Danny Dyer has opened up about his previous drug addiction (Image: Getty Images)EastEnders legend Danny Dyer has opened up about his previous drug addiction which saw him “sit up all night smoking crack”. The 46 year old actor also revealed that he froze on stage during a Broadway show following a heavy night of drug use at the height of his addiction. Danny appeared on the How to Fail with Elizabeth Day podcast and bonus episode Failing With Friends, where he spoke about his time in New York when he starred on Broadway. During this period of his life, Danny admitted he took “a lot of drugs out there” and said he “never dried up”. While he took his work “very seriously” and “loved it” he was left in tears after one performance as he realised he had messed up and suffered a panic attack backstage. He said on the podcast: “I thought that I could sit up all night, smoking crack, and then walk on stage, and of course you can’t f****** do that, it’s a ridiculous idea.
The EastEnders star recalled the time he had a ‘major major panic attack’
(Image: BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron)
“I’ve done this play so much, matinees, and I just didn’t have a clue what to say.” He went on to share that the “worst thing” was that the other actors in the production, who knew he had been out, were looking at him in “horror”. Recalling this moment he confessed that he’d “never had that feeling before” and said his “lips started to go” because he “was going to cry.” Danny added that he felt “really vulnerable” and when he came off stage had a “major major panic attack” but said he had to “get on with it.” “I thought, f***, you put yourself in this situation now get on with it”, he shared. “It was a wake-up call. And I’ve done many plays since that fears never left me since. I carried on, did the play, s*** myself every night”, Danny added.
Danny Dyer as Mick Carter on EastEnders alongside co-star Kellie Bright as Linda Carter
(Image: BBC)
In 2022, Danny told The Sun that he “feared he would die” if he didn’t get help with his drug use. The actor, who played Mick Carter on EastEnders from 2013 to 2022, went to the show bosses and told them he desperately needed to take time out after his relationship with his wife Joanna Mas went through a turbulent time in 2017. Danny told the publisher at the time: “I turned around to the bosses of EastEnders and I said, ‘Listen, I’ve gotta go somewhere. I’m going to die’. “They was like, ‘Oh, OK. Uh, right’. And so I sorted it myself and I paid for it myself.” He added: “Fame never suited me. I was always f***ing gonna be going down the wrong path. So I lost the plot for many years and I was a f***ing lunatic.”
The EastEnders star with his wife Joanne Mas
(Image: Karwai Tang/WireImage))
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