Noah Centineo is opening up about getting sober before his 21st birthday.
The To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before star is HarpersBazaar.com Men’s digital cover and shares what his life was like before he got sober the day before his 21st birthday.
“There’s a syndicate of, like, 500 to 1,000 kids in the entertainment industry that are all trying to make it right now that all they do Monday to Monday is party every night,” Noah says in his cover story interview.
He shared that the partying began after his parents got divorced when he was 15 and he and his mom lived in a hotel room while his dad and sister lived elsewhere.
“As the 15-year-old living in close quarters with my mom, I felt an obligation to step up and fill a role, fill a position that was vacant at that time, you know, and in doing so, I bristled and I kind of shoved down a lot of emotion,” he explains.
While under the influence, he says he and his pals would “talk for five hours and like get to the bottom of some really deeply philosophical existential questions.”
At the time, Noah also revealed that he experimented with other substances and “couch-surfed in the Valley and Hollywood for, like, four years.”
“There wasn’t really much I wouldn’t do,” he says. “I never, ever injected anything, which is good. I smoked a lot of things. I was really upset, man. It was a really dark time in my life.”
He admits he still does “a lot of freaking out,” from time to time, but has found other ways to cope.
“I like baths. I like meditation. I like journaling,” he says. “I talk to myself a lot if I’m mad at something that I did. I’ll scream at myself, really, like, looking in the mirror, right? Like, in my room. Like, ‘Dude, like, stop, this is f–king unacceptable. You’re better than this!'”
“I hold myself very accountable, but I can talk myself off of ledges too. And that’s a strong thing,” he adds.
He also talked about his relationship with model Alexis Ren, who he’s been dating for about a year.
“It’s the longest relationship I’ve ever been in,” he says. “She’s very good at monogamy. Actually, I love monogamy too.”
And the whole one night stand thing? He’s not a fan.
“Dude, you ever actually have one? Ninety percent of the time, they’re not good,” he says.
Noah shares that his relationship actually played a part in his decision to change his look and chop off his signature long curly locks to the buzz cut he’s rocking of late. But he gets treated differently now because of his hairstyle.
“Some people in my life think that I’ve kind of shifted into a more masculine brooding type. They treat me differently. People are more intimidated… Maybe not intimidated but… a little timid,” he says. “The buzz cut guy with scars on his face is a little different than, like, long-hair cute boy.”
But it’s not about his looks. He’s trying to be more in tune with how he makes people feel.
“I don’t really care how people find me or why they like me,” he says. “If I can maybe help them in some way through them discovering me, that makes it worth it. I found that’s the only thing that really matters is how you make people feel.”
