Featured Image Credit: Toru Hanai/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures / Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
Topics: Alcohol, Celebrity, Drugs, Film and TV, Denzel Washington
Callum Jones
Topics: Alcohol, Celebrity, Drugs, Film and TV, Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington has admitted he's 'done a lot of damage’ to his body with his past alcohol and drug use.
The famous actor stars in the hugely anticipated Gladiator 2, sharing the screen with Pedro Pascal and Paul Mescal.
In the past few weeks, Washington and co have been doing the media rounds ahead of the release of the movie.
And Washington sat down with Esquire for the winter issue of the magazine, where he touched on personal issues, as well as his career.
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In particular, the actor spoke about his past problems with alcohol and drugs, though the Oscar Winner says he's been sober for ten years.
Washington's problem with booze and drugs began with wine, he told Esquire.
"Wine is very tricky. It’s very slow. It ain’t like, boom, all of a sudden," Washington said.
"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."
He continued: "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.
"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.’”
Washington even had a wine cellar in his home, though he stuck with the strategy of only ordering two bottles at a time.
The actor's wife, Pauletta, often wondered why he only ever had two bottles at a time, and Washington explained: "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."
While Washington has admitted to having a problem with alcohol and drugs back in the day, it never seemed to interfere with his career and filming.
"I never drank while I was working or preparing. I would clean up, go back to work — I could do both," he told Esquire.
Washington quit both alcohol and drugs for good just before his 60th birthday.
"I’ve done a lot of damage to the body. We’ll see. I’ve been clean," he concluded.