Denzel Washington gets candid about past drug and alcohol use
Denzel Washington is opening up about his past drug and alcohol use, admitting he’s “done a lot of damage” to his body.
The Oscar winner, 69, has been sober for almost 10 years but got candid about his former vices in the Winter issue of Esquire.
Washington said his unhealthy habits started with wine.
“Wine is very tricky. It’s very slow. It ain’t like, boom, all of a sudden,” he shared in the interview.
The “Gladiator II” actor explained, “I never got strung out on heroin. Never got strung out on coke. Never got strung out on hard drugs. I shot dope just like they shot dope, but I never got strung out.
“And I never got strung out on liquor. I had this ideal idea of wine tastings and all that — which is what it was at first. And that’s a very subtle thing. I mean, I drank the best.”
Washington shared that he had a massive wine cellar in his home and often blew through thousands of dollars on pricey bottles.
“I learned to drink the best. So I’m gonna drink my ’61s and my ’82s and whatever we had. Wine was my thing, and now I was popping $4,000 bottles just because that’s what was left,” he said.
“And then later in those years I’d call Gil Turner’s Fine Wines & Spirits on Sunset Boulevard and say, ‘Send me two bottles, the best of this or that.’”
His wife, Pauletta, would often ask him why he’d only order two bottles at a time, to which he replied, “‘Because if I order more, I’ll drink more.’ So I kept it to two bottles, and I would drink them both over the course of the day.”
Despite his frequent alcohol use, Washington said he wouldn’t indulge while filming.
“I never drank while I was working or preparing. I would clean up, go back to work — I could do both,” the actor explained. “However many months of shooting, bang, it’s time to go. Then, boom. Three months of wine, then time to go back to work.”
The “Glory” star said he “wasn’t drinking” when he filmed the 2012 drama “Flight,” in which he played an alcoholic pilot.
“I’m sure I did as soon as I finished. That was getting toward the end of the drinking, but I knew a lot about waking up and looking around, not knowing what happened,” he told Esquire.
Washington quit drinking in Dec. 2014, shortly after his 60th birthday. Reflecting on his past, the actor admitted, “I’ve done a lot of damage to the body. We’ll see. I’ve been clean.”
He’ll turn 70 on Dec. 28 and acknowledged that “this is the last chapter.” Washington recently announced he would be retiring after his next batch of films.
“Things are opening up for me now — like being seventy. It’s real. And it’s okay,” he told the publication. “This is the last chapter — if I get another thirty, what do I want to do? My mother made it to ninety-seven. I’m doing the best I can.”
Washington’s latest movie, “Gladiator II,” hits theaters on Nov. 22.
