Instagram: @rexdepalma

Rex Depalma

Drug of choice: OXYCODONE 30mg’s | 15-20 A Day Habit that lasted 2 1/2 years straight, after an injury

Recovery Date: 12/25/12

Website: reignsupreme.world

Facebook: Reign Supreme Entertainment

Give us a little background information. (Where are you from or grew up? What do you do for a living? What are your passions?): I am from East Boston, MA. I am a Writer/Director and own a production company.
My passions are ummm Film, FILM, and studying random subjects I know nothing about. I love learning about stuff I don't know. I ask a lot of questions.

Describe your experience in addiction: It was fun at first, and then I became a slave and wasn’t even getting high. I was just paying to stave off withdrawal.

When did you realize your life had become unmanageable? When I was sniffing blues and doing Finger-Dips of sassafras in the back of a limo from Foxwoods Casino headed to Philly with 200 lbs in suitcases—with one up front next to the driver who didn’t know a thing—and a Mac-11 in the back. If I had been pulled over, I could’ve gotten 20 years.

I never had a problem with substance abuse at all. Actually my entire life, I lived pretty straight and narrow. My dad had drilled it into my head from a young age to never use drugs or drink because it throws you off, and you always have to be on point. Not to mention, "You never get high on your own supply," no matter what it was.

Granted, I never sold anything harmful, but I did sell a lot of weed at one point in my life. See, my dad was heavily involved in organized crime. I had no idea when I was little, but I caught on quickly as I got older and realized how different I was from the other kids who had their dads at home, while I was always going to visit mine at some building surrounded by razor wire.

At 7 years old, I didn’t understand, but it was my normal. My father was in and out of prison my entire childhood. He would be home for a year or two and then right back in. Then, at age 10, he went away and didn’t come back. I remember that time vividly. It was all over the papers, and everyone was talking about it. Well, the adults were, but I caught on eventually. I learned he was indicted that year with all of my “uncles” who weren’t really my uncles by blood, but they were his family.

His other family—that was the Boston Mafia war of the 1990s, and my dad was right in the middle of it. Without dragging this part of my story out (because there is just so much detail), I’ll just end it with this: he got sentenced to 35 years, and I was 12, just turning 13, and I felt my life was over.

I went from being the straight-A student who played on a select hockey team to a brooding pre-teen, lost and confused. They took my hero. My dad. And how could he be a bad guy? Everyone in the neighborhood loved him, and now that I was a bit older, I noticed how I was treated special because I was his son.

So, I decided I wanted to be just like my dad at that point like most boys do. The only problem was, that my dad wasn’t a tradesman or construction worker like a lot of the dads were in blue-collar East Boston. My dad was a gangster. And from age 13 to 16, that’s what I aspired to one day be—a Made Man.

I had just started 9th grade, and I would wake up and go there to keep my mom off my ass, but as soon as I left homeroom, I was out the side door. I held court at the corner laundromat nearby and waited for other kids who would cut class. I sold them $20 dime bags of what was great bud at the time (HYDRO) LOL.

I thought I was killing it, but I was going nowhere fast. Things got worse quickly. I noticed other kids getting involved with this new drug, OxyContin, and man, when I found out you could sell one for $80, I made it my mission to find ’em and sell ’em—and that I did. But I didn’t have enough to buy in bulk, so I set up a robbery, and we did it. Quick score for my cousin and me, but things got out of hand.

My mother was at her breaking point. She was ready to kick me out. At this point, I wasn’t even bothering to wake up and fake like I was going to school. I dropped out, and she couldn’t do anything. She had my two young siblings and a job. All I was doing was making her life harder by worrying her and breaking her heart by doing wrong.

So one day, she heard something on the radio about a talent search in Boston for young actors, and she said, “I really think you should do this. You have to do something. I can’t go through the same thing again with you. It will kill me.”

So, I made a deal and said I would try. See, I actually really liked acting. I mean, I was ALWAYS obsessed with movies since I could remember. It was something my dad and I would often do when I was young, when he was around. We’d either go to the movie theater for a saturday matinee, or on Friday nights, we’d hit Blockbuster. So this was a dream come true for me

And I actually had some experience oddly enough. This theater teacher took a liking to me and had me try acting in the 8th grade when I was going through alot with my dad's trial, and I excelled at it. I was a natural, but when I got to 9th grade, there was no theater program at the high school, So I hit the street,  But now there was this new opportunity. I HAVE A CHANCE

The guy in town, his name was Bob Noll, and he had a company called Monster Talent Management. I remember, like yesterday, being in that hotel banquet room filled with about 200-300 people and him giving this speech about how someone in this room is going to get a contract, and their life is gonna change. Right at that moment, I heard my inner voice say, “It’s me.” Three months later, I got that contract.

So, I worked the entire summer, saved up, and moved to LA. I was 16, just about to be 17. I had to go alone because my mom had the kids. My brother was 7, and my sister has Down syndrome as well, so her hands were more than full. I’m sure she was scared to let me go, but it was better than me going to jail or getting shot one day.

So, I’m in LA, just turning 17, and I’m staying with a distant cousin that I never even knew I had. It just so happened that he had moved there himself to pursue writing years earlier after graduating from Emerson College. My mom’s side of the family was straight-laced, hardworking people, so this cousin was from her side of the family, and he was a godsend. He was in his late 20s and really cool, but I was young and still a bit wild.

Hollywood loved me. I got my SAG card within my first 6 months and was acting on TV shows like Everybody Hates Chris, CSI: NY, and a bunch of other stuff. It was cool, but I eventually left my cousins and moved in with my boy Bruce’s family.

Bruce (still one of my brothers to this day) was this really cool Black kid I met working a day job in Hollywood. He was born and raised in LA, and his family was all gang-affiliated all the wqy up (even his mom). As nice as she was, "Val Wild" was what they called her, and she was just that—WILD. But she was also loving and caring and gave me a family when I desperately needed one while I was away from mine. 

So, Val took in the little white boy aspiring to be an actor that her son brought home like a stray dog, and she became my surrogate mother for about 2 years.

Until Bruce and I drove her crazy, and she kicked us out.

Right around that time, weed had just gone legal in Cali, and I was so tired of auditioning for massive shows and movies, getting seven callbacks, and then finding out they gave it to Shia LaBeouf because he was offered the role way before I even auditioned. So I said, "F*** acting," at 19 and started right back on the path I was on when I was in Boston.

Old habits die hard, but this time, it was different. I started small, but it grew quick. My younger brother was in his teens now back in Boston, and by the time I was 25, I was shipping hundreds of pounds of AAA Cali weed to Boston, making six figures a month but blowing it as fast as it came in.

Things got crazy, and when money comes fast, you live on the edge. While that massive amount of money was coming in, I picked up a habit for something I swore I’d never try. Knowing firsthand the destruction that follows with it, I somehow thought I could just use it when I wanted and stay in control. I wasn’t a weak-minded junkie. I was a boss.

Wrong.

Not only did my habit spiral out of control to dangerous levels (even though there were no fentanyl fakes around when I was using), I was using so many pills a day it was just reckless. I was also using coke, molly, and drinking—escapism at its finest.

I spent close to half a mil on pills. My life was pure chaos, and I was either going to die, go to jail, or kill someone trying to rob me because I was such a big fish at the time. Luckily, that never happened. If anyone had ever come into my completely surveilled home, they would’ve been met with a barrage of automatic gunfire from a perked-out nutcase.

Thank the Lord—or my late cousin or whatever benevolent force was watching over me—that it was the law that eventually caught up with me. What my mother sent me away for all those years ago to avoid found me in LA.

It followed me. Well, it never left me. It was the ego inside that needed to die—or at least get put in check—and that’s what happened.

I ended up incarcerated in Los Angeles. Hell on earth. My federal prison vet father was even worried for me. LA County Jail is like gladiator camp—complete and utter anguish. When I got picked up, I was on the run, so I couldn’t even bail out. I was just stuck, and I had no idea what was gonna happen.

After a couple of months, I just accepted it. I was like, "I’m here. F*** it." I was finally sober and working out like an animal. When I finally wrapped up the cases, I got lucky. My attorney was great. I pled guilty and got a 1–2 year sentence. Due to overcrowding, I served 9 ½ months and qualified for the remainder on a House Arrest program.

The problem was, I had no family in LA to sign for me. But I did have a friend who signed. He was cool, and I think he blamed himself for me getting caught because when I was picked up, it was because he got pulled over.

The friend doing me this awesome favor and getting me out of hell early happened to be an aspiring cinematographer. So while being locked in his house for months, I sponged everything I could from him about that camera. It was a real movie camera, he told me—a RED Epic. I was amazed that you could get film quality digitally. He told me the price, and then I understood why..

But I learned everything I could, And I made the decision: I AM NEVER DOING DRUGS AGAIN, AND I AM GOING TO MAKE MOVIES.

I took the last of my cash stash and bet on myself and spent almost 200k on a camera and lenses, went home to Boston when house arrest was up. My brother and crew came to get me we stopped in Vegas for a lil fun before we hit Boston.

I broke the news to the boys on the plane I said “I’m out...” they replied “What are you talking about out?” I said, “I’m done with is shit, I’m gonna be the best director of this generation”. They all looked very unimpressed then just thought I was crazy... But that summer with zero experience I made my first short film God Don't Love Ugly. It’s extremely raw, but for someone with no experience it was great and it started my career and that’s how filmaking saved my life.

I’ve been sober ever since... And currently, I am working on my debut feature-film PRESSED that focuses on the fentanyl epidemic. I plan on shaking up Hollywood with this one. My name is Rex Depalma and I hope to inspire someone reading this showing that you can turn it all around soon as YOU want too.

What did your recovery look like?: Ugly... Cold turkey in the twin towers, in downtown LA county intake. So bad I never wanted to feel that hell again. But when I got through that I never turned back, a big poart of it is I found my true passion and worked hard and not just at my craft. I worked on myself. Spirtually and emotionally. I was calling it partying, but I was really escaping feelings I never dealt with.

How are you doing these days?: Great... I am the happiest I ever been and I am doing what I love.

What do you do to maintain your recovery?: Mindfullness and I stay busy and move with intention.

What are you grateful for?: I'm grateful for my family and my friends who always held out hope for me and never wrote me off.

Any advice you would give to newly sober folks?: Set small goals first and bang them out and get momentum going .... Something as simple as making your bed as soon as you wake up. Sounds silly, but accomplishing that immediately anchors your day. You do it no matter what and it helps build healthy routines.

Any goals or aspirations you'd like to share?: Well, the largest goal I have I am in the midst of of it right now. I am currently in Pre-production of my first feature film. Very well-known actors are in it. People everyone reading this probably sees all the time. I was very fortunate that this story I wrote resonated with a lot of people