Supernatural star Jared Padalecki is under fire for comments he made on Twitter about the death of beloved actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died from an apparent drug overdose.
In the tweets he has since deleted, Padalecki wrote that Hoffman’s death can’t be described as “sad” because he basically did it to himself.
“'Sad' isn't the word I'd use to describe a 46-year-old man throwing his life away to drugs. ‘Senseless' is more like it. 'Stupid,’” he wrote, Jezebel reported.
When he got some flak for the comment, he tried to clear up what he meant but didn’t offer an apology.
“I didnt mean PSH is stupid or that addiction isnt a reality. I simply meant I have a different definition of ‘tragedy,’” he followed up. “When I think ‘tragedy’, I think of St Judes, of genocide, of articles I read in the paper. But, yes, either way, a death, is sad.”
I didnt mean PSH is stupid or that addiction isnt a reality. I simply meant I have a different definition of "tragedy".
— Jared Padalecki (@jarpad) February 2, 2014
When I think "tragedy", I think of St Judes, of genocide, of articles I read in the paper. But, yes, either way, a death, is sad.
— Jared Padalecki (@jarpad) February 2, 2014
According to Daily News, Hoffman was reportedly found in his West Village, New York City apartment on Sunday with a needle in his arm and empty bags of heroin nearby. He has been battling with addiction for years, which he has been open about, and went to rehab as early as May of 2013 to try to overcome it.
Padalecki's detractors would say he simply doesn't understand what addiction is, and Demi Lovato, who has been open about her own struggles with it, was happy to shed some light on it.
"I wish more people would lose the stigma and treat addiction as the deadly and serious DISEASE that it is," she tweeted.
image: Diyah Pera/The CW