The Sopranos alum Joe Pantoliano has been getting candid about his battle with clinical depression, revealing that his mental health struggles almost “destroyed” his life.
Speaking with Page Six at the opening of his off-Broadway show Ginger Twinsies on Thursday (July 24), the Emmy-winning actor admitted he battled with depression for at least a decade before his diagnosis. He explained how he self-medicated with his “seven deadly symptoms,” including “Alcohol, what was available, women, you know, risky behavior, act first and then ask questions second.”
The Last of Us star confessed to being “a mess for a long time,” tracing his issues back to a dysfunctional childhood with his mother, who also suffered from her own mental health problems. He said things got so bad that he nearly lost his family.
“My wife [actress Nancy Sheppard] and my kids were ready to throw me out,” he revealed. “The only people who were happy to see me weren’t people. They were my dogs.”
Pantoliano explained how he believes his dogs “saved my life because it was the only spark that was left in me,” adding, “I was like Tinkerbell and the light was dying.”
After being diagnosed with clinical depression in 2007, Pantoliano went on to publish the book, Asylum: Hollywood Tales from My Great Depression: Brain Dis-Ease, Recovery, and Being My Mother’s Son, in 2012. He also founded the organization No Kidding, Me Too! in 2009, whose purpose is to remove the stigma attached to mental health.
“We’ve done such a great job,” the Memento actor said of his organization. “Our mission for No Kidding, Me Too! was to make the discussion of mental disease cool and trendy. And we’ve succeeded. You can’t get them to shut up now!”
Pantoliano rose to fame playing Guido, the killer pimp, in 1983’s Risky Business and the villainous Francis Fratelli in the 1985 teen classic The Goonies. He also starred in the films The Matrix, Midnight Run, Bad Boys, The Fugitive, Bound, and Daredevil.
On TV, he won an Outstanding Supporting Actor Emmy for his portrayal of Ralph Cifaretto in HBO’s The Sopranos. He recently returned to HBO, playing the ill-fated Eugene Lynden on the hit series The Last of Us.
Pantoliano made headlines back in May after he said he was considering moving to Portugal due to the Trump administration. “I’m so uncomfortable with the nature of what’s happening in our country, and I just want to run for the hills,” he told Page Six.