Shaun Weiss was one of the most recognisable young actors of the 1990s, but during the past few years, he has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. He is best known for his roles in Mighty Ducks and Heavyweight.
After a protracted struggle with drug addiction, Weiss was detained in California in 2020 on burglary charges.
The subsequent mugshot of Weiss went popular on social media for showing how he had changed from a lovely child to an emaciated felon.
Weiss, who was 41 at the time, was reportedly found in a car that was parked in a homeowner’s garage. He was apprehended by police after allegedly breaking the passenger window to gain entry.
However, Weiss is back in the news after receiving treatment at a rehab facility called Quest 2 Recovery, and this time he’s boldly displaying how his life has changed.
According to the former child star, he has been sober for just over three years.
“I’ll just let you know, when they take your mug shot, they’re not using any Instagram filters down at the station,” he told NewsNation of his previous arrest.
January next year will mark four years of sobriety for the actor, who is also now working at Quest 2 Recovery as a coach.
“That’s really the thing I’m proudest of,” Weiss explained. “I’ve had a lot of accomplishments, but this recovery thing is really my proudest accomplishment.”
He added: “Being able to look at the trauma, I went through the lens of trying to be creative, and to do comedy has just been a game changer. And people find my story inspiring so I just kind of tell my story, and I try to do that — in a funny way, though. It’s fulfilling for me.”
The 45-year-old also opened up about other people who could be struggling because a loved one is suffering heroin addiction.
“As drug addicts, we tend to burn our bridges and burn people that are close to us in our life,” Weiss said. “But really, as a result of not really having family and things like that to pull me back — that’s how I became untethered and ended up on the street.
“It’s a very difficult thing, this drug addiction, and when we feel alone, it makes it even that much worse.”
I don’t know about you, but watching someone transform their lives in the manner that Shaun has does my heart good. I adored him in Mighty Ducks, and his heroic recovery from near-death experience is truly motivational.