Hollywood, CA — Actor Columbus Short, best known for his former role on ABC’s Scandal recently revealed that he has been battling an addition to not just cocaine, but also alcohol. During a recent interview on Access Hollywood, 32-year old Short said that substance abuse has been the “biggest problem” among the recent drama in his life. He has been dealing with charges of domestic abuse and assault.
He comments, “I’ll be candid. I was struggling with drugs… The real drugs – I did cocaine… I was doing cocaine and drinking a lot, and trying to balance a 16-hour work schedule a day, and a family, and, I just lost myself back then.”
He continues, “It was numbing stuff, it was just numbing – a lot of things I really don’t want to talk about. I was going through a lot, going through a lot in my marriage, I had a lot of loss, tragic loss, so it’s tough.”
He then goes on to talk about the death of one of his former actor buddies. “Last year, one of my best friends died, he killed himself, Lee Thompson Young, and that kind of started a spiral. I found out when I was on set, and it really just, it took my legs out from under me.”
Short a major part of his recovery was getting away from Los Angeles; He has now been living in Atlanta for the past 5 months.
“First of all, I think when anybody’s dealing with drugs or alcohol, you need to change your environment, period,” he said. “Persons, places, things, you need to get out of whatever the comfort – it was accessible to me. Come on – I’m on the number one show on television, anything I wanted I could get it, but that’s deadly, you know what I mean? So it was about, how do I change my life?”
Short says that Shonda Rhimes (producer of Scandal) and the other cast members knew about his struggle with cocaine and alcohol. He says they were very supportive, but recognizes that he “disappointed” them. “They protected me and they held me down,” he says. “They just wanted me to get my stuff together.”
In addition to co-starring in Scandal, Short is also know for his in the films Stomp the Yard, Cadillac Records, Armored, and The Loser.