What happened to Edward Furlong, the young John Connor from ‘Terminator 2’?

Edward Furlong had everything to succeed in Hollywood. At the age of 14 and after debuting in ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’, one of the best science fiction movies in history, he became a teen idol that lined the folders of millions of teenagers all over the planet. But, Like many other stars who began their fame at an early age, stardom and bad decisions got the better of him..

Edward Walter Furlong was born on August 2, 1977 in Glendale, California, and the 90’s were the best of his career, without a doubt. After starting out in the world of acting under the orders of james cameron and sharing the screen with stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda HamiltonFurlong continued his career in Hollywood with roles in blockbuster films such as ‘Animal Sematary 2’.

During those years, shared a poster with actors like Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson in ‘Before and after’, Tim Roth in ‘A matter of blood’ and Jeff Bridges in ‘American Heart’. In 1998 she had an important role in the movie ‘American History X’playing a neo-Nazi who wants to follow in the footsteps of his older brother, played by Edward Norton. But his ordeal was about to begin.

The controversy soon came to his life after learning that, years after the filming of ‘Terminator 2’, Furlong had begun a love affair with his manager Jacqueline Domac, 13 years older., whom he met on the set. Let’s remember, Furlong was 14 years old. when the movie was shot. The announcement was made public when Furlong turned 18, and they were “officially” together for 5 years until 1999, when the couple broke up due to, allegedly, abuse on her part.

The young actor began attending sessions of ‘Alcoholics Anonymous’ in 1997, and in 2000 he was admitted to a rehabilitation clinic. During 2001 he suffered an overdose and remained under observation for expressing suicidal thoughts. Throughout that period of time, Furlong dated actress natasha lyonne (You will put a face on it when you remember ‘Russian Doll’, the Netflix series) and with the “mocatriz” Paris Hiltonwhich was in all the scrubs of the time.

“I shot loads and loads of heroin, methamphetamine and smoked DMT all the time. I was like that all day. It’s amazing that he’s still alive, there were a couple of times I almost didn’t tell.”

the premiere of the fourth installment of ‘El Cuervo’, with Furlong starring as ‘Jimmy Cuervo’ and sharing the bill with Tara Reid, David Boreanaz, Danny Trejo and Dennis Hopper, it was an attempt to revitalize his career, but the project ended up being a fiasco.

Since then, Furlong has interspersed small cameos in films like ‘Green Hornet’ with low budget productions exploitations direct to videolike ‘Arachnoquake’ from the infamous production company The Asylum.

His last screen job was his return to the ‘Terminator’ franchise in 2019 with ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’, when James Cameron offered him to briefly reprise his role as John Connor. Since then, Furlong has continued to make a living in independent cinema (he has a couple of films in production, according to IMDb), and recently announced that he has been sober for four years and that, little by little, he is overcoming his addiction problems and resuming his life as an actor.

Now he maintains a healthy relationship with his family and is starting to work more. Furlong says that being sober is “the best thing i’ve ever done”and also seeks to repair the professional relationships he ruined while high: “I screwed so many people when I was high… Regaining the trust of the people who work with you when you have failed so much is a long process,” he shared. “It’s like friendship after a bad breakup: people are learning to trust me again. It’s great and things are slowly starting to get going again”.

“Once you get in there, it’s very hard to see a way out. That’s what I’d like people to understand: there is a way out, but it’s hard.