Actor/singer Jared Leto opened up Monday about his past and revealed that he could have been a drug dealer.

"I was at a crossroads in life when I was 16," Leto explained to The Big Issue magazine. "I didn't know I was going to be an actor. I thought I might be an artist or a painter. Or maybe a drug dealer. But I didn't know which path I would take. It's just fortunate that I chose one over the other."

Before getting into acting, Leto struggled through his adolescence with the temptation of doing drugs. He dropped out of school and admitted that his teen years were "a very turbulent time" for him. He then talked about struggles everyone faces, noting that the difference is how you handle the situation. 

"I think we're all dealt a set of challenges in our lives and we all deal with them in different ways," he said. "When you're younger you don't have the tools, you just don't know how to cope with those challenges. Probably a lot of my behavior was related to doing drugs."

Leto earned critical acclaim for his performance as drug addict Harry Goldfarb in the 2000 film Requiem for a Dream. He played a heroin addict who enters an illegal drug trade. The actor told BBC in 2001 that he spent time on the streets of New York for the role, which he described as "crazy."

He admitted that he might not be where he is today without the lessons he learned as a young teen.

"I'd like to go back and reassure my younger self that things will be okay and he should remember how much our choices impact on our lives and how much responsibility we have for our own lives," he said.

Leto is also currently the lead singer for the rock band 30 Seconds to Mars, which has produced hit songs such as From Yesterday and The Kill. He stars in the 2013 drama The Dallas Buyers Club, in which he plays a transsexual woman with HIV.

Watch Leto discuss his new role here:

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