Columbus Short has openly acknowledged his drug problems for the first time.
The former Scandal star spoke with Access Hollywood about his turbulent year, including the misdemeanor spousal battery charge that led to his dismissal from Scandal before Season Four.
According to Short, he “had a lot on his plate” and “was using unhealthy ways to kind of self-medicate and deal with a lot of heavy duty stuff in [his] life.”
Check the introspective Short in the video:
One of the more interesting and puzzling moments has to be when he also confirms that showrunner Shona Rhimes–as well as his co-stars–enabled his drug use:
If we’re going to be fully transparent, they protected me and they held me down. And that was one of the real reasons: they just wanted me to get my stuff together. Sometimes the bottom has to be dropped out for you to really get it.
It sounds like Short is trying to say that the people around him helped him persist in his problem because they knew things were going to get worse before they got better. Which could have been the case–but it’s an eyebrow-raising conclusion to reach.
From the suicide of Short’s friend Lee Thompson Young to the spousal abuse charges and eventual divorce filing by wife Tanee McCall, it’s been a turbulent time for Short. And it’s clear that drugs were a contributing factor to at least some of his personal problems, rather than the solution to those problems.
But it sounds like Short has straightened himself out at least somewhat, and has a new focus.
What do you think? Do you believe his remorse and his own belief in the power of his music to heal him? Where do you fall in the C-Short debate?
