The actor Brad Renfro confessed that his first arrest was when he was 12 years old.
The actor from the movie 'The Client' won several awards, but on a personal level he was destroyed. Brad Renfro was one of the greatest acting promises in Hollywood during the 90s his adolescence was marked by memorable performances in films that at the time were quite prominent in the seventh art industry.
Stellar performances in films such as 'The Client' (1994), 'The Power of Friendship' (1995), and 'The Children of the Street' (1996) allowed his career to gain relevance, earning the respect of great acting figures. like Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones.
"What Brad did in that movie struck me, I feel that I learned from him and not the other way around, he always surprised me with some decision that he made to improve his performance," was Sarandon's testimony a year after the premiere of 'The Client '.
However, Renfro's acting life was hampered by his drug addiction, family neglect, and the ravages of his childhood traumas, which led him into a vortex of insecurities, crimes, and bad decisions.
That's how Brad Renfro started
Brad Barron Renfro was born in Knoxville, Tennessee (United States) on July 25, 1982. He was the result of a troubled marriage that would break up five years later: his father simply left, never to return, and his mother went to live with her new husband in Michigan. Neither wanted to take full responsibility for little Brad.
This situation made his paternal grandmother take care of him in an extremely restrictive and strict environment, but that did not stop him from being a 'rebel without a cause'. Renfro confessed to smoking marijuana since he was nine years old and drinking alcohol since he was 11. At the age of 12, he had his first arrest after trying to use drugs in the classroom of the school he attended.
At the age of ten, Renfro was discovered by Mali Finn, a casting director working for producer and fellow director Joel Schumacher, who was looking for young talent for a new film.
After doing the auditions, he was finally selected to play 'Mark Sway' in the movie 'The Client', released in 1994. This would be his official debut on the big screen.
Renfro's performance in the said film earned him the respect of his colleagues and all of Hollywood, as his performance felt organic and very well done. Schumacher, in an interview after the premiere of the feature film, assured that the actor's childhood made him assume his role transparently, almost transferring his personality to the studios.
“What Brad did in that movie blew me away. I feel that I learned from him and not the other way around. He was always surprised by some decision that he made to improve his performance -Schumacher mentioned-. I think Brad had lived a lot to be only 10 years old. He had been through many, many emotions, and when an actor translates that into his art, we are in the presence of a gift. He was an honest actor, someone who understood what was going on around him."
His outstanding performance in 'The Client' earned him the Young Artist Award, which rewards the most applauded youth actors by film critics. That made Renfro look at his future with excitement.
“I feel very lucky to do what I love and also to be able to live from it. In fact, I would do it for free," said the actor in an interview with 'People magazine.
After the repercussion of his performance in 'The Client', Renfro was called to be part of the leading cast of the then-new production of director Peter Horton's The Power of Friendship', which allowed him to return to a second Young Artist Award consecutively in 1995. The Academy already looked at the actor with very good eyes.
The role that would make him truly considered by weight directors was that of the youthful version of 'Michael Sullivan in the film 'The Children of the Street'. In said production, he shared studios with acting legend Brad Pitt.
This role made him establish himself in the big leagues of Hollywood. Despite this, Renfro's personal life was not in sync with his success. In addition, he had an outstanding performance in the film 'The Apprentice', released in 1998, in which he co-starred with Ian McKeller, which earned him an award at the Tokyo Film Festival.
However, at the same time that the film was awarded, Renfro was arrested in Los Angeles, USA, after being caught in flagrante delicto carrying marijuana and heroin. At that time in his life, he was only 16 years old. This fact would be key in the progressive deterioration of his career and his reputation in the Hollywood sphere.
A bottomless abyss
Renfor has been moving away from acting in a big way since the year 2000, as he began to act in films with a lower budget such as 'Bully', 'Ghost World' and 'Leisure Class Theory', the latter earning him recognition in the New York Film Festival. However, everyone was aware that Brad's career was going downhill.
That same year, he was arrested for stealing a yacht and, a year later, he was arrested again for possession of narcotics and driving under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs. At that time, the actor admitted to having addiction problems, causing the judge responsible for his trial to order that he be admitted to a detoxification center.
Jesse Hasek, the actor's cousin, and leader of the metal band 10 Years, confessed to having visited him at the center, assuring that he told him that he felt ready to give up drugs and that his healing process was bearing fruit.
However, on January 15, 2008, 25-year-old Brad Renfro was found dead in his Los Angeles apartment. The autopsy determined that the cause of his death was an overdose of heroin and morphine.
Renfro's death emotionally affected his grandmother, who raised and cared for him since he was five years old, to the point that his health deteriorated until he died two weeks later.
