Shaun Weiss is finally getting his ducks in a row to apologize to Judd Apatow.
The “Mighty Ducks” child star, who became a homeless drug addict in his 30s, implied that he’s ready to make amends to the writer-director who gave him his big break – after he sold Apatow’s laptop for a mere $60 to score drugs.
Weiss, now 44, starred as a kid in Apatow’s 1995 film “Heavyweights,” as well as his cult TV show “Freaks and Geeks.”
He explained on the “Dopey” podcast how it was Apatow who helped get him into rehab years later, and revived his career after he‘d developed an addiction problem as an adult.
“I went to rehab … Judd Apatow put me in a rehab place,” Weiss, who has been sober for nearly three years, told “Dopey” host David Manheim this month.
“He was giving me a chance … that was the other thing that was really heartbreaking, too. He was really being my mentor and teaching me how to write and giving me different jobs and assignments that really cultivated me as a writer,” he continued.
“He got me a job writing jokes for the Oscars… he just gave me all these gigs, grooming me for better things.”
Weiss also admitted that while Apatow was helping him out and “being incredibly gracious,” he was still drinking.
“It was basically alcohol that did this. We basically had a conversation one time and I was saying ridiculous things to him and I was raising my voice,” he recalled.
“And he just said, ‘If you don’t stop now, how you’re acting, I’m not going to help you.’ He basically warned me, ‘Stop now, don’t proceed any further,’ and I did not stop. I got even worse… [saying] ‘I don’t ever want to talk to you again,’ which was ridiculous.”
During that time, Apatow, now 54, had given Weiss the same laptop on which he’d written his 2005 hit movie, “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.”
“It was a PowerBook, but like, decked the f–k out,” Weiss said. “It was probably like a $5,000 laptop at the time. One you can’t even really buy.”
When Weiss later became addicted to methamphetamine and was living in a Los Angeles park, he sold it for a song.
“That was hard, that loss,” he said on the popular recovery and addiction podcast. “Now I was crossing the line … when you take your f–king laptop and pawn that s–t, you’re not a writer anymore.”
After his drunken blowup at Apatow, Weiss said, “I never tried to contact him at all since that moment.”
When Manheim suggested he try and make amends to Apatow, Weiss said, “Do you think he knows that I’m sorry for what I did? I feel like he knows that I’m sorry and I feel like what good does it do me to … I feel like that’s a mess that I f–king made.”
But he then agreed, saying, “This is really good advice. That’s good advice because there may be a part of him that wonders in the back of his heart — the decency of this guy — can’t he reach out and apologize to me? He might be waiting on that, you’re right.”
Manheim — who anonymously hosts the hit podcast “Dopey”— recently launched the show’s first-ever DopeyCon last month in New York City.
The podcast that focuses on “drugs, addiction and dumb s- -t” has featured celeb guests such as Jamie Lee Curtis, Leah McSweeney, Artie Lange, Killer Mike, Carnie Wilson and Michael Imperioli.
Manheim has previously made appearances on “This American Life” and the “WTF with Marc Maron” comedy podcast. His show was launched in 2015 with a co-host, “Chris O,” who died in 2018 from an overdose.
