Who was responsible for Brad Renfro's death?

Besides Brad, that is. I grew up in East Tennessee, and he was a big deal in the late 90s.

I hated John Grisham movies, but I really liked The Client. Renfro and Sarandon were good together.

Well, one of his earliest films was the Brian Singer thriller Apt Pupil. There are rumors he was a victim of Singer, and that combined with his white trash roots resulted in heavy drug use as a teenager.

His father bailed on him, his deadbeat mom exposed him to hard drugs and then also bailed on him. So he was raised by his grandmother who he called his mother. Serious abandonment issues fucked him up and the trauma likely made him mature faster. Getting into Hollywood and exposed to hard drugs, sex and partying didn't help. Not just creeps like Singer but also older women took advantage of him. And inevitably the chemical dependency on drugs to cope with the trauma happened. He was intelligent and talented but never got the proper treatment for his mental issues. Being very religious and relying on God didn't help matters. Johnny Knoxville, who also grew up in Knoxville, was a friend of his and said his death was saddening.

R1 assumes that "white trash" are associated with higher substance abuse rates than other (pejorative) subgroup categorizations.

Class is all about similar rates but with alcohol/drug of choice connected to affordability.

Racist.

R3 Really? White people created that term "white trash" and still perpetuate it. It's a classist term and it's more racist to minorities because it implied these are "failed" white people and are as lowly as the colored.

But that said I agree that the rich abuse drugs too and it's not really a class thing. Poor people simply get arrested more often and charged. The War on Drugs disproportionately affected Black Americans in inner cities to fuel the private prison industrial complex. The opioid crisis only became a thing with middle-class and upperclass people became affected. Poor whites, blacks and Native Americans are still left out of the equation when it comes to sympathy for drug addiction.

When I was a teenager I used the term white trash in a self-deprecating way. My friend explained to me that the term presupposes that anyone non-white is trash. I never used it again.

Yes it was racist origins but not because it's a racial slur to white people. More a condescending term that implies these white folks are lowly as the blacks. Cracker is a term that rich white planters called lower class white farmers who boasted a lot, "to crack." A lot of white Floridians call themselves crackers till this day.

He was around 16 years old here but looked 25.

That’s because you and your friend are both retards, r6.

R9 Do you have anything to contribute to this thread about Brad Renfro?

He had a DUI at age 16 and he had to do PR damage control here. Apart from looking 25. He looks and sounds so much like John Cusack but less mean and arrogant.

R9 no, you are the one that is retarded. Everyone with two brain cells know that the origin of the word white trash and it did mean that whites are superior, but the ones that failed their race are trash.

Anyway, calling someone trash for his poverty and for being born in lower classes shows that the one using the term is the real trash.

^^^ I never knew the origin of the term and I have, at least, seven brain cells.

You certsinly didn't use this seven very much.

Brad Renfro and Nick Stahl both worked with Susan Sarandon as children and ended up drugged out messes. Nick survived at least. Did she put a curse on them?

Pre-18, his parents. Post-18, ultimately Brad Renfo.

And Singer still walks amongst us as a free man…

James Franco worked with Brad in two projects and holds him in high regard. He was angered that Brad's death was ignored by the Academy Awards.

I never knew this kid died. I just recently watched the Client. God, these Hollywood pedos are disgusting.

R12 get a clue white trash is WHITE TRASH it has absolutely NOTHING to do with any other race , your clue is in THE NAME

He had good chemistry with Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson in Ghost World.

Retarded at R20, why the pronounciation of the race in the term? Because other races were trash by default.

[quote] You certsinly didn't use this seven very much.

I 'certsinly' didn't!

Not wasting them on this foolishness.

He was off to a bad start because of his family, but Bryan Singer broke him.

Okay, are we just going to ignore the topic of this thread?

Drug addiction can be laruslluy genetic. A lot of poor white Southerners and Appalachians do have family histories of dysfunction and substance abuse. They mainly descend from poor farmers and indentured servants. So generations of trauma there. The dependence on religion, hyper-individualism and distrust of authority and institution makes it harder for them to admit they need to seek psychiatric help. There's a sort of fatalist mentality like, "God has a plan and he'll take me when he's willing."

Yeah, put the blame on Southerners, not the HW rapists.

I bet you would say the same for Blacks, cause they have similar issues.

Renfro was already creditable as a someone broken and jaded kid at age 11 when he was in The Client.

I recall that River Phoenix was also known to latch onto father figures in every film he made - Harrison Ford notably talked about it happening during the product of "Mosquito Coast". Seven years later he was dead of drug-induced heart failure at age 23.

I think guys like this are like a bullet that has been fired - they are on a self-destructive trajectory, and it takes something special to help them change it.

He was working his way back up Hollywood consistently. He was blacklisted after an incident where he got high and stole a boat which be crashed and was arrested. This happened during the filming of Bully. He keep getting supporting roles and I think The Informers was his attempt at a serious comeback. Unfortunately he OD'ed before it got released.

Larry Clark had an exhibition in 2016 in LA. He promoted it, memorably, in an appearance on Bret Easton Ellis's podcast (Sept 26, 2016), in which he mostly talked about his best film (Bully), and there was an LA Times article about it, which I have linked to. I went to the exhibition because I like four of Larry's films. Many, many photos of Renfro shooting up, which the share image for the LA Times article hints at. The ones on display were more brutal. It was largely depressing. My partner and I were the only ones there at this specific time. I remember it being in a creepy part of east LA that I hadn't been before.

His Mom has become quite the entrepreneur.

I've always felt bad about this kid. His performance in The Client, seemed pretty real to me before I even knew who he was. The photographs Larry Clark took seem exploitive. I know he is photographer, but it just seems wrong.

Ultimately he was responsible for his own death. Even though its sad to say.

Another one was Rodney Harvey. Short guy, beautiful kid. On track to be a huge start...Interesting story

That collage is disgustingly exploitative, even for a photographer made (in)famous for exploiting addicts. For someone who 'loved Renfro' he had the stomach to document him self destructing vs trying to get him committed for a supervised detox. (Would've totally ruined the film, enough said).

Poor Brad. I loved him in everything I saw him in. I remember reading a discussion between him and… another actor? in Interview magazine, where Renfro talked about his love for amphetamines. I remember thinking “Yikes, this guy needs to turn things around.” I was struck by how he just casually referred to it like it wasn’t anything … shameful.

His death was eclipsed by Heath Ledger’s. They died within weeks of each other.

I remember Brad Renfro mainly for the movie "Bully". Great film and great performance by Renfro.

"Only the good die young."

I'd say Brad is responsible for his own death though.

The "white trash" comments are very unnecessary.

Where can you watch Bully? I haven’t seen it I. Years

You can rent it for $3.99 on Amazon Prime.

I could’ve sworn I saw it streaming for free somewhere else several months ago, but maybe it was just included with Prime then, and no longer is.

Apparently Brad had a son with a Japanese woman before he died, unbeknownst to the public until Brad's mom died in 2012.

I searched the net but can't find any photos of him.

That was a shock to me. When was he in Japan to hook up with this Japanese woman, and was she a girlfriend or he just accidentally knock her up?

Anyway, it's hard to find any information about his son, so he's probably living a private life in Japan somewhere.

Renfro was rumored to be bisexual, right? Do we still believe that or has it been ‘disproven’?

[quote]it's more racist to minorities because it implied these are "failed" white people and are as lowly as the colored

Oh get off the cross already.

I wanted to make love to him after watching Bully.

[quote]Who was responsible for Brad Renfro's death?

The doctor who mutilated his tiny dong.

He really was very handsome.

Here's a photo of him looking all cleaned up.

He reminds me a lot of Ben Affleck.

Shame he had such a troubled childhood and life.

at 9 minutes, this guy reads a johnny knoxville 2003 edition interview with renfro

Damn I feel old looking at those "up-and-comings" names on the inside of that 2003 Interview Magazine.

Jake and Maggie G.

James Franco

Keiran Culkan

All these young actors in 2003 now hitting their 40s. Where did the time go?

So interesting to see which names are still in the business and which ones have faded away.

He packed on the pounds from all that booze. Here he is a few months before he died. I liked his work, but he was a mess.

^Shit! He was on his way to looking like James Gandolfini in this pic.

Renfro bought his grandmother a Cadillac once he had a little money. He bought his grandmother’s boyfriend a Dodge Neon.

I heard he took dick like a champ!

I remember he starred in a recreation of Bully on Criminal Intent shortly before he died. He looked as he did in R52.

So sad that he degraded so quickly at such a young age.

R38 Wow, he was so beautiful.

R42, it comes up on HBO Max every couple of months. It's currently on Hoopla, if you have that.

Does the term Eurotrash imply that Americans are inherently inferior to Europeans?

[quote] Really? White people created that term "white trash" and still perpetuate it. It's a classist term and it's more racist to minorities because it implied these are "failed" white people and are as lowly as the colored.

r5 No, "white trash" is not racist. It's purely classist. And why are you affirming that poor and working class white people are "failed"? There's nothing "failed" about the good folks who work in manufacturing, agriculture and service industries.

Please say it was I, dear.

If that will make you feel better.

Apart from his three most famous roles in The Client, Apt Pupil and Bully. He was also great in The Cure, Telling Lies in America, Ghost World and Deuces Wild. He showed a lot of maturity in his acting at a young age and chose good roles that were memorable before he got blackballed. He was never worshipped like River Phoenix but I imagine that's best he lost his looks quite early and died a bloated mess and was in forgettable low-budget movies after Deuces Wild.

Mr. Renfro? His story is a genuine metoo story worth pursuing.

It's impressive how much he erased a lot of Southern accent by the time of his late teens and he had a thick country accent too. It only became traceable in some of the interviews he did. But by the time of Bully, he perfected a neutral accent.

That cunt Susan Sarandon, that’s who.

Shows intellect and self-reflection at a young age but clearly suffered from attachment issues and depression that were never treated.

Anyone remember this photo?

This was so fucked up. It would have helped though if someone got him in a treatment. Sadly only he could get himself into treatment

It's sort of a wonder that Zac Efron has held on to a career, while sharing similar Skid Row tendencies as Renfro.

Brad Renfro was responsible for Brad Renfro’s death. Do you mean who was responsible for why he was such a mess?

It's a shame because unlike Zac Efron and Lindsay Lohan, Brad had actual acting talent.

Well they’ve managed to not OD. He should have slowed down.

Is Nick Stahl back on an even keel?

Nick Stahl, Brad Renfro and Michael Pitt defended Daniel Franzese from the homophobic nepotism brat Bijou Phillips who bullied him on the set of Bully for being gay and fat. Daniel said Brad comforted him and told him he was beautiful the way he was. Without Brad and Nick's amazing acting that movie would have been boring and trashy teensploitation porn with barely legal twinks like Clark's other works Ken Park, Teenage Caveman and Marfa Girl. Kids benefited from having Harmony Korine be involved. Clark's only other good film was Another Day I'm Paradise thanks to being based on a book.

He was gorgeous in Sleepers. I think the scene where he bewildered asks the perverted Kevin Bacon character 'What do you want?' and Bacon replies 'A blowjob' was most likely recreated in Brad's life many times at the parties Bryan S brought him to.

Brad in Apt Pupil was very sexually objectified. The way the camera lingered on his body and the way he poses and moves in a sensual way. It's interesting from a film standpoint because usually only women are portrayed in that manner

Yeah R76 and considering he was only what 15/16 when that was being made. How B Singer is still walking the streets of W Hollywood is beyond me.

R77 He pulled the "it's art" excuse same deal with Larry Clark, the directors who worked with Brooke Shields and David LaChappelle's Rolling Stone photoshoot of Britney Spears.

I'm sure Serena didn't mind. Old lech that he is

Sir Ian wrote a eulogy for Brad. He was heartbroken about his death. Bruce LaBruce had a friendship with Brad as well and wrote an article about hanging out with Brad, Dominique Swain and Bijou Phillips. And John Waters brings up he wished he had a chance to work with him. The old queens adored him.

Sad. Reminds me of Corey Haim.

Please, that boy's cherry was long gone by the time he came my way.

R44, his son Yamato Renfro was listed in at least one of Brad's obituaries as "Y. Renfro" and TMZ reported on it at the time, so the information was public before his mother died.

Imagine, harming a teenager by using him as a sexual plaything…

Didn’t he tattoo something derogatory on himself just before he died - like f****t or whore or something else tortured and self loathing?

R85, it was "Fuck All Ya’ll" tattooed on his upper back

I was watching the movie L.I.E. recently and one of the characters, a hustler named Gary who struck me as the sort of character Renfro would have played well. The character isn't very sympathetic, apart from some over poverty & neglect, not to mention encountering pedophiles at an early age. Still, I think Renfro would have done a good job (not that Billy Kay, the actor who actually played Gary, didn't).

But yes, kids who grow up too fast and for bad reasons tend to end up on bad trajectories - and Hollywood doesn't generally help much with that. Those kids have an "authentic" flavor like Renfro did, and can get snapped up but not helped.

I had no idea he got obese before his death.

Getting fat actually wouldn't have fucked up his career. He could easily have played heavies in movies.

I think if he had just lost weight, his looks would have came back because he had a naturally handsome bone structure. He may have needed to shave his hair off like Jason Statham though because he was balding. And he could have been a character actor who didn't need to rely on looks regardless. He never wanted to be an eternal heartthrob like Tom Cruise.

He could have been in the Whale

R91 Nick Stahl never had that problem, he's been rather coarse all his life. He's got the makings of a decent actor, assuming he doesn't self-destruct. Apparently he's been clean for a while, though.

Sorry, I meant R86 for the tattoo comment

Streep knew and so did Deniro but you don't criticize DeNiro and why is that?

Southern White Trash doesn't age well. Renfro is a classic example of that.

Most white people don't age well but if you stay sober, work out, avoid the sun and eat healthy it will give you a better chance. I imagine many in Hollywood would look like shit by now if they didn't get lucky at an early age. The Wahlbergs are white trash but look decent for their age.

DeNiro knew too? Shit. I’m thinking that a lot more people than we realize knew about Weinstein and others in the entertainment industry.

The issue with Weinstein was that even though he used the casting couch and was a sexual predator. Many actors and directors felt indebted to him because he helped their careers and made everyone a lot of money. It becomes obvious how power hungry and greedy people in that industry are that they turn a blind eye and play dumb. People knew about Michael Jackson, Bryan Singer, Kevin Spacey and Bill Cosby too. Hence all the jokes. Chris Brown is still supported by the music industry because he's still a successful artist and makes money. R. Kelly had to be arrested before getting any justice.

It's sad about Brad that Hollywood ignored his death despite working with major stars. James Franco, Johnny Knoxville, Ian McKellen, Joel Schumacher and others acknowledged his death. But no tribute at the Oscars? No documentaries?

He hardly merited an Oscars tribute.

Probably someone from the evil royal family.

Aren’t all royal families evil just by their inherited wealth and power?

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