Welsh actor Richard Mylan has spoken about his 20-year heroin addiction and the support that helped him get his life back as he unveils his new play, Sorter, which tackles the issue or drug dependancy.
Speaking on the latest episode of WalesOnline’s podcast In The Spotlight, Richard described how lockdown was a huge factor in putting together the play and deciding to talk about his addiction. He explained: “I was forced to sit still and the memories were prominent in my mind. I just thought that I have got to try and make sense of that part of my life. Otherwise, I'm gonna go mad during this lockdown period.
“I've got to try and maybe document it in some way, so I can look at it from an outside perspective. It was so I could have a more of an overview of it, rather than it being this sort of jumbled mess in my head.” Listen to the full episode below.
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The play, itself, is Richard’s theatre company Grand Ambition's first original production. He said that, in some respects, Sorter acted as a form of therapy for him. “It was kind of the final part of the puzzle in terms of reconciliation with one's past. It was extremely cathartic and made me feel so much better, getting it all down on the page.
“It was the first step of me thinking I need to take ownership over this. The best way for me to do that was to hang out all of my dirty washing for all to see, and take ownership so that I'm not carrying it around with me anymore. It's not kind of like this dirty secret anymore and it’s in the public domain.”
Richard first opened up about his addiction to heroin last year. During an interview with BBC News, which at the time he said could be “career-ending”, he revealed that he was one of a "number of many functioning professional addicts". You can read more about the revealing interview here.
Speaking about why he decided to open up about his past, Richard said that it was the “scariest thing [he’d] ever done”. “The interview that I did with the BBC, you can see that I'm sweating because I was so nervous. It ended up being the best thing I could ever have done, because it was immediately freeing and the reaction to it was so positive and supportive. It had an immediate positive impact on my mental health.”
Richard discussed how he’d initially planned to write Sorter as a first-person narrative but upon trying to do this, he struggled. “I just thought to myself - Why don't you go to a familiar place and write it vicariously? Write it through two characters, and then you can be that one step removed. So I did that and it flew out of me in three weeks and all of sudden, I had this play.”
As to what his peers said when he told them about Sorter, Richard shared how they were very supportive. “Opioid addiction is not the sexiest subject but it’s very important. Our mission at the company that I co-founded, Grand Ambition, is to tell Swansea stories and reflect our community on stage
“Heroin is a real issue in Swansea and one that the public generally don't know that much about so it was really important that we told that story. It's really important that people come and engage and experience this story.” The play is currently being shown at Swansea's Grand Theatre.
Discussing his own experiences with addiction, Richard said that “unconditional support” has helped him get on the straight and narrow. “The whole drug rehabilitation service is unconditional support. There are programs out there that can give you your life back. The transition between addiction and life is a lot less scary and a lot less painful than one might realise.
“Please get help. If you have a family member or friend that can support you, great, but if you don’t then there is unconditional support. When I finally plugged into drug services in Cardiff, it was the best thing I ever did.”
Elsewhere in the podcast interview, Richard talked about some of his most popular roles. To many people, the Swansea-born actor will be known for appearing as teacher Simon Lowsley in BBC school drama, Waterloo Road.
The show, itself, has recently been revived and this is something that Richard said was “brilliant” after watching the first episode. He explained: “I watched the first episode with real interest, because I was like, how are they going to bridge the old school with the new school? Or are they just going to pretend it never existed? I'll be honest with you, I was really impressed with how they handled it. I thought it was a brilliant way to do it.”
Richard added that he has enjoyed seeing some of the younger actors that he worked with mature in the acting industry. “It's really nice seeing younger actors that you've worked with smashing it. There's loads that I could mention but whenever I see them, I'm just always really proud that I've kind of worked with them and known them. I'm at that stage now where I just like to see people doing well.”
During his time working on Waterloo Road, Richard would meet his future wife Tammie, who was a make-up artist on the show. In 2018, the couple's life changed forever when they discovered that Tammie had choriocarcinoma, a fast growing womb cancer.
Speaking of the ordeal, Richard said: “It was a hugely traumatic event with many twists and turns. I'll never forget the day both of us were driving away from Charing Cross Hospital. We had the music blasting and were singing at the top of our lungs after she was given the all clear. It was so difficult.
"It’s a real test of a relationship’s metal, something like that. You get through something like that and you're set. It gave us our first real big trial of our relationship. We’d been together eight years at that point and we’re definitely tighter and our foundations are rock solid."
Richard and Tammie share two children together - Jaco (whom he had with former partner actress Catrin Powell) and Acen (born 2020). Jaco has a form of autism known as Pervasive Developmental Disorder, which is something that Richard has explored in two BBC documentaries.
On why he decided to work on the award-winning films with his son, Richard said: “Everything I'd seen up until that point that had something to do with autism seemed to be really negative. The only kind of cultural example was Rain Man with Dustin Hoffman and that was nothing like my experience with Jaco.
“We ended up making two films and went all over the world and it was an incredible experience for Jaco. He watches those films back even now and he gets to be retrospective about his own life.”
Richard added that he hasn’t ruled out making more films with Jaco. “He was even asking the other day, ‘Are we going to make another one?’ and I said that it’s up to him. Maybe we will make another one, one day because he’s coming up to 18 in August but not right now. We’re enjoying not having that intrusion in our lives at the minute.”
Sorter is currently playing at Swansea's Grand Theatre until Friday, March 10. In The Spotlight with Richard Mylan is available to listen to above.
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