Kiwi actor Erik Thomson has revealed for the first time that he’s been battling addiction issues for more than a decade. In a new interview on the Men’s Health podcast, the former Packed To The Rafters and 800 Words star spoke candidly about what led him to turn to alcohol and other substances.
“I really hung my identity on my profession,” explains the 57-year-old. He was born in Scotland and grew up in the Bay of Plenty.
“As long as things were going well in my profession, things were going well for me. If things slowed down, I started slowing down. I started feeling like, ‘Oh, hang on, there’s something wrong with me.’”
The father of two confesses that the often-precarious nature of the acting industry would see him seek solace in a bottle.
“Right now, things are pretty slow careerwise,” he admits. “There’s a healthy way to manage it and an unhealthy way to manage it. I’ve done both.
“I’ve had struggles with addiction, and I’ve had struggles with alcohol. It’s something I’ve been dealing with. I started to turn and face it in about 2011, so for quite a long time.
“I’ve had long, long periods of sobriety and I’ve had times where I’ve fallen off the wagon. I’ve needed to find some solace or some kind of whatever in a drug… I needed to fill that hole or deal with that low-level constant anxiety.”
Despite a successful career spanning more than three decades, Erik admits to feeling “insecure”, saying the feeling “can get under your skin”.
With a young family to provide for, he felt mounting pressure to keep the roles coming in order to put food on the table.
“Sometimes you just need to stop the fear and that’s when the unhealthy reaching for a bottle or reaching for whatever comes in – to have a momentary holiday,” he shares. “I’ve had to do a lot of work on that. It’s something I continue to do a lot of work on because it’s a lifelong thing.”
Opening up for the first time, while daunting, was important for Erik.
The actor says, “I haven’t made a big announcement about anything. When the question’s asked, though, I don’t back away from it.
“Really high-profile people in my business, people like Brad Pitt or Ben Affleck, they go, ‘Yeah, look, I’ve had struggles. I am an alcoholic. I have had struggles with addiction.’
“So suddenly some of their behaviours have context. They’re also incredibly creative people and they’re also working under a huge amount of pressure.
“When someone’s putting $150 million on a film and you’re the guy wearing the Batman suit, you walk on set, you fall down and there’s a lot of pressure.”
Erik can pinpoint a period during Packed To The Rafters when he got sober. It was between seasons four and five, and he says it was visible.
“My energy levels were different, you know? You’re dehydrated, you’re puffy, you’re kind of dead behind the eyes. There’s just a lack of presence and you’re just not really there.”
Having joined AA, Erik’s recovery is ongoing, as are the intense feelings of shame, loneliness and isolation that come with addiction.
“I had fellowship through AA. If I had a stumble, then one of the things that comes up is shame,” tells Erik.
“Shame is a massive thing and that can keep you away. It can keep you from asking for help because you don’t want to lean on anyone any more.”
Fortunately, Erik has a strong support network to lean on, although rumours about his 25-year marriage to actress and artist Caitlin McDougall began circulating last month.
The couple – who are parents to teens Eilish and Magnus – had been living in Adelaide, but Erik reportedly relocated to Tasmania late last year.
Compounding rumours, Erik referred to Caitlin as “my wife at the time” during the podcast.
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