Orlando Brown sat down for a one-on-one interview with Dr. Phil recently, and he cut a startling image in bizarre colored contact lenses.
Brown is best known for playing Eddie Thomas on The Disney Channel’s That’s So Raven in the early 2000s. More recently, however, he has been suffering from mental illness and getting into legal trouble. Friday’s episode of Dr. Phil will include an intervention-style meeting with Brown, according to a report by TMZ, but the actor does not appear ready for a quiet chat.
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In a promo for the episode, Brown is wearing colored contacts that make his eyes look like those of a cat. The yellow iris extends nearly to his eye-lids, while the pupils are diagonal slits. Brown is ominously silent in the promos, and neither he, his friend nor Dr. Phil himself make any mention of the contacts.
What is clear in the trailer is that Brown is on his last legs, and needs help badly. His friends organized the intervention with Dr. Phil, with one explaining why he feels that it is time for drastic measures.
“I called in because Orlando, he has mental problems,” the friend says. “He’s burnt so many bridges, no one wants to deal with him. If you can’t help, he does not have a chance.”
The friend went on to explain how Brown’s mental health manifests in strange ways.
“Out of nowhere, he’ll say: ‘Michael Jackson is my father. I own Neverland,’” the friend said as an example.
“Does he want help?” Dr. Phil asked.
“Yes, he does,” the friend said confidently.
Whether or not that is the case remains to be seen, however. In another clip, Dr. Phil described Brown’s symptoms as “confusion,” and said that he was “offering to help” the actor. Brown did not answer in the ad, he smiled slyly and nodded his head, with an expression that was impossible to read through his contact lenses.
Brown has been in lots of trouble this year, with other outbursts seemingly related to his mental health. In April, he was arrested by bounty hunters on outstanding warrants, taken into custody in nothing but his underwear. He has also been arrested for drug possession, resisting a police officer and domestic battery.
Brown has missed numerous court appearances in different states recently as well. The actor has frightened fans by grinning broadly in mugshots, and revealing a strange tattoo of his former co-star, Raven Symone.
Brown’s episode of Dr. Phil premieres on Friday, Dec. 21 at 3 p.m. ET.
