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CNN Larry King Live

Interview With Tom Sizemore

Aired April 21, 2010 - 21:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, Tom Sizemore.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel rehabilitated.

KING: He starred with De Niro and Pacino and Hanks, in some of the biggest films ever. Making millions on Hollywood's a-list and nearly blew it all on drugs that almost destroyed his career and him. Cocaine, heroine and meth, demons fueled a rage in reckless behavior, he went to jail and rehab 10 times, ended up virtually homeless on the streets. A notorious sex tape damaged him even more.

He's sober now. Will it stick? Tom Sizemore back from the break next on "Larry King Live."

KING: Good evening, great to welcome Tom Sizemore back to "Larry King Live." The Golden Globe nominated actor. He's appeared in Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbor, Heat, Natural Born Killers, he's also a recovering addict and a participant in VH1's Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.

There was a time when he was famous for intense and charismatic work as an actor. In recent years, his professional accomplishments have been overshadowed by personal demons. Celebrity Rehab has captured Tom's on screen highs and off screen lows watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tom is the classic, straight down in the middle drug addict. He got exposed at an early age. He's got the hurricane you know of as Tom Sizemore. Tom is incredible actor. If you've seen the things that he's done, Saving Private Ryan, and Heat and Blackhawk Down, I mean, it's been a shame.

Tom's drug of choice is crystal meth. It's killing him. I think Tom has wanted help for years and years and years. There's another part of Tom that won't accept help. He desperately wants to stop living the way he's living. That's a good thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Tom Sizemore back with us on "Larry King Live." How long sober now, Tom?

TOM SIZEMORE, ACTOR: 326 days.

KING: What was the longest you were ever sober before that?

SIZEMORE: A couple minutes.

KING: I can't hear you.

SIZEMORE: A couple minutes. No. That's not true. I got sober in 97 and I was sober through 2002. Five years and change.

KING: What happened?

SIZEMORE: Well, really, the precursor to the fall was my wife left me. That's the truth. I used to say that I met Heidi, but that was phase II of the fall. First, my wife left me and I didn't get married to get divorced. I got married to stay married and raise a family.

After my wife left me, I went into a very bad depression, and I met Heidi and she gave me this drug called crystal meth, and it alleviated my depression real quickly. Also, it was an aphrodisiac type drug for me. And it was like the line in Hemingway's book, how did you go bankrupt, Jake Barns says that that to one of the other characters in the book. He goes, gradually and suddenly. The same thing for me. How did I end up like I ended up? It was seemingly gradual but then suddenly.

KING: Your wife did not leave you because of drugs?

SIZEMORE: No, although we battled them together. I got clean when I was with my wife. My wife left me because -- drugs may have had something to do with it. I just wasn't there as a husband.

KING: Let's go back to maybe the impossible question. Why did you start? Ever first time?

SIZEMORE: Well, I never did them. I smoked pot and stuff, not like every kid, but when I was younger. I liked it a little bit. I liked sports better. I wanted to go to school to be an actor and all that jazz. I didn't see it as an option of something I could do. I was just so -- I really was ambitious about becoming an actor.

I was a nice boy from Detroit. That's not a good resume, so I had to go to New York and stuff. And I was so busy, you know, just trying to make it and do well, and I found her doing well and I moved to Los Angeles.

KING: Not doing drugs.

SIZEMORE: Not narcotics like cocaine, I smoked pot and drank beer, but never to a problematic level. Once in a while, I drank too much, but it was never anything that I could just stop.

KING: Did you come to Hollywood and start getting good roles?

SIZEMORE: Yes, I came to Hollywood and I started to make -- I never had money in my life and then I had a lot of money. And I met some young stars that I admired their work, and the first time I did cocaine was with a famous actor whose name I can't tell you. I'm not going to tell you because he's a terrific guy.

I didn't want to do it, but there was people in this room and he did it, and I went if he did it, I'm going to do it. And I did it, it took a couple minutes and I went wow, that is bomb. Where do you get that? Do you have any more of it?

KING: That was it.

SIZEMORE: Like a lot of people, I have a friend of mine who years ago did a lot of cocaine and was like oh, my God, it hurts, burns, it's terrible. He never went to sleep. I, on the other hand, felt it was like Christmas. One big line and I was doing cocaine virtually every day within a week.

KING: While continuing to get work?

SIZEMORE: Yes, I continued to work. I was younger and I could stop, you know. I would stop, I did natural born killers. Right before that, I was clean 97 days before the movie started. Once the movie started, I started getting high again.

KING: Why?

SIZEMORE: Well, because I met somebody on the movie that was getting high and I liked her. I fell into it again. I did it because I wanted to. That's why I did it.

KING: Getting help for an addiction is one thing. Tom did it in front of the world. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was feeling something emotional when Dennis was speaking about you being in here. I just imagine your kids coming in and touching a grave stone. It's not fair. It's not OK. These cannot take you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Going into rehab is one thing, doing it on national television is something else. Take a look at Tom on Celebrity Rehab.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you leaving?

SIZEMORE: I didn't know I was going to be staying.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want you to stay because it's the right thing to do and you know it's the right thing to do.

SIZEMORE: The best idea is for me to come in tomorrow so I can see my kids.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want you to go because I don't want you to disappear for four more days.

SIZEMORE: I'll start walking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tom, come on. Don't do that.

SIZEMORE: I'm tired of talking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Blame me, because I'm saying that you should stay. They're following doctor's order when I say that.

SIZEMORE: It didn't matter to me. I'm leaving.

KING: Why did you do it on national television? Why did you agree to that?

SIZEMORE: I was intoxicated, I think. No. I know I was. I'm lying about seeing my kids there. I want to go home. I don't want to go to rehab. I actually at some point -- it's all blurry, but I called Bob or Drew and said I need help badly.

I thought I was going to die. It got bad, but when it came to doing it, the first time they tried to get me, I jumped out of the car, and I went on sunset and Bob who will be out later, I gave him the slip.

When you're using drugs, you get small victories, I avoided bob. I felt like a hero, like I did something special. Anyway, when I -- I was so used -- I thought everyone in my life -- let me make this clear. I thought I could come back, but I always did think I could come back, but the previous year to me going to treatment, the addiction had become -- I didn't even like it anymore, but I could not stop doing it. I didn't enjoy what it did to me.

KING: It didn't give you a high.

SIZEMORE: I couldn't get high. I would get something.

KING: What was it then?

SIZEMORE: I'm an addict. I can't describe it to you. If I did it, I couldn't get out of bed, but I got no pleasure from it and it was destroying my career, and I started to think I destroyed my career. I'm an actor. I've been acting for 30 years, and I wasn't doing it anymore. I didn't have any money, and so I got, you know, I got real close to hopeless.

I was fairly hopeless and I wasn't enjoying it but I didn't know how to stop. And having been to rehab many times and felt the pain of withdrawal and the horrible, for me it's horrible, it's been difficult first 90 days, 120 days, now I'm in an area that I haven't been in before with the meth.

Before I got clean from heroin, I was just afraid that I would not be able to do it and I didn't want to feel the pain, and I also, I should be completely honest, I didn't want to be in there with Ms. Fleiss. That was a kind of rationalization. I finally did go in. KING: Why didn't the earlier rehabs work?

SIZEMORE: The first seven of them, I still was working and no one knew. I hadn't been arrested. I had no legal problems and I was always going for someone else, my agent, my mother, my fiance, my wife. I never went for myself. Never. I was just OK, I can leave.

KING: Did you try to fool them in rehab?

SIZEMORE: Yes, yes. I don't think you have to be an actor to do that. I've been to rehab where guys do a good job of fooling that are not actors. Yes, I would do all the foot work.

KING: Not ever thinking you're kidding myself?

SIZEMORE: I knew I was getting high as soon as I'm getting out of here when I go to rehab.

KING: Heidi Fleiss figures into Tom's past. See what happened to them as cameras roll after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We are attempting to examine one of the most difficult to examine subjects in the world, drug addiction. Welcome back to our guest, actor Tom Sizemore, great actor. He appeared in Celebrity Rehab and Sober House. Appeared with his former girlfriend, Heidi Fleiss. It made for some volatile moments. Here's an example.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIZEMORE: I care about you. I always did and I'm sorry I messed things up, but you're killing yourself. You're a loving person. You don't need to be out there alone with those birds. Come on home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I look at you and I feel so good. You're such a loser. The thought of being with you would turn a woman gay, it really would, but, you know, there is hope, you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: What didn't work about that?

SIZEMORE: I don't know what else to say about it, really?

KING: You went public with it.

SIZEMORE: I hope I don't turn women gay.

KING: What?

SIZEMORE: I hope I don't turn women gay. I don't try to.

KING: Were you mismatched?

SIZEMORE: Well obviously, we were mismatched. I don't have anything bad to say about her. I don't want to talk about her.

KING: But without saying anything bad or good?

SIZEMORE: She was lovely.

KING: Is it sometimes in drug rehab --

SIZEMORE: We were both doing dope together.

KING: Two people can kick each other off?

SIZEMORE: Of course they can. I started doing speed with Heidi. We did it together and it ruined our relationship.

KING: What was the worst it ever was?

SIZEMORE: The worst it ever was?

KING: Forget Heidi or anything. The worst it ever was for you, the lowest it ever was?

SIZEMORE: Michael Mann wouldn't return any of my phone calls. He's a great director, but he was my friend. It still -- I fell a great distance, but I'm doing -- I just finished a movie, I finished two movies and I'm doing two big movies now. Michael, if you see this, I'm very sorry.

KING: But the worst it ever was dialing his number and him -- leaving a message and he doesn't return.

SIZEMORE: No. Calling the office and saying, the gentleman, Marshal saying Tom, he just doesn't want to talk to you. I mean over and over. The first time I went why? Well, I know why, because of what I was doing. I said tell him I need to.

And it was -- it wasn't he was being mean. I don't think he wanted -- he was angry about the show being canceled, robbery homicide division, which was one of the greatest crime dramas ever made.

I was the star of it and I got arrested during it. That may have cancelled it. Who knows? I have a great deal of guilt about that and I'm very sorry for it, but it happened. Michael did think that was the --

KING: The straw.

SIZEMORE: Yes, because it was a tough show, expensive. Michael is difficult to deal with for the execs on CBS, David Kissinger. They're all nice people. (Inaudible) who was always great to be all through this book. Michael was my friend. He wasn't a director guy I worked with.

KING: What were you arrested for?

SIZEMORE: The first time I was arrested for purported battery, misdemeanor battery, which I was exonerated of it eventually, but it started -- I had to go on probation, I did drugs, did drug tests.

KING: Did you do jail time?

SIZEMORE: I went to prison, Larry.

KING: How long?

SIZEMORE: One hour and there is too much, but I only went for, I think, the grand total was seven months and two days.

KING: What prison?

SIZEMORE: I went from -- I went to Chino State Prison in the beginning because they didn't want me, because I was high profile. I went to Delano State Prison and they didn't want me. And I went to Pleasant Valley, and I'm not sure if this is good, but they wanted me.

KING: How did you handle prison? You couldn't get drugs or could you get drugs?

SIZEMORE: No, no, I didn't do drugs in prison. I was just -- I focused on not losing myself. There wasn't a lot of fighting. I had to fight a few times and I can handle myself. I'll take a beating, I don't care.

But in prison, it's different. Taking a beating could be your last beating. I did a lot of this, I know Shakespeare a lot. I know it well, no man speak, let's talk of graves. I remember full plays almost. I've really great memory. I wrote down as many of the plays I've been in that I can remember the lines that I had and other characters had. I wrote down the movies I had been in.

KING: You recreated them in your mind?

SIZEMORE: I wrote them out to make sure my brain was still working and to keep myself -- I have a good imagination, I could disappear into -- when I played Iago, I still know what I did when I was 21.

KING: Why didn't prison cure you, this may be stupid. Why didn't that experience --

SIZEMORE: Part of me -- listen, there was part of me thought nobody should ever go to prison. I don't care what they did. They should either kill them because it's horrendously bad there. That's how they want it to be. It's everything -- I have nothing to say about prison. But I'm glad it's over.

KING: Why didn't it cure you?

SIZEMORE: Because I'm hardheaded and knuckleheaded, if I had to go back, I can take it. I can take it, I think. But really, maybe, I just wasn't done. You know, Alcoholics Anonymous, everybody has their certain bottom.

KING: You hadn't hit it. SIZEMORE: When I got out of prison I was monumentally depressed. I went to prison for drugs. Because of my depression, I started doing drugs not to be depressed, even though I might go back to prison for it. It makes no sense

KING: Is Hollywood harmful to the lifestyle, especially if he's prone to addiction? More ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Welcome back. Tom Sizemore, our special guest joined by Bob Forrest, drug counselor, Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. He's founder and director of Hollywood Recovery Services and is a recovering addict himself. He was in and out of rehab two dozen times before finding sobriety in 1996 and he's known Tom Sizemore for 20 years. What took you so long?

BOB FORREST, DRUG COUNSELOR, "CELEBRITY REHAB": Me, I saw you guys talking about what a bottom is. It's an interesting subject. Tom and I just seemed to be people that have thick skulls and what gets through to other people doesn't get through to us.

KING: What happened to you that now enabled you to be risk free for 14 years, 15 years?

FORREST: Hitting a bottom like Tom was talking about. His bottom, like you were so shocked wasn't in prison. My bottom wasn't losing my family.

KING: What was your bottom?

FORREST: My bottom was similar to his. I was thinking about that. I was in the LA County Jail and I was calling a mutual friend of ours that will remain nameless to get him to bail me out of jail. My ex girlfriend was his personal assistant and she said the same thing, he doesn't want to talk to you.

I remember hanging up the phone and somehow that gets through on an emotional level. I know it doesn't make sense to non-addicts but it does to me. I know who it is too. It's something that hits you like oh, my God, nobody wants to talk to me.

SIZEMORE: Nobody wants to talk to you.

KING: Was he your counselor, Tom?

SIZEMORE: Bob has been my counselor, Bob has counseled me since 2004.

KING: So you've counseled him through some failures.

SIZEMORE: I've been in rehab with him twice.

FORREST: He's good in treatment. He's one of the best patients you can have.

SIZEMORE: I do well in treatment.

KING: Don't let him out.

I mean you had, for example, over the years various celebrities have tried to help you out. Robert De Niro tried to help you out.

SIZEMORE: Yes, he talked to my mother. He didn't talk to me.

KING: Steven Spielberg tried to help you out?

SIZEMORE: Yes, Steve and I haven't spoken to me in the recent past, but I know he's amenable to talking to me.

KING: Why do people turn off addicts, Bob?

FORREST: The best I ever heard it described what it's like to have an addict in your life is watching a dog running in traffic.

SIZEMORE: Against traffic.

FORREST: You know it's going to get hit. Eventually people that love you so much just can't watch it anymore.

SIZEMORE: You kind of turn away. I don't know who -- I told you that or your mother told you that. It's like a dog running against the traffic, dodging the car. You just turn away, because eminently, he's going to get hit.

KING: Key question. Are you confident in him now?

FORREST: I can look at him now and know he's sober.

SIZEMORE: He's a Svengali that way.

KING: Will he be sober tomorrow?

SIZEMORE: I don't know if I'll be sober tomorrow that's a crazy thing that the public doesn't understand. I'll do everything I can.

KING: Explain.

SIZEMORE: Well, there are certain things that are necessary in order to remain sober, meaning that it's the top priority in your life. And sometimes those priorities fall off. I saw you guys talking a little bit about that. When your career or your family gets all confused, then you're susceptible to relapse.

KING: God forbid, if a bad thing happened to Tom tomorrow.

FORREST: Something bad could be good. That's the craziness of it.

KING: It could be good news.

SIZEMORE: They're good news.

KING: You're afraid, maybe we shouldn't show them.

SIZEMORE: No. When I was starting to get these movies, there was a part of my brain that went, I can get high again. I quieted it down again, but I'm being honest.

KING: This is turning fascinating. We'll be back in a minute. Don't go away. I don't think you will.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back with Tom Sizemore and Bob Forrest. Tom co- starred in 1993's "Heart and Souls" with Robert Downey, Jr. He's had his own well publicized drug troubles and he's talking about it back in October of 2005. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Have you come to an understanding of what it was all about?

ROBERT DOWNEY JR.: There's certainly aspects of it that -- there's a reason it's listed in American medical book as a disease. There's a part of it that's largely a moral issue, but I think once you have an opportunity to get the help you need to get out of it, you just have to remember that sometimes that train doesn't come back around for seven years, you know. It's very specific how many chances you get.

KING: Is it a daily struggle?

DOWNEY JR.: Not right now, no. It's been a good long while, but it's like who figured out what makes the souffle not drop in the oven. Once you figure it out, you don't throw away the recipe. So I'm just really fortunate right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Tom, do you ever figure it out?

SIZEMORE: I don't think -- Robert in that interview where he says it's not a struggle. He's had a good long run. I've had a good long run, but it's been a struggle. It gets a little easier, but I have bad days and I have really good days.

KING: Was today a good day?

SIZEMORE: Today has been a good day.

KING: Is this good or bad for you, what we're doing now?

SIZEMORE: I was extremely nervous when I was told I was doing this. But simultaneously I was excited because I need -- I'm doing movies again, I need to get out there and let the people know I'm OK, for Hollywood people to see that hey, he's OK.

KING: He's your friend, he's a great talent. FORREST: Let me just add to this got to get out and do some things. Part of Tom's whole last eight years, 10 ten years has been treatment, sober awhile, high again. So I tried to do something with him the last time he got out.

KING: Which was?

FORREST: Let's just go have lunch or dinner and go to a book store. Him in a book store, having just gotten out of rehab, he was like a mess. He was nervous and he was excited and he had stacks of books. He had to relearn everything.

SIZEMORE: Yeah.

KING: Are you an inveterate reader?

SIZEMORE: I read a lot. I am an inveterate reader. I always have a novel going. But I actually stopped and Bob asked me if I had been reading, I hadn't been in book soup (ph) (INAUDIBLE) my books for like four or five years, because I was ashamed to go in there because I knew everybody. So he took me down, it's in Echo Park, Vermont to this book store.

FORREST: Skylight Books. He was like a kid in a candy store.

SIZEMORE: I'm sweating and nervous because I hadn't done it clean. The drugs are so powerful. I don't think people who don't have this addiction, who don't suffer from addiction can understand that you can actually forget how to make a bowl of cereal clean. That it can be overwhelming.

FORREST: How to live day to day, just the common everyday --

SIZEMORE: If you were my father, hey day, how you doing? You OK?

KING: Have you acted while stoned?

SIZEMORE: Unfortunately, I have, but never -- fortunately, I didn't have to act that much in the last few years. It wouldn't have been nice.

KING: I want to ask when we come back, I want to ask about crystal meth, what that is, what makes that different. We'll be right back. .

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CELEBRITY REHAB WITH DR. DREW, COURTESY VH1: We're not kids anymore. This is real serious, this order we have. This drug addiction is going to kill us and I don't want to bury you after I got to know you like this. I mean, don't do it, Mike, all right? You're a sweet person. All right. Thanks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: By the way, we have a quick Tweet from king's things, our Twitter spot. Larry, Tom most certainly does not turn women gay. I would get with him in a heartbeat for sure, problems, past and all.

SIZEMORE: Did she leave a number?

KING: They still love you. What is crystal meth, expert?

FORREST: I don't know if I'm an expert, but I've done it. It's a stimulant, very powerful, almost 100 percent pure at this point in California.

KING: Where does it come from?

FORREST: It's manmade. They're all manmade chemicals.

SIZEMORE: They call it S-H-I-T on the street.

FORREST: It's a particularly debilitating drug. Have you heard about the sheriff up north who took booking pictures of people on crystal meth?

KING: No.

FORREST: Fascinating. Their booking picture, when they're arrested and then their booking picture 18 months later after continued use, they age 20, 30, 40 years, lose all their teeth.

KING: Why do you take it?

SIZEMORE: We're back to the same question. I think all the drugs are the same.

KING: Crystal meth makes you feel great?

SIZEMORE: It makes you feel euphoric and great and it knocks you out. Heroin makes you feel euphoric and great and numbs you out.

KING: After while with crystal meth do you get so used to it, that it doesn't help you out anymore?

SIZEMORE: Heroin eventually, you can bang it all you want, all day as you well know and not get high.

FORREST: It goes to the reward center of the brain eventually.

SIZEMORE: It depletes everything.

FORREST: You can't feel it anymore but you have to do it. It's like --

SIZEMORE: What I was saying earlier, I didn't even get affected, I didn't get high from it, but I couldn't stop doing it.

FORREST: Eventually it just gives a person a baseline to function and they need the drugs just to function.

SIZEMORE: But they can't function on it.

KING: Did you also frankly, Tom, have an anger problem?

SIZEMORE: No.

KING: Because it was pictured that way.

SIZEMORE: If someone messes with me, I'm going to mess with them. That's a line from De Niro, they mess with me, I'm going to mess with them. Someone steals from me, I'm going to say, you stole.

KING: Did you miss acting when you were down and out and weren't acting?

SIZEMORE: Yes, I missed it more than anything on earth. I got sober for myself and acting is part of myself. I got sober to be myself again and I'm an actor and I'm acting again. You got some clips from some movies I finished, and I have some movies I'm about to go do. I'm an actor. It's my job, and I love doing it. I never didn't love doing it and I missed it terribly.

KING: You say, it's day to day, it's still day to day for you in 14 years?

FORREST: What Robert said, it's certainly easier day to day, but you just have to be mindful of the way that you live. Part of Tom's problem was getting grandiose again and believing all the fantasies of yourself and the false sense of self and then that tends to sabotage people.

SIZEMORE: I wasn't working a program, so I didn't want to go around my old friends so I ended up with a group of people that didn't have much to look forward to in life.

FORREST: And you were the king pin.

SIZEMORE: Yeah, but I was there because I didn't have anyone else to be with, so I'm with these people that are not bad people. They're just hopelessly addicted young people with no education and nothing to look forward to except the next bag of dope.

FORREST: Took on a life of its own. The way I describe addiction, it's like a train. You get on it, it's bad enough. It's heading from Los Angeles back east. Most people get off in Albuquerque because it's just too tough. Tom and I are addicts (INAUDIBLE) hope to die junkies, and (INAUDIBLE) all the way

(CROSSTALK)

KING: Do you fear it coming again?

SIZEMORE: Yep. Sometimes, it's an unhealthy fear where I don't want to do certain things where I don't want to go to bars.

KING: You can't even have a drink.

SIZEMORE: No. I shouldn't. I never had a problem with booze, but no, I don't because I do what Drew says and that is nothing. Abstinence.

KING: Dr. Drew says abstain, abstain.

SIZEMORE: I like to smoke pot once in a while, but I don't. I didn't like it that much anyway. But I would like to -- I don't even know why. I just want to change the way I feel. I'm used to it. But people at nightclubs to drink and meet girls. I'm not looking to meet any girls right now and I'm not looking to get drunk so I have no business there. Other times people want to go to dinner and I don't go, because sometimes it's not healthy. I don't go out of fear.

KING: Were you ever homeless?

SIZEMORE: That's a misnomer. I was never homeless. I was living in a house that was not mine and it was loaned to me by a famous person. (INAUDIBLE) homeless because I didn't have the money to pay for it. This very famous actor loaned it to me.

KING: Tom's got a number of projects in the can. One of them is sure to get him critical reviews.

SIZEMORE: He wishes he hadn't loaned it to me, believe me.

KING: You destroyed it. Bob will stay with us for another segment too. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Good news. Tom Sizemore, we checked Twitter during the break. The woman who was interested in you has tweeted us her number. It will be delivered to you at the end of the show. This could be trouble.

SIZEMORE: Probably my mom.

KING: Let's check in with Anderson Cooper. What's up tonight Anderson?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Larry, tonight a fascinating show, the birthers are back but this time, Arizona lawmakers are listening, trying to pass a bill based on their constituents' misinformation. President Obama's birth origins are well known, so why are lawmakers devoting time and money to this issue? We're going to ask one of the Arizona Republicans what is he thinking? We're keeping them honest. Also at "360," dispatch tonight from a volcano in Iceland. It could make the current eruption look like a hiccup. Our Gary Tuchman goes to the rim of a volcano for a first hand look.

And up close tonight, a stunning story, 34 year old mother of triplets at the center of a legal battle to see her own kids. She can't move, she can't speak or possibly think for herself, but does she have the right to actually see her kids? Those stories and a lot more at "360" at the top of the hour Larry.

KING: That's Anderson Cooper at 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 Pacific. We're back with Tom Sizemore and his buddy Bob Forrest, drug counselor with "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew." Tom has got a number of movies in the pipeline, including "White Knight." He plays Leroy Lowe, grand dragon of the Texas KKK. He's sentenced to three years hard time and ends up on a road to personal redemption. Here's a clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIZEMORE: I feel rehabilitated.

UM: You do now?

SIZEMORE: That's right. If I get early release from prison, I'm fixing to return to my life as a door to door vacuum salesman.

UM: A vacuum salesman.

SIZEMORE: That's real (ph) vacuum cleaners, mind you, unquestionably, the finest value on the market.

Um: Well, Leroy, that sounds like one hell of an honest job, but what about the Klan?

SIZEMORE: Well, the Klan is going to have to get along without me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: What's the origins of White Knight?

(CROSSTALK)

KING: Is it a comedy? Is it a comedy about the Klan?

SIZEMORE: It doesn't sounds like it works (ph). The director's name is Jesse Baget, and I have to say that he has Cohen brother's ability.

KING: It's a Cohen brothers style film, twists and (INAUDIBLE)?

SIZEMORE: If you were to say it was like anything, you would say it was like "Raising Arizona," perhaps.

KING: Who else is in it?

SIZEMORE: Kevin Farley, Olga Segura, Stacy Keach is the other star, and Hector Jimenez.

KING: When is it due out?

SIZEMORE: I'm not sure.

KING: Have you got another one coming? SIZEMORE: It's called "Class."

KING: Have we got a clip of that, too? No we don't. Tell me about "Class."

SIZEMORE: It's about a serial murderer and an FBI detective myself. Here it is over here.

KING: We don't have the clip.

SIZEMORE: That's "Class". That's the guy I play in "Class."

KING: You're an FBI guy?

SIZEMORE: He's been tracking the serial killer forever and it's driving him nuts and he decides to kill himself. He can't catch him.

KING: Meaning he can't catch the serial killer so he's going to kill himself, he's obsessed? Why do you like acting?

SIZEMORE: I just think it's fascinating. I think it's fascinating. Acting is never done. We're trying to keep it real and make sure that you're entertained and it seems unrehearsed. Actors have to make you believe that it's happening for the first time and all that jazz and make it human and at the same time entertain you.

KING: You are starting another movie in July?

SIZEMORE: Bullets over Broadway."

KING: Is that a comedy?

SIZEMORE: "Bullets for Breakfast."

KING: Is that a comedy?

SIZEMORE: Action thriller.

KING: Action thriller, "Bullets for breakfast." You're starting to pick it up again. People watching you tonight are probably going to cast you again.

SIZEMORE: There's a big movie with Marc Anthony that , Marc, hire me. They called about me and they are interested and that would be a lovely thing to do.

KING: Do you think you're on the road to redemption?

SIZEMORE: Yes, I do, for the first time since it started the fall, I think I've got a chance.

KING: Do you, Bobbie, have faith in him?

FORREST: Yeah. Where there's breath, there's hope. I've been around him for years. I love the guy and want him to succeed.

SIZEMORE: He's never give up on me, never.

KING: But you can never say 100 percent about anything in your business, right?

FORREST: No.

SIZEMORE: I'm sorry.

KING: Fourteen years, you must feel you're well over the hump?

FORREST: Yeah. You have a quality of life where you just keep mindful how you live. One of the things we didn't touch on is service and what Tom's doing.

KING: Service, you should help people.

FORREST: He's going down to the mission. He doesn't want to talk about it but that's a good thing.

SIZEMORE: I'm not supposed to talk about it.

KING: But you go down. You help others?

SIZEMORE: I go there all the time.

KING: Service is part of this rehab.

SIZEMORE: It's a triangle. Service and the steps and meetings. That's the triangle.

FORREST: The service, the steps and the meetings and it's a triangle and if you stay in the triangle, you can't get in trouble.

SIZEMORE: A secret thing but the fact is -- (INAUDIBLE)

KING: Keep it a secret. He's doing well.

SIZEMORE: ... doing well.

KING: Thanks for joining us, Bob. Bob Forrest, one more segment with Tom Sizemore. He's worked his way up the Hollywood chain and when we come back, a surprise from his early days on the small screen. He doesn't know it's coming. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Clips of Tom Sizemore being killed by Al Pacino. Nice way to go through life. We have an old video and it doesn't disappear. It ends up on Youtube. We found a commercial that Tom Sizemore made in the 1980s. Let's take a look. Let's take a look.

SIZEMORE: I'm 19 years old here.

BLISTEK COMMERCIAL

KING: Whoa, that was pretty good. SIZEMORE: I remember the line, great, no hard waxy feeling.

KING: Had you started to take drugs then?

SIZEMORE: no. Nice boy from Detroit.

KING: What happened to that nice boy?

SIZEMORE: I don't know. He's coming back, though. He's still alive in me.

KING: We have a call for you, Neptune, New Jersey. Hello.

CALLER: Hi Tom, I want to tell you you're a brilliant actor and congratulations on your sobriety. I wanted to know if you're still seeing the girl that came to visit you on the rehab show and did she also finish rehab or go to rehab?

SIZEMORE: She finished. She's clean and we're not together like that but we're friends.

KING: Cameron Douglas, the son of actor Michael Douglas was sentenced yesterday, five years for dealing crystal meth.

SIZEMORE: That's all he got, five? That's good. I thought he was going to get 10.

KING: Is that the standard?

SIZEMORE: Not standard. I read an interview with Mr. Douglas in "Vanity Fair" where he said that it looked like 10 years.

KING: Will five years help him?

SIZEMORE: I don't have any idea. I don't think anybody should have to go to prison. At the same time, I don't know what you would do with people who break the law. I've met Cameron a couple times. It's tremendously sad.

KING: Sad for the whole family, grandfather --

SIZEMORE: Gosh, it's got to be so sad for everybody. They're a close family, especially for Michael.

KING: You said you got to make amends for people in pain, people you caused pain. Do you go about doing that?

SIZEMORE: I've done it with a couple people. It's a slow process.

KING: What's the hardest part of all of it?

SIZEMORE: Forgiving myself and what I did to my mom, just the worry. My brother once told me she's been up for six years, OK, if you want to use dope, why don't you do something else like maybe -- he said something really crummy to me, but I understand it now. He said if you're going to use drugs, why don't you know maybe -- because you're killing mom. And I'm very sorry, mom, for all the worry I did in fact cause you.

KING: You feel good about this hour?

SIZEMORE: Yeah. And I was really nervous.

KING: We do, too. Best of luck to you, man.

SIZEMORE: Thanks a lot. I appreciate it.

KING: Tom Sizemore. Tomorrow night, the creator of one of the funniest shows in the history of television, "Family Guy." Seth MacFarlane is here. Get ready to laugh because the man is out there somewhere. Seth MacFarlane tomorrow, his clock ain't wound up too tight. Time now for a man whose clock is always wound up, Anderson Cooper and "AC 360." Anderson.