When the EastEnders actor played a waiter in the British playwright’s Celebration on Broadway in 2001, he claimed he “didn’t have a clue what to say” on stage.
Dyer, 46, revealed on the How To Fail With Elizabeth Day podcast that the previous evening, he had “smoked crack” because it was his first time visiting New York, and he was “very excited” and “took a lot of drugs out there”.
The actor declared: “I love my work, and I take it very seriously. I want to improve every night, and I’ve never been in a scenario when.
Because it’s such a big deal, I had heard stories of people who had dried out on stage, but I had never experienced it.
Nevertheless, I had this crazy notion that I could smoke crack while sitting up all night and then walk on stage. Of course, it is not possible; it is absurd.
Dyer claimed he “just didn’t know what to say” while performing and realized he was disappointing his fellow cast members, who were in “horror.”
The play debuted at the Almeida Theatre in London before moving to Lincoln Center in New York.
Dyer described the event from more than 20 years ago as a “wake-up call” and acknowledged that he “never had that feeling before.”
