The To All the Boys I Love Before actor felt lucky he tackled his issues with drugs and alcohol when he did, because he thinks his problems could have got “way worse” if he hadn’t taken action when he found himself at a “crossroads”.
“I do think it’s just lucky I was able to recognise what was happening to me in my life and the patterns of destruction that I just continued to fortify and partake and participate in.
“I went, ‘I think I’m at a crossroads. I think if I don’t figure this out and stop now, it’s going to get way worse’. I believe that I was right.”
Centineo said things were “difficult” at the time and he will always be grateful for the support around him.
“I also had an overwhelming amount of support and love from a community, my parents and my sister and access to resources that make it a hell of a lot easier to recognise when things are going wrong.
“It was difficult for me, and it was my experience, and I’m still reckoning with that in my own ways in my own life. [It is] quite privileged … that I can even identify it.”
Centineo began experimenting with drugs shortly after landing the role of Jesus Foster on The Fosters in 2015 but eventually got “scared” by what was happening to him.
“Before I was on The Fosters, I was just a Valley kid. I was, like, auditioning and hanging out with friends and smoking a lot of weed and partying,” he said.
“I wasn’t really doing hard drugs quite yet.
“I started to dabble right around the time right after I booked The Fosters, but it wasn’t really because of anything outside of, like, I was in a relationship with someone when I was 18. They were a little older, and they were doing it, and I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, this is fun. You’re doing it. You’re cool. I think I love you’.”
Working on The Fosters gave the actor a “sense of comfort” to continue the “lifestyle”.
“I thought that I had a buffer because I was making enough money to, like, support that lifestyle.
“By the time I turned 21, I woke up one morning and there was a different guy looking outside of my head than the day before, and that scared me.”