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Lawrence, who seemed sedate if not sedated in a conversation last week with TIME, agrees that success is a bitch goddess: "I tried to prepare for it. But you can't really prepare for it." He says of the Sherman Oaks incident, "It was a time when I was working very hard, and I should have been home resting. My marriage wasn't going very well, and it was a difficult time in my life." He says that any medication "was doctor-prescribed. It was no more than taking an aspirin." He insists that his temper flare-ups are over. "I had to learn to keep myself together--to understand that drinking excessively can get you into trouble." He says he and his ex-wife "have to stay in communication" because of their 18-month-old daughter Jasmin. "We have to do what we have to do for our child."
He also charges Southall with "a lot of trickery" in getting him to check into the Sierra Tucson drug-rehab center in Arizona last August. "I was there for one day and came home. I found that it took me to get myself together, instead of some program." Alluding to his new film, he says, "The flip side to having nothing to lose is having something to gain. I'm there--I'm getting there. I'm growing up. I'm happy as I'm going to get."
Lawrence is not just a man with problems; he is also an entertainment franchise. A lot of money is riding on his ability to grow up. Otherwise, people who love him will suffer. And he will be future used goods.
--Reported by Patrick E. Cole/Los Angeles