10 Tidbits From Corey Feldman’s Memoir, From ‘Fun’ to ‘Sad’

Corey Feldman in April, 1987

Corey Feldman’s new memoir, Coreyography, comes out tomorrow, and while the very idea of a Feldman memoir might fill many with earnest, campy memories of Tiger Beat subscriptions and hopes and dreams for kooky Lost Boys trivia, you’re only half right. While some of the book will indeed sate people’s need for eighties childhood nostalgia, the book veers into heavy stories of Feldman’s years of drug addiction and the sexual abuse he says he and the late Corey Haim suffered through at a very young age in Hollywood. To give a sample of the light-to-dark range of tales in Coreyography’s 288 pages, here are ten anecdotes, arranged on an intensifying scale that goes from Fun Trivia to Fascinating Hollywood Tidbit to Yikes, This Got Real. Note: This list stops shy of the lowest lows and does not include some of the really depressing stuff.

1. In an effort to seem cool, Feldman brought a piece of Mogwai fur to school while shooting Gremlins. It would have been better to have waited until after the 1984 movie came out. “What the hell is mogwai fur?” a kid yelled at Feldman, then threw a spitball at him.

2. Feldman, Corey Haim, and Dream a Little Dream director Mark Rocco threw an epic party at The Four Seasons in L.A. and Rick (then Ricky) Schroeder joined the fun. The studio told its stars and director to relax for a final night in the suites that had been booked for the Dream a Little Dream press junket in 1989. Instead Feldman, Haim, and Rocco called some friends and threw an impromptu bash that quickly careened out of control. Nearly 1,000 people showed up. A minibar fridge wound up in a bathtub. In the morning, angry studio execs were faced with a $10,000 bill. Feldman recalls the press reports that followed: “If they’re to be believed, televisions were tossed out of windows, Haim and Ricky Schroeder hosed down a stripper with Champagne, and kids went streaking down the halls of the penthouse, pandemonium into all hours of the night. I have no idea how much of that may have been true — maybe it’s all true. All I know for sure is that I don’t remember much.”

3. When Feldman yells “Reverse pressure!” in The Goonies, he’s actually thinking about Michael Jackson. Feldman, a major MJ fan, spent weeks pestering Steven Spielberg, executive producer of 1985’s The Goonies, to bring his friend Jackson to the set. On the day the cast shot the scene in which the Goonies mess with the plumbing at the Astoria Country Club, Spielberg — who, according to Feldman, directed 25 to 30 percent of The Goonies along with credited director Richard Donner — used the moment to his advantage. Just before shouting “Action” to capture Feldman’s “Reverse pressure!” line, he said, “Today’s the day, Corey. Michael Jackson is coming to set.” That got Feldman amped up enough to scream the line with the proper Goonie-caliber oomph.

4. Feldman came somewhat close to being cast as Danny Torrance in The Shining. Feldman made it through several callbacks in his bid for the role of Jack Nicholson’s son. But ultimately, young Danny Lloyd won the right to say “Redrum.”

5. Feldman smoked pot for the first time with Stand by Me co-star River Phoenix. They persuaded some guy in the film’s sound department to let them each take a hit off his bong. After giggling for a few minutes, they both admitted they didn’t feel anything.

6. Corey Feldman and Michael Jackson once went to Disneyland in disguise. To avoid being spotted during their trip to the amusement park, Feldman wore aviator sunglasses and a faux mustache, while Jackson donned a fake nose (!), sunglasses, and “a giant afro.” The close friends stayed for the entire evening without being recognized. They got a last-minute room to stay overnight, and when Jackson realized the room contained only one bed, he ordered a cot for himself and insisted Feldman take the bed. Throughout the book, as he has previously, Feldman maintains that Jackson never acted inappropriately toward him nor, to his knowledge, other children. “He was adamantly against drugs and alcohol, he was extremely straight-laced; I couldn’t even swear around him,” he writes. “Being with Michael brought me back to my innocence.”

7. Regarding lost innocence, Feldman’s issues with his cocaine-abusing mother were apparent to everyone on The Lost Boys set, including Kiefer Sutherland. Feldman recalls that he recently ran into Sutherland at an L.A. restaurant where the 24 star told him for the first time that, during the filming of  1987’s The Lost Boys, Sutherland saw Feldman sitting outside of his hotel room in tears because of his mother’s drug problems. Writes Feldman: “‘We all knew what a mess she was,’ Kiefer went on. ‘There were so many times I wanted to go down there, to shake some sense into her.’ Instead, he spent the evening with Jason Patric and Dianne Wiest, sharing a bottle of wine and surfing channels on the television. But every half hour or so, he’d pull back the curtains and peer out the window, checking on me, checking to see if I was still there.”

8. Feldman almost got fired from Lost Boys. After doing cocaine himself for the first time, Feldman was so out of it on set that director Joel Schumacher fired him. Fortunately, Schumacher changed his mind the next day. 

9. While in rehab, Feldman shot up heroin for the first time with Dave Navarro and Perry Farrell. At Exodus, a private rehab center, Feldman — who previously had been cooking and snorting heroin — says he finally did it with a syringe with one of his roommates (Navarro) and Jane’s Addiction front man Farrell, who was visiting his rehabbing girlfriend.

10. Carrie Fisher encouraged Feldman to get off drugs. By the time Feldman, then 17, shot the 1989 Tom Hanks comedy The ‘Burbs, his drug problems had become so apparent that director Joe Dante and co-star Carrie Fisher were taking him aside on set and encouraging him to seek help. “Please, listen to me,” Fisher implored him, according to Feldman. “You are such a talented actor, but if you keep going down this road, you’re going to throw it all away. You’ve got to stop before it’s too late.” Feldman wouldn’t listen.