Warning: This article discusses alcohol and drug addiction which some readers may find distressing.
Jason Biggs captured the hearts of many as the endearing Jim Levenstein in the film American Pie.
However, while his character navigated the comedic mishaps of adolescence, Biggs faced his own real-life challenges away from the screen.
Now at 47, the actor has candidly spoken about the hidden drinking issues that nearly consumed him during the height of his success.
When American Pie was released in 1999, Biggs, then 21, quickly became a well-known name, thanks to the film’s portrayal of youthful chaos that resonated with audiences and achieved box-office success.
Despite the appearance of a flourishing career, he was privately grappling with escalating issues related to alcohol and drugs in his early twenties.
In a conversation on The Blocks podcast with Neal Brennan, Biggs detailed how he would conceal his drinking during social events.
He explained, “My alcoholism was the kind where… let’s say we were having a party. I would drink myself upstairs straight from the vodka bottle, just enough to get my buzz on so I could go down to the party, then have a beer in my hand and everyone else would think [I was on my] first beer, beer number one, but I’m already buzzed enough to where I could sort of hang and party.”
The now 47-year-old actor confessed that the abrupt fame he experienced at 21, following the release of American Pie, overwhelmed him. The sudden burst of success and newfound freedom led him down a path of troubling behavior.
In another interview on The Well with Arielle Lorre podcast, he reflected on his life at 22, filled with fame, wealth, and a lack of limits.
He recounted a night when he vowed to quit, only to find himself rummaging through his trash soon after.
“Before I took the Ambien, I thought, ‘One more.’ So I went outside, climbed into the trash bin, grabbed the bag of coke, and went back upstairs to do another line,” he recalled.
“And then I thought, ‘What the f*** am I doing? This is insane.’”
On his wife Jenny Mollen’s podcast, All the Fails, Biggs discussed his experience with ‘high-functioning’ alcoholism.
Even while attending therapy sessions, he was secretly consuming a bottle of vodka each day.
“I’m going to therapy, thinking I’m working on myself, but then I leave, go straight to the liquor store, and buy a fifth of vodka,” he revealed.
Mollen was shocked, expressing, “I was married to this guy? That’s so weird to me!”
Ultimately, the Saving Silverman star sought assistance and publicly shared his recovery journey in 2018, marking one year of sobriety on Instagram.
He wrote: “Turns out this s*** is hard. After a few false starts, I’ve finally made it to one year of sobriety. I’m as proud of this as anything I’ve done.”
He concluded with words of encouragement for others facing addiction: “Don’t be ashamed. We can do this.”