Tom Sizemore, the actor famous for roles in films like "Natural Born Killers" and "Saving Private Ryan", has signed on with Atria Books to write a memoir about his past struggles with drug abuse. 

 

The 50-year-old claims he's battled addiction since the age of 15; with drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and meth leading to arrests, jail time, and celebrity rehab appearances. For the past two years, however, he's been sober - a state of life he never thought possible.

 

"I should have been dead many times over and honestly, I didn't know that I was going to come back from the bottom I dropped to," Sizemore said in a statement. 

 

"The fact that I'm now sober over two years—and that I'm acting as much as I did before—proves that people can overcome obstacles even when they're sure they can't," he added. "I hope that this book can inspire other people to never give up."

 

To help co-write the memoir, Sizemore approached Anna David, an editor for the addiction-and-recover website The Fix. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she says Sizemore is largely misunderstood. 

 

"He's a total softie who cries openly, he reads constantly and can quote books I'm too intimidated to even consider reading," she said. "He fought with his manager to make sure I got paid more than we'd agreed to after the deal was signed because he liked the proposal so much. All that being said, I know he's no saint: I'm all too familiar with the trouble he's gotten into and I've seen him lose his temper.

 

Atria Books expects the memoir to hit shelves in 2013.