He revealed himself to the world in 1991 with the role of John Connor in James Cameron’s “Terminator 2”. But what happened to the American actor Edward Furlong?
It is the story of a meteoric rise and then a dizzying fall. In 1991, a thirteen-year-old teenager, for what was his very first acting experience, was chosen to play opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, where he played young John Connor. We tell you here what became of Edward Furlong, whose journey has since been very chaotic…
After playing under the direction of James Cameron the role of the rebellious teenager John Connor, fruit of the affair between Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor, Edward Furlong, who has just gained sudden international recognition to the point of being approached for playing an iconic superhero, follows logically quite quickly. The films in which the American shines are certainly of variable quality, but he is one of the faces that mattered in the 90s.
There is something in Furlong’s choices, as with the horror productions Simetierre 2 and Brainscan. But there is also some good, with James Gray’s Little Odessa, an American History X which sees him opposite Edward Norton and the prison drama Animal Factory by Steve Buscemi.
Filmmakers regularly call on this very gifted young actor whose career, although uneven, is very decent. And Furlong’s popularity is such that Aerosmith, one of the biggest rock bands in the world, offered him the lead role in the song’s music video Livin’ on the Edge.
However, the artistic career of the American, who had everything to succeed, violently stalled in the 2000s. The cause? His addiction to various drugs (he spent several stays in rehab) and his involvement in legal cases, the actor being accused of domestic violence which led him to spend six months behind bars.
If he appears regularly on screen, notably playing The Crow in the fourth opus of the fantastic saga, the years that pass by are in reality akin to a real descent into hell for Edward Furlong, who will never reprise the role of John Connor, played by Nick Stahl in Terminator 3.
Edward Furlong’s daily life for nearly twenty years? It is divided between the news section and, for the most part, appearances in obscure direct-to-video films. The actor barely managed to obtain a role in Michel Gondry’s Green Hornet.
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In 2022, in an interview with the Daily Mailan unrecognizable Edward Furlong, physically worn out by years of excess, returned to this steep path which almost cost him his life and which he now hopes to forever conjugate to the past. “Every time I looked in the mirror, it depressed me and reminded me of what I had done all these years. It’s good to have a second chance.”declared the one who claims to have survived “two or three overdoses” but being sober for four years.
Now aged 46, Edward Furlong is trying to get back on track. On the personal side, he declares himself “clean” and tries to be a model father. And on the professional side, he recently attempted a modest return to the screen with the drama The Forest Hills, which tells the story of a man tormented by nightmarish visions after suffering a head trauma in the forest.
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