'Slowly, over a period of many years I would begin to realize that many of the people I had surrounded myself with were monsters'
- Corey Feldman
Feldman was being questioned in relation to the molestation charges brought against MIcahel Jackson by Jordy Chandler and his family. In his book the Stand By Me actor said his relationship with the pop king was one of the healthiest he had.
In the recording, Feldman can be heard telling Sgt. Deborah Linden and Detective Russ Birchim, 'I myself was molested' before going on to name his abusers.
The detectives expressed little to no concern but continued to keep the focus on Jackson.
'I know what it’s like to go through those feelings and believe me, the person who molested me, if this was him that did that to me, this would be a different story.
In the book, Feldman recalls his often twisted friendship with fellow child star Corey Haim and how the pair were told by trusted adults that it was normal for older men and young boys to have sexual relations in the industry.
He named their abusers as Ron, Tony, Burnham and Crimson — all pseudonyms.
One picture in the book shows Feldman and Haim at the former's 15th birthday party flanked by five older men who at the time were abusing them.
Interestingly, the only safe place he knew was with Michael Jackson.
'I was shattered, disgusted, devastated. I needed some normalcy in my life. So, I called Michael Jackson,' he recalls. The pair had been introduced by Spielberg.
'Michael Jackson's world, crazy as it sounds, had become my happy place. Being with Michael brought me back to my innocence. When I was with Michael, it was like being 10 years old again.'
He insists in the book that Jackson never abused him or tried to touch him sexually.
During their first meeting, on the film The Lost Boys, Haim confided in his new friend that on the set of the 1986 film Lucas, 'an adult male convinced him that it was perfectly normal for older men and younger boys in the business to have sexual relations, that it was what all the guys do. So they walked off to a secluded area between two trailers... and Haim (was) sodomized.'
The friends made nine films and starred in one TV series together and partied heavily, their increasingly damaging antics driven by the horrors of their abuse.
After discovering his mother's stash of cocaine, Feldman's developed a dependance on drugs. He found himself snorting an eighth of an ounce every two days and bales of weed in his trailer.
He recalled having 'regular coke-off challenges' with friends. Later he moved onto heroin.
The Lost Boys was originally inspired by the success of The Goonies (and really, what isn't?), which is probably how Richard Donner got involved in the first place. The script by Janice Fischer and James Jeremias featured "Goonie-type 5th and 6th grade vampires," with the Frog Brothers (played by Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander) originally described as "chubby eight-year-old Cub scouts."
That would've been a very different movie indeed, one perhaps more in line with the traditional idea of "the Lost Boys" and the Peter Pan story they come from. Like The Goonies, it would've been two hours of little kids running around and screaming - apparently, Donner loves that stuff, because he was originally set to direct the film.
Obviously, none of this was meant to be, in the Grand Scheme of Things and all. The script went through a major rehaul by Jeffrey Boam (in which every character aged about five years) and Donner handed directing duties over to Joel Schumacher because all this nonsense was taking too damn long.
So, the next time you revisit The Lost Boys, pause and reflect that it could've been a much... louder movie.
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