Tara Reid rejects the “bad girl image” she stamped on her rise to fame.
The 47-year-old actor gave an interview with his long-time friend Derek Warburton. Mr Warburton Magazinerecalling how tabloid attention derailed her career when she “never did anything wrong”.
While expressing her disappointment at the negative media scrutiny, Reid pointed out that she “never went to jail” and joked that she was the “godmother” of the sort of celebrity who eventually cared for stars like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton.
“I was the first to start this image,” Reid said. “But what I’m punished for is if I wasn’t at work and not shooting, I’d go straight to Europe. I’d pop bottles and have a great time. But who wouldn’t do that?”
Ron Galella / Ron Galella Collection via Getty
He later added, “I was just in an attack,” about what he saw as unfair treatment in the eyes of the US public. “Everything I did was on tape, it was pretty awful. That’s why I broke up. It wasn’t just because I was a girl. It was because I was an easy target. I didn’t have money like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian [who] He had the greatest lawyers in the world. If you try to sue them, you will be crushed. OK what will you do? You need to get away for a while.”
“I’m still here now. I’m in my second year and I’ve never been happier,” he concluded. “… I would never be the girl sitting here if I hadn’t gotten the exam and got hurt and didn’t understand what was going on.”
“I learned about privacy, I learned who is my friend, who I have to keep with me, and who I love.”
Don’t miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up to date with the best PEOPLE has to offer, from compelling celebrity news to compelling stories that engage people.
Reid, who started acting at the age of 6, made his television debut in the TV series Gündüz in 1995. Days of Our Lives. He rose to movie star status in the 1999s. American Pie and subsequent sequels.
“Mine too American Pie days, everybody was kissing my ass. I didn’t realize how good I was,” the actress told PEOPLE in 2008. “But when things go wrong, nobody cares. See who visited you at the hospital when you were sick. I’ve become more modest.”
Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty
He also said in 2008, “I’ve been a media target for years. It hurts my feelings but what can I do? I have to move on.”
in his time shark resurrection, said Reid Time He explains that there is something about his reputation in the industry that “nobody understands”.
“Over the years, I’ve built a reputation that isn’t what a movie star should be – as portrayed by the American media. They created a character out of me that wasn’t even real,” he said at the time. “There is a whole part of me that no one understands. Nobody knows that side of me, but nobody wants to know that side of me. No one wants to write, even if they know.”