Why Hollywood Won't Cast Edward Furlong Anymore

With the release of 1991's Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Edward Furlong catapulted from anonymous
13-year-old to teen idol superstar.
His debut as youthful renegade John Connor earned him an MTV Movie Award for Best Breakout
Performance, and he went on to star alongside some of Hollywood's top talents, including
Liam Neeson, Meryl Streep, and Edward Norton.
And then… he vanished.
From a troubled home life to substance abuse issues, and even a bizarre run-in with some
lobsters, here's a look at why Edward Furlong hasn't been in the spotlight for some time.
Family matters
The announcement that Furlong had been cast in T2 spurred a heated custody battle between
his birth mother and his surrogate parents, who were also acting as his managers.
That got even more complicated two years later, when, at the age of 15, Furlong got engaged
to his former tutor, 29-year-old Jacqueline Domac.
His former guardians attempted to charge Domac with statutory rape, but the relationship
imploded on its own, with Domac claiming Furlong was physically abusive while suing him for
withholding funds she'd earned as his manager.
Destructive tendencies
Like so many other child actors, Furlong's career took a nosedive due to self-destructive
behavior, which landed him in rehab in 2000 for cocaine and alcohol.
A year later, he was hospitalized for an overdose, then got busted twice in the same night, once
for driving without a license and then again for a DUI.
The resulting string of court ordered rehab stints derailed his comeback attempt and prevented
him from reprising his role as John Connor in 2003's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,
with the part going to Nick Stahl instead.
From hero to villain
By 2004, Furlong's career had headed straight to video.
While working on the indie film Jimmy and Judy in September of that year, Furlong — a
member of PETA — was arrested in a Kentucky grocery store for drunkenly attempting to
free live lobsters from a display tank.
It was on the set of Jimmy and Judy that he also met co-star and future wife Rachael Bella.
The two married in 2006 and had a son, Ethan, just five months later, but their relationship
proved to be a rocky one.
Bella ended up filing several restraining orders after he allegedly beat her during
a drug binge.
She separated from him in 2009 and later filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences
following a string of terrifying voicemails where he threatened to, "beat her and
her new boyfriend with chains and bats."
In yet another dark and tragic turn, Furlong was barred from contact with his son after
the 6-year-old tested positive for cocaine after being in his custody.
His run-ins with the law don't seem to have bothered him too much, though.
Here's what he had to say to TMZ upon being released from jail in 2013.
"I was at Disneyland!
Yeah!"
"Anaheim?"
"What?"
"What ride did you go to on Disneyland?"
"It was called jail!
Haha!"
Days of future past
At this point, the sheen of Furlong's childhood success has long since worn off.
Staying relevant in Hollywood as a former child actor is hard enough, but as a notorious
party guy with a rap sheet as long as his arm, it's nearly impossible.
Still, while Furlong hasn't had any high profile gigs in a long time, he still has his foot
in the door, keeping busy with small roles in indie projects such as the YouTube series
Star Trek: Renegades.
The price of fame
When Furlong was just 15, A Home of Our Own director Tony Bill wrote a letter to Furlong's
agent, warning him that "Eddie Furlong didn't choose the movies, the movies chose him and
it has taken a heavy toll."
After literally being cast on a Pasadena street corner, Furlong was swept up into a world
of fame and fortune that turned into a life of vice and disappointment.
But if there's one thing Hollywood loves, it's a redemption story, so who knows.
After all…
"The futures not set.
There's no fate but what we make for ourselves."
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Why Hollywood Won't Cast Edward Furlong Anymore

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