Bobby Lee credits sobriety to a ‘high and drunk’ moment working on ‘And Just Like That...’
Comedian Bobby Lee, who plays Carrie Bradshaw’s podcast co-host Jackie Nee in HBO’s “And Just Like That...,” says he’s been sober for a year and a half and partially credits his role in the “Sex and the City” revival for getting him there.
The actor and podcast host openly discussed his time in rehab and his struggle with drugs and alcohol, revealing on the “Broad Ideas With Rachel Bilson” podcast on Tuesday that there was a Season 1 moment during production that easily could have been a “career ender.”
“When I was using — this was the most horrifying thing — so I was in Hawaii and I was blackout drunk and my agent calls and [says,] ‘They need you in New York tomorrow,’” he said in the episode, which was recorded prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike that bars actors from promoting their guild contract work.
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“This is one of the reasons why I’m sober. So I get on a plane, go to New York,” he continued, but on the plane ride, he decided to “get s—faced” because he didn’t think he had to work until the next day. Lee said he took 600 milligrams of THC and “was in a blackout” when he landed.
The 51-year-old soon learned that the driver who picked him up was not taking him to his hotel but directly to set to begin shooting. Lee said he didn’t even know what he was shooting, and his “face just split open” and he “became drenched with sweat.”
“I remember going [to set] being so high and drunk, and when I was reading the paper, the script, I couldn’t even understand what the f— it was even saying,” he recalled. “And it was the most difficult scene too. I had to cross a street with [Sarah Jessica Parker] in the middle of New York.”
The actors had to keep waiting for green traffic lights to shoot the scene, then crossing back after to reset, further complicating the dialogue that he had to initiate for the scene.
“I couldn’t say the first line,” he said. “It was a nightmare. I remember saying to myself ... I remember going, ‘This is never going to happen again.’ I had to get sober. This is insane.”
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The “Bad Friends” and “TigerBelly” podcast host said he never told Parker — who had to be on a plane to France the next day — but noted that photos from that shoot had circulated online.
“It’s how insane our disease gets, you know. That could’ve been a career ender,” he said. “I know, it was a huge opportunity. It’s insane what my disease does to me.”
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