Years after appearing as her character on LL Cool J’s 1990’s family sitcom “In the House,” actress Maia Campbell succumbed to drug addiction. Videos were posted to YouTube where she was seen in drugged out state of being and even being arrested.
Now, it appears she’s overcome addiction and turned her life around.
In an interview with BlogTalk Radio, Campbell says she’s been sober for two years, but the online reports about her were very painful to endure. However, those reports may have been the catalyst for her change of attitude.
Maia discusses her sobriety:
I’ve been sober for two years, and a lot of people can’t say that. I’m timid, shy and broken a little bit by some of the responses [online], but then again so much support from the people saying “No! She’s none of that.” Real friends stepping up … And just showing me who the real people were in my life. It helped me find myself and find out that there’s a real true artist inside of me–that no matter what obstacles may come, he’s not going to let you fall, and he’s not going to let you down.
I started ministering to myself and looking at my heart … Finding my voice … And it just made me stronger. If it doesn’t kill you, it will make you stronger. Like Drake says, “It’s far from over…” I listened to the music that people were making, and it kept inspiring me. I started making music, and I just stepped out on a limb. My mom died … So much has happened. I miss people in my life. I miss LL [Cool J]. Debbie Allen came back to the community … And for once so many miracles. I swear so many miracles!
Maia explains the status of her career and those YouTube videos:
I went on to do movies, and nobody talked about it, and that hurt me. I did a movie called ‘Rim Shop’ after Katrina had happened in New Orleans. We went down there, and that place looked a mess, seriously. We shot a film out there just to help those people, to bring revenue in and just show our support to their situation. Then, I did a gospel kind of Tyler Perry play called ‘Friends and Lovers’.
I’m trying to reach out to Tyler Perry about one of the mom’s latest novels. She was nominated for a Noble Peace Prize for literature. [It’s called 72-Hour Hold] it was a story about her and my relationship, and I wish that Halle Berry would pick it up and read it if you’re listening. I would love for her to play the lead character.
There are so many goals and dreams that God has put in my heart while I’m sitting here sober. And I’m not doing the things I use to do. The way they attacked me on the Internet–it was BS. These guys said they were going to shoot a video for my music. I was trying to work independently–and I’m not saying that I was clear headed to believe them, but I was not doing what the heck they said I was doing. They blasted me with the words they put on the screen and just made everybody look at me another way. And I’m like, “That’s really messed up if anybody believes that!” But a lot of people didn’t. And they knew that and came to my rescue and said, “Let’s just get you all the way right.”
Maia shares her future plans:
I went to Spelman, but a lot of HBCUs named a month after my mom for mental health month because she supported the mental health … Her book was about a girl with a bi-polar mental health issues and her relationship with her mom. It was kind of a bougie little girl that was prive to every freakin’ thing, raised up in The Hills and just had it like that. Nobody took the time to deal with her psychologically. And that’s what ’72-Hour Hold’ is about. That’s the next project that I want to basically get out to producers and Tyler Perry to see if anybody is interested in pushing it.
I want to attach myself to anything-–reality shows, movies–but positive characters. I don’t want to play the crazy girl like, ”Craig, Craig let me borrow your VCR!” It’s too much of that in life, and we got kids out there … I wish they would take that type of stuff off the Internet because the kids have to go to school and deal with reality of that, and it makes it hard for them to learn.
