Random Rise, Fall, And Rebirth Of Natasha Lyonne (15 items)

(#6) She Got Mainstream Attention After 'American Pie,' But She Doesn't Love It

Even though American Pie was a huge movie that jump-started a wave of teen comedies in the late '90s and early 2000s, Lyonne isn't sure how she feels about her involvement. She explained her conflicting views to the Los Angeles Times:
I always had mixed feelings about this movie. It was definitely the movie that made me realize that as a long-term actor you have to slip in some studio pictures if you want to keep doing the independent stuff. It gave me so many legs to be a known commodity, which I'm very grateful to, but on the other hand, I think it's too mainstream for my sensibilities.
I don't identify with that experience at all. I did not then, and I still don't. It's a very suburban white male trip. I had a hard time relating. It's not a movie I would watch, basically. It feels like a movie for the popular kids at school, of which I am not one. Looking back now I can see its particular quirk and what made it a success.
(#2) She Was Kicked Out Of High School For Selling Weed

Lyonne was expelled from her private Jewish high school for selling pot to her peers. She told Esquire that she engaged in this activity because it helped her fit in after feeling like an outcast:

It was very shocking when I got to a yeshiva on the Upper East Side as a scholarship kid, and suddenly I was this outcast who was broke, who was from a single-parent home. The big houses and cars were gone, and it was my mother and I sharing an apartment, and no one wanted to be friends with me. Well, if I'm not invited to your parties, I'll just make my own party on the stoop with a bunch of other misfit teenagers in the neighborhood.
(#8) She Pushed Boundaries On The Set Of 'Blade: Trinity'

According to Patton Oswalt, one of Lyonne's co-stars in the vampire superhero film Blade: Trinity, she was an interesting presence on the set of the film. She was still struggling with various issues at the time. Oswalt told the AV Club:
Natasha Lyonne was on that set, and she was going through some kind of mental breakdown. Wesley [Snipes] is all boundaries, and she has no boundaries. She played a blind computer expert. So the first scene they had together, she put her hand right on his face, and he just recoiled. It was awesome.
(#9) She Suffered Serious Health Complications In 2005

Lyonne fell ill in 2005. She checked into Beth Israel Hospital in New York with hepatitis C, a heart infection, and a collapsed lung. At the time, she was also undergoing methadone treatment for her addiction. In 2015, she told Esquire:

My body, I was done with it. It wasn't like I was making decisions based on "Oh, this is me partying this weekend, and then I'll get back to life." I was done, checked out, and then shocked and disappointed to find that I was still kicking and gonna have to get it back together again. I just did not expect to return from it.
(#12) She Had Heart Surgery In 2012

After five years of sobriety, Lyonne had heart surgery. Her character on Orange Is the New Black had the same procedure, and Lyonne used her real scar with no added prosthetics. Lyonne admits she's not proud she could rely on her personal experience in the scene.
She told People:
By no means was that an enjoyable scene for me to play. I had to call on memories of painful feelings. And it was tricky because my experience was so similar but yet so far removed.
(#4) She Was Charged With DUI In 2001

In 2001, Lyonne was charged with driving under the influence in Miami Beach. She ran into a sign and a bush outside the Fontainebleau Hotel. No one was hurt, but she left the scene, which put her in even more trouble.

Lyonne reportedly told the officer, "I’m a movie star. Can I talk to my entertainment lawyer?"

According to Entertainment Weekly, Lyonne was put on probation for six months. She also received a license suspension, community service hours and had to pay court costs and a $1,000 fine.