a terrible waste if she didn't use her acting talent.

"Meryl Streep is my hero and she gives me hope. She is this wonderful beacon of longevity for actresses. But my future at the moment is in developing my live show. I don't have too many years left for that."

There will be time to return to acting when she's done with punk, she adds. She's not in a hurry to do anything she doesn't feel like.

"I've lived through some tough things. It wasn't until after I quit being a drug user that everything reversed. We all have life lessons we have to learn. You have to keep on trying. It's really important to find your voice and live it loud."

Hear, hear. Pass the Viking helmet.

The album Terra Incognita is out now.

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