Jeremy O. Harris is writing a book about his 23-day stay in Japanese custody late last year.
The Slave Play writer and Emily in Paris actor was arrested for alleged drug smuggling on 16 November at Naha Airport on the Japanese island of Okinawa after customs officials allegedly found less than a gram of MDMA in the American's tote bag.
Harris was released from custody on 8 December, just over three weeks after his arrest, without charge, and the 36-year-old decided to stay in Japan to continue the project he travelled there for.
The writer and actor has now revealed that he is writing a book called Customs about his "crazy" experience.
Telling Whoopi Goldberg what happened in a chat for Interview Magazine, Harris shared, "They found something in my bag, and you don't get to talk to a lawyer for 23 days. They just put you in a cell and investigate you with no lawyer. I had to talk to them through a translator. It's all crazy."
He continued, "The first thing I said was, 'These are not my drugs. This is an accident from a wedding. Drug test me.' They drug tested me and I was negative. And because my story didn't change over 23 days, they couldn't keep me. So in order to punish me, they put out a press release. It was in The New York Times. It's a whole thing."
While Harris's mother was "so scared" for him during his detention, the star admitted it turned out to be a "kind of amazing" experience.
"I was just working out every day and reading and doing the things I should have done during COVID, which was discover a new way of existing with my body," he explained. "Because I'm 36 now. I can't eat anything I want and drink every night and stay slim. And all of a sudden I was like, 'Wait, I can still get a six-pack? I just have to stretch every morning? Cool.'"
He joked, "I do think it was an experience that rich white people would pay for because I lost 10 pounds, read 23 books, got off my phone, and detoxed from my internet addiction."
