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Published by Weinstein Books
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In this deeply moving and resourceful memoir, the beloved actor-director and New York Times bestselling author takes aim
at the stigma attached to what he calls "brain dis-ease" by
writing candidly and humorously about his journey through clinical
depression. Most people know Joe Pantoliano from his memorable roles in such
blockbuster films as The Matrix, La Bamba, Empire of the Sun,
The Goonies, Risky Business, Midnight Run, The Fugitive, and
Memento. In television Joe is remembered for his
Emmy-winning performance on The Sopranos. But before he
became one of Hollywood's most successful actors, he was "Joey
Pants" from Hoboken, the dyslexic son of a fiercely controlling
mother with her own undiagnosed brain dis-ease, or BD. Growing up,
Joe always knew that something was different about him, too -- he
just didn't know what. "It was as if I was born with a huge hole
inside my soul," he writes. Not until much later in life was Joey
diagnosed with clinical depression. Now he has a message for the
millions of people who suffer from BD: You are not alone. You can
learn as he did that by surrendering to BD, you can overcome it. Joey's path to recovery was filled with trials and tribulations.
Asylum recalls his early years as a struggling actor, when
he was befriended and mentored by Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner,
and Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson. Over the years he had major hits
working with such megastars as Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, and
Tommy Lee Jones, and directors Steven Spielberg, Christopher
Nolan, and the Wachowskis. But as his success grew, so did his
dis-ease. Before he was diagnosed he tried to fill the hole inside
him with alcohol. When the alcohol stopped working, he started
taking up to twenty Vicodin a day in an effort to obliterate his
emotional and physical pain. Asylum is the story of Joe's quest for the Hollywood
success he was so sure would cure him. And when it didn't, he
began a painful downhill spiral with the Seven Deadly Symptoms
(the term he coined for his addictions to food, sex, vanity,
alcohol, prescription drugs, shopping, fame) that so often
accompany undiagnosed brain dis-ease. Interweaving deeply personal
experience with informative discourse, Pantoliano creates a highly
relevant and unflinchingly honest memoir of everything that led to
his eventual awareness, diagnosis and recovery, and public
activism and advocacy. His story will resonate with people who
suffer from brain dis-ease, enlighten anyone who aspires to join
him in the asylum called Hollywood, and entertain all who have
admired his career. pub date: 2012-04-23 | Hardcover | 9781602861350 |
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