Boy Interrupted

A father and son reflect on a harrowing, real-life recovery from drug addictionnow a film starring Timothe Chalamet and Steve Carell

- Zach Schonfeld

Nic Sheff thought he was going to die. Sometimes, he welcomed it.

“I came close many times,” he tells Newsweek of his early 20s, when he was addicted to methamphetamine. Nic was so unhappy when he was clean, he thought he might as well use until it killed him. “That,” he thought, “will be better than living sober.”

Nic began drinking when he was 11, later experimenting with pot and cocaine. Crystal meth, which he tried at 18, was different. The euphoric rush, as he wrote in his memoir, Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines, made him feel whole for the first time in his life. When meth wasn’t available, he substituted heroin or morphine, and his habit soon spiraled into fullblown dependency, wrecking his life with startling rapidity. He dropped out of college twice. Soon, he was pilfering cash from his 8-year-old brother, stealing hypodermic needles and waking up in hospital rooms after overdosing.

He has regrets. So does everyone. But now 36 and eight years sober, Nic can watch his life’s darkest moments unfold on the big screen.

Beautiful Boy, directed by Belgian filmmaker Felix van Groeningen, chronicles Nic’s harrowing slide into meth addiction, as well as his father’s desperation to save him. Nic is played by Timothée Chalamet, in what critics are calling an Oscar-worthy performance (it would be his second nomination, after his nod for 2017’s Call Me by Your Name). Nic’s father, journalist David Sheff—whose own memoir, Beautiful Boy, gave the film its title and father-son focus—is played by Steve Carell. The screenplay is also based on Nic’s memoir, released at the same time as his father’s, in 2008.