I couldn't do anything. I'd work in a department store for a couple of weeks, but I couldn't hack it. I couldn't even type! I had no skills whatsoever outside of show business.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Hacking was the only entertainment that would occupy my mind - like a huge video game, but with real consequences. I could have evaded the FBI a lot longer if I had been able to control my passion for hacking.
You may have seen me in movies like 'Fast & Furious' and 'Avatar.' But I wouldn't have been able to do any of that without hard work and determination. You can accomplish anything if you just stay out of trouble and do the right things.
I could have evaded the FBI a lot longer if I had been able to control my passion for hacking.
Well, I was sort of a jack-of-all-trades in show business for a long time. I was a singer and a dancer and then I got a job as an actor.
I get hired to hack into computers now and sometimes it's actually easier than it was years ago.
I did every odd job you could possibly imagine: Holding a sign in the rain for 14 hours straight, sweeping up cigarette butts, pouring coffee, running around - anything I could to be on a film set. I wanted to be in the business. So I'd say, 'You need that job done? Fine,' and I became indispensable to people.
I remember feeling that. I couldn't do, nor did I want to do, the kinds of roles I'd been doing.
I am essentially a hack, a commercial person. If I had a hobby, I would immediately make money on it or abandon it.
I went from being a kid who loved to perform magic tricks to becoming the world's most notorious hacker, feared by corporations and the government.
My hacking was all about becoming the best at circumventing security. So when I was a fugitive, I worked systems administrator jobs to make money. I wasn't stealing money or using other people's credit cards. I was doing a 9-to-5 job.