Filled with drama

Gone are the days when Tom Sizemore worked for A-list directors like Oliver Stone, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott and Michael Mann. Gone too is the Cape Cod-style Benedict Canyon home -- once Gary Cooper’s place, now sold by Sizemore to pay back taxes and lawyers’ fees. Until a few weeks ago, the man once regarded as one of Hollywood’s hottest up-and-coming actors was living in a garage at a sober living center in Whittier called My Father’s House International.

Sex, drugs and run-ins with the law -- including a conviction for beating up Heidi Fleiss, his then-girlfriend and onetime Hollywood madam, and accusations he used a device called the Whizzinator to fake clean urine samples for his probation officers -- have made him more a tragicomic figure for the tabloids lately than a creative force to be reckoned with.

But amid churning legal troubles, Sizemore remains a working actor, even though it’s a far cry from the days when he was earning $4 million a picture. On a scenic ranch in the woods-studded hills that abut the Angeles National Forest above Sylmar, the cameras rolled as Sizemore performed a scene from “Fear Itself,” a supernatural thriller in which he plays the ghostly caretaker on a crumbling estate.

It was Day 9 of a 19-day shoot, and between takes, Sizemore repaired to his trailer and railed against the cruel injustices that, in his view, have landed him at this pass -- struggling to rebuild a once-promising career while this week facing yet another in a seemingly endless string of court hearings.

He was talkative, entertaining and animated as he sought to explain himself in his first extensive interview about his predicament. Whether he was whipping up a smoothie and chugging it straight from the blender jar or dropping his pants and changing his clothes with a reporter present (though he did have the presence of mind to ask his makeup artist to turn her head), Sizemore exhibited the uninhibited air of a man with nothing left to hide.

He can’t seem to help himself. Heroin? Used it for 18 months or so, back in the ‘90s. Sex? Under the influence of crystal meth, he said the “craziest” he ever got was having sex with nine women at once. As for that prosthetic penis, reportedly found on him this February during a required drug test, first he joked: “I did have two [penises].... That’s why girls like me.” Then he said this: “The way it was reported, I was found with it on my body, but it wasn’t on my body. It was found in a public restroom with a pair of underwear that I never owned.”

Sizemore said he attempted suicide after his trial for beating Fleiss. Now things are looking up, he said, with a new girlfriend, 24-year-old Jessie Tuite; he met her in the cereal aisle at the grocery store, where he steered her away from the sugary stuff and toward the shredded wheat. And he said he has rediscovered Christianity: “I may have been a wayward Christian -- I was with nine gals -- but I was a happy Christian.”

What you don’t hear is any hint of contrition, or sense that he’s responsible for the way things stand.

“They’re trying to stack the deck to make me look like Public Enemy No. 1,” he said. “Based on what? That I was arrested for [misdemeanor] battery? ... Why are they leaning on me so hard? They claim they were afraid I’m a person who could potentially hurt somebody. I haven’t done anything like that at all. So what do they do? They make my probation untenable. My probation was, as anyone will tell you, designed for me to fail. When I didn’t fail, they made it harder. Why?”

Sizemore’s stories about a series of police raids at his house are so wild-sounding that it’s hard to separate fact from performance. “The first time I was ever arrested, I was very compliant,” he said. But by about the “fifth raid” he became “defiant” after he said one of the officers used a derogatory racial term for his black girlfriend.

“At a certain point,” he said, in an expletive-laden riff, “I went

He said he is currently drug free -- a point on which the authorities strongly disagree. But, bankrupt at 43, he acknowledged the obvious: “This has been a disaster for me of epic proportions.”

Another court date

On Thursday the drama continues with Sizemore scheduled to be back in Los Angeles County Superior Court, where he faces up to 4 1/2 years in county jail for violating probation stemming from two misdemeanor criminal cases, including a 2002 battery case involving a woman named Brooke Ford, and his 2003 domestic battery conviction for beating Fleiss. He is appealing the conviction in the Fleiss case, saying his defense team has unearthed new witness statements that they contend throw Fleiss’ injuries into question.

Prosecutors said it is also likely that Sizemore will be ordered by another judge Thursday to undergo Proposition 36-mandated drug treatment. Should he fail to complete the program, Sizemore could face three years in state prison for felony possession of methamphetamine found during searches at his house last year.

According to Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Sean Carney, probation searches were conducted at Sizemore’s Benedict Canyon house Aug. 11 and Nov. 24. In the November search, he said, methamphetamine was discovered on the same nightstand where the drug was found in August. It was near a glass pipe, which is used to smoke methamphetamine, he added. Heroin was also found in a woman’s purse in Sizemore’s Porsche during the November search, Carney said.

Sizemore pleaded guilty to a felony drug charge but was placed on the legal status known as “deferred entry of judgment” while undergoing outpatient drug rehab, the prosecutor said.

The actor said he never saw the methamphetamine, but “I pleaded out to it because I was exhausted. I didn’t have the heart for another court battle. Was there meth in that house anywhere? If you took a vacuum cleaner, you might find a lot of different things in there.”

Carney said that between Dec. 13, 2004, and Feb. 24 of this year, Sizemore tested positive “at least 10 times” for methamphetamine, amphetamines and hydrocodone, the generic form of the painkiller Vicodin. Sizemore said he used the hydrocodone for “pain in my back.”

“He is completely out of control,” Carney said. “He is really traveling the Robert Downey Jr. path.”

“They’re liars,” Sizemore said. But then he added: “Maybe I tested positive because I did get high in February,” when authorities say he was still at the sober living center.

Deputy City Atty. Robert Cha, who prosecuted Sizemore in the Fleiss case, said the actor is “in complete denial” about his drug use.

“He’s a victim by everybody,” Cha said. “The LAPD is out to get him. The city attorney is out to get him. It’s not his prosthetic penis. It’s not his urine. He’s used every excuse under the sun. That is what is so disturbing and alarming to me. He is not anywhere close to hitting rock bottom. I truly think that unless there is a dramatic and significant change in his view of his addiction, he will ultimately end up either dead or hurting someone else.”

Beyond the headlines

Some of Sizemore’s closest friends know he has had serious drug problems, but they choose to look beyond the headlines and focus on the kind of man they have known over the years.

“I don’t know much about [his current legal problems],” said actor Robert De Niro, who has known him 11 years. “I didn’t want to know much about it. I know Tom. I know his mother. These are very nice people, and he’s a genuinely sweet kid and a great actor.”

It was at De Niro’s urging that Sizemore entered drug counseling for heroin addiction in the mid-1990s, around the time the two appeared in the crime thriller “Heat.” De Niro noted that Sizemore’s drug problems are not unique in Hollywood. “There are a lot of other people in major motion pictures who have drug problems,” he said. “I know many people who do and they are in what they call recovery. He was in that situation for a number of years. I’m no doctor but I believe him to be clean.”

As for the criminal investigations involving his friend, De Niro said: “I don’t know why they’ve treated him so harshly. It seems to me, from what I know, overly harsh.”

He is confident that Sizemore can come back. “He’s a tough kid. Extremely tough.... He’s kept his sense of humor. All he ever says to me is, ‘Don’t worry.’ ”

Josh Richman, a former actor who had a small role in “Natural Born Killers” and now runs an events staging company, said his friend “got caught up surfing in dangerous waters.”

“He did not have the best taste in women ... and that can come back and haunt you,” Richman said.

When Sizemore was spinning out of control, it didn’t go unnoticed in Hollywood circles. Actor Charlie Sheen, who has had his own problem with drugs, dropped by Sizemore’s house unannounced one day and stayed for six hours. When Sizemore asked him why he was there, he said Sheen replied: “I’m waiting for you to wake up, and I’ll wait here forever.”

Sizemore’s manager, Bob DeBrino, a former New York City undercover cop-turned-Hollywood producer, said his client has been misunderstood.

“Tom’s not a criminal,” DeBrino said. “He’s not a cop fighter. He’s just a happy-go-lucky actor that loves to work hard and have a good time.”

Richman said maybe the actor could learn a lesson from one of the men he portrayed on TV -- Pete Rose, who amassed more hits than any other player but hasn’t been able to get into the Hall of Fame because of gambling.

“All people want Pete Rose to do is just be humble about his indiscretions,” Richman said. “Maybe Tom should be humble about his indiscretions.”

On the set of “Fear Itself,” Sizemore seems to be behaving himself. Lawrence Silverstein, whose company Strategic Film Partners is producing the film, said the actor has arrived on time and in shape for his scenes. “There is no way he could be pulling off the performance he is pulling off if he was even remotely using anything,” the producer said. “He’s just 100% there.” He added that there is no special insurance being required for Sizemore to appear in the film.

Gina Philips, the young actress who costars with Sizemore, said she was initially hesitant about doing the film because of what she heard about him, but her concerns quickly evaporated.

“He laid everything out front,” she said “He wanted to make sure I was comfortable, but all I really cared about was that he was professional, that he did a great job, that he showed up as an actor

With his edgy, tough-guy persona, Sizemore was a natural to play soldiers in “Saving Private Ryan” and “Black Hawk Down” and a cop in CBS’ 2002-03 drama “Robbery Homicide Division.”

“I was very, very happy with the way my career was,” Sizemore said. “I was playing the lead sometimes in movies like ‘The Relic.’ [But] playing second fiddle to Tom Hanks in ‘Saving Private Ryan’ is nothing [to sneeze at]....

“At the time this happened, I was about to make a jump -- a leap [in my career],” Sizemore added, referring to his “Robbery Homicide Division” days. Executive producer “Michael Mann said, ‘You’re not knocking on the door, you’re kicking the door down. You’re going to the top in that group that is [earning] $15 to $20 [million a picture.] “

Now, he says, “I lost all the money I had. That was $18 million.”

The acting jobs still come, but for a significantly lower rate.

“I had put myself in a situation where I didn’t have to think about money,” Sizemore said. “I was always making $3 million to $4 million a year.” He said he spent some of his money putting a sister and brother through college. Then came the lawyers’ fees. And there is $1.2 million that he claims to have loaned to people “on the street.” In January, he filed for bankruptcy, listing $1.6 million in assets and $4.2 million in liabilities.

Before the abuse charges, Sizemore said, he had high hopes for “Robbery Homicide Division” and claims he was in negotiations for a lucrative contract to direct TV commercials that, he believed, would lead him into directing as well as acting in motion pictures.

How his career unraveled was simple, according to the actor. It began in 1999 when he and his wife of more than three years, Maeve Quinlan, an actress and former professional tennis player, were granted a divorce.

Sizemore said he didn’t date after that for a long time, preferring to stay at home and read novels by, among others, Ian McEwan and Martin Amis. At the prodding of actors De Niro and Gary Oldman, he finally went out to a barbecue thrown by a friend, where he met and began dating a 25-year-old dental student. One night she suggested that they go to a nightclub called Las Palmas. Sizemore said he hadn’t done the club scene since the early 1990s, when he frequented L.A.’s trendy nightspot the Monkey Bar. But at Las Palmas, he ran into a man from his Monkey Bar days who said, “Tom, how you been, brother? Want to do a little eye-opener?” Sizemore replied, “No, my eyes are open wide enough.”

Moments later, he heard a voice say, “Tom Sizemore? I’m Heidi Fleiss.”

He said Fleiss was accompanied by a “posse” of pretty women. “They’re soft -- unlike me,” he said. Except for the young dental student, Sizemore said, he had not had intimate contact with a woman in more than two years.

Fleiss had been much in the news over the years. She had served 21 months in prison after being convicted on federal charges of conspiracy, tax evasion and money laundering. “She interested me,” Sizemore recalled.

Sizemore said he went to Morocco to film “Black Hawk Down” for Ridley Scott, but the director gave the cast two weeks off while the script was being rewritten. Sizemore called Fleiss and said he was returning home. It was in those 15 days, staying at her home, that Sizemore said he fell in love.

“One doesn’t pick who they fall in love with,” Sizemore said. “

Sizemore said his relationship with Fleiss was propelled by a “kind of classic midlife crisis, coupled with a divorce I didn’t want, and loneliness.” At the time, he said, he was not doing drugs and didn’t believe she was either.

He said he was never engaged to Fleiss, although she told that to “Entertainment Tonight” to help promote her book. “I didn’t know she was going to say it,” he said. “Now, I was in love with her then and I knew she had a propensity to say things to self-promote, which wasn’t my bag.”

At his 2003 trial, Fleiss tearfully testified about their stormy relationship. According to news accounts of the trial, she said Sizemore left profanity laced taped messages and threatened to kill both her and her brother. “ ‘You’re going to jail. I’ll kill you,’ ” Fleiss testified that Sizemore said to her.

But Sizemore accuses Fleiss of also making phone calls. “She harassed me,” he said. “For every phone call I made to her, she made 300 to me.”

Fleiss testified about a litany of abuse, including one “horrible, horrible fight” that occurred April 8, 2003, at the Four Seasons hotel during which Sizemore allegedly hit her in the face and choked her. Fleiss said she thought she was going to die. The jury was shown a photograph of the injured Fleiss, taken by a friend of hers about five days after the alleged incident. Sizemore’s defense team plans to challenge the authenticity of the photo on appeal.

In August 2003, Sizemore was sentenced to six months in jail and placed on three years’ probation for harassing and threatening Fleiss. The judge stayed jail time so he could enter a drug rehabilitation program.

Fleiss, through her publicist, did not respond to interview requests.

‘I love acting’

On the “Fear Itself” set, after performing a scene with actress Philips, Sizemore returned to his trailer, changed into a pair of pajama bottoms and a T-shirt adorned with a photo of Martin Luther King Jr.

For the first time in a long time, he said, he now feels that his career is “fixable.”

“I love to work,” Sizemore said. “I love acting. I feel that my best work is in front of me. I don’t know why I became more optimistic. Well, it’s because people still keep offering me movies.”

“Fear Itself” is just one of several independent film projects and TV shows that Sizemore has worked on since the Fleiss trial. He has been working on a film with Edward James Olmos called “Splinter.” Last season, he appeared on the CBS-TV series “Dr. Vegas” with Rob Lowe and starred as disgraced baseball great Rose in the ESPN original movie “Hustle.” Sizemore also recently completed an indie film called “Fly Boys” and said he has two other indie projects lined up to star in and direct called “Thieves” and “4 R$$L.”

Yet the edgy personality that makes him excel as an actor can be unsettling in real life. During the interview, Sizemore became upset when his personal assistant unexpectedly opened the trailer door. Sizemore snapped: “OK, have you ever heard about the word ‘knocking’? Knocking? It’s just courteous.”

At another point, though, he calmly predicted that he would win an Oscar in five years for screenwriting and directing.

“I’m coming all the way back,” he said.

“Those ... who think I’m not, don’t know my character .... “