Roberts writes openly of his troubled upbringing with his parents, Walter Roberts and the former Betty Lou Brademus, both of whom were actors and ran an acting school in Atlanta. He has stated in interviews about the memoir that he did not write it to shock people. He is extremely open about many subjects other than his fascinating career, such as his romantic liaisons, his drug abuse, and his 1981 car accident that left him in a coma for three days and impacted his memory.
The actor strongly emphasizes throughout the book that his 32-year marriage to wife Eliza, an actress and casting director, who is the daughter of famous screenwriters David Rayfiel and Lila Garrett, as the positive and stabilizing force in both his life and career.
The 269-page memoir is an in-depth look at the modern entertainment industry with never-ending appearances of big-name actors, directors and rock stars. A full review of this memoir packed with fascinating information is not possible, as his struggles with stuttering of course must be the focal point. Several times in the book Roberts refers to his stuttering, the most compelling of which is the following passage:
“I surely never had friends growing up. And I know why – I had a terrible stutter. I was ostracized by the other kids, especially for the first three years I was in grammar school, which is kind of your foundation for how and when to make friends. At my first school where I went to kindergarten and first grade, we all had to read out loud, so I was laughed at a lot when it was my turn to read.
Even today, I get really broken up when I think about that sixty-year-old memory of those kids laughing at me in class. I still get ripped apart. It had such a terrible effect on me. I know that’s part of what drove me to get out, to achieve something on my own, even to become an actor. I found that when I memorized stuff, I didn’t stutter! It was like finding the pot of gold. It was a gift, like getting kissed on the mouth by a beautiful girl when you expected a handshake.
I remember discovering I could conquer my stutter when I first memorized a monologue. I don’t remember what the monologue was, but I remember walking around, reciting it
27 Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
to myself. I realized I could say it to anybody and not stutter, so I started reciting it to everybody: “Hey, hey, listen! Listen, listen to this.” And I’d recite it perfectly. Wow. It was a big deal to me, a huge revelation to know that’s how I could beat my stutter, that’s how it could be done. Beating that stutter really changed my life.”
Runaway Train: or, The Story of My Life So Far is the kind of book that any person who follows the entertainment industry will find hard to put down. The famed actor is brutally honest about so many aspects of his life, including stuttering. During the peak years of his career in the 1980’s, he spoke about his overcoming stuttering during interviews in a way that gave hope and inspiration to people who stutter. Forty years and more than six hundred screen credits later, in this memoir Oscar-nominated actor Eric Roberts continues to provide the same compelling inspirational message and remains a role model to people struggling with stuttering.
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