Oh, yeah. But if I decided to take off, I'd have to do four years in jail, so that kept me from wanting to leave. After six months in rehab, I flew back to L.A. and moved back in with Kevin until I got back on my feet.

Was it strange to read about your life in the tabloids?

There were rumors that you were dead. It was weird. I don't read the tabloids, but I did have a cousin who'd read that I was dead in a paper, so she called me and was like, "We haven't heard from you and wanted to make sure you're okay." I try not to read anything, even now, because if 10 people say nice things but one person says something nasty, it bothers me.

What ever happened to Rock Bottom, the HBO documentary about you kicking heroin?

It got shut down. I was in a really bad place when this guy, who wound up being a crazy con artist, offered to pay me if I would shoot this documentary. I said yes, so he picked me up in a big Winnebago, and they filmed me going to rehab. After being sober for a few months, I was like, "Whoa, what did I do? That was retarded letting them watch me kick dope and shit." Now that my head was a little clearer, I called the dude. He had told me if I didn't like it, he wouldn't put it out. But that wasn't the case. I said, "Look, I don't want it coming out, I'm sorry. Squash it." He's like, "No, we're gonna do it." So we brought it to a judge, and we got the footage, and then the guy disappeared. I guess he had kept some of the footage, because a year after everything was settled, it leaked onto YouTube.

Did you watch it?

I did, and it was horrible—me all messed up. He put a hidden camera in the room when I was sick and going through withdrawal. Just stuff you never want to see. Luckily, YouTube took it down.

Do you think you still would have been a drug addict if you hadn't started making movies?

Oh, yeah. It didn't have anything to do with movies. I started doing this back in Jersey with friends I'd hung out with for years. When you go to California, no one really offers you heroin or anything. It's got nothing to do with movies or Hollywood or clubs.

Your new movie, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, is the first Kevin Smith movie in which you're not playing Jay, right?

Yeah, Kevin was like, "I'm making a new movie with all different characters—no Jay or Bob. No Brian or Dante." He wrote this character, Lester, for me, and he's totally different. He's got short hair and he wears a wife beater. I even have my clothes off in a few scenes.

Whoa! Full frontal?

Well, they're shooting a porno, and I audition for it. I don't know how much I should give away. I'm sure if I said certain shit, Kevin would be like, "Dude, why did you tell everyone that?" I will say that I've seen a rough cut and it's really funny.

Have you ever filmed yourself having sex?

No, I've never taped myself.

But it says on your MySpace page that your interests are "sex, sex, sex."

Yeah, I'm interested in having sex, but I'm not interested in watching myself have sex. I don't want to see my pasty little ass going up and down and shit. Do you?