Over the course of 15 years, Denzel Washington was drinking up to two bottles of wine a day, a habit that “did a lot of damage” to his body.
In a new interview with Esquire, the “Gladiator ll” star, 69, opened up about his past alcohol abuse and why he chose to find sobriety nearly ten years ago.
“Wine is very tricky. It’s very slow. It ain’t like, boom, all of a sudden,” Washington said. “And part of it was, we built this big house in 1999 with a 10,000-bottle wine cellar, and I learned to drink the best. So, I’m going to 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.’ And my wife’s saying, ‘Why do you keep ordering just two?’ I said, ‘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.”
Though Washington said he “never drank” while he was working or prepping for a film, he would immediately go back to it after wrapping a project.
“I’m sure at first it was easy because I was younger,” said Washington, who is turning 70 next month. “Two months off and let’s go. But drinking was a 15-year pattern. And, truth be told, it didn’t start in ’99. It started earlier.”
The actor said his substance abuse began at an early age, while hanging with his childhood friend, Frank.
“To be honest, that is where it started. I never got strung out on heroin,” he admitted. “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.”
Years later, the “Equalizer” star said he had “this idea” of wine tastings that led to his two-bottle-a-day habit.
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“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,” he said. “I mean, I drank the best. I drank the best. And fifteen years into it, ‘Send me two bottle heads, and make it good stuff, but just two.’ And I’d drink them both over the course of the day.”
Washington recalled the time period when he filmed “Flight,” a film in which he played an alcoholic airline pilot.
“I wasn’t drinking when we filmed ‘Flight,’ I know that, but I’m sure I did as soon as I finished,” he said. “That was getting toward the end of the drinking. But I knew a lot about waking up and looking around, not knowing what happened. … I know during ‘Flight’ I was thinking about those who had been through addiction, and I wanted good to come out of that. It wasn’t like it was therapeutic. Actually, maybe it was therapeutic. It had to have been.”
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Though the Academy Award-winning actor has been sober for nearly a decade, he detailed how the habit affected him physically.
“I’ve done a lot of damage to the body. We’ll see. I’ve been clean … ten years this December,” he said. “I stopped at 60, and I haven’t had a thimble’s worth since. Things are opening up for me now — like being 70. It’s real. And it’s OK. This is the last chapter. If I get another 30, what do I want to do? My mother made it to 97.”
Washington said he’s never felt better.
“I’m doing the best I can. And not only alcohol — forget all that. Strength. About two years ago, my good friend, my little brother, Lenny Kravitz, said, ‘D, I wanna hook you up with a trainer. And he did, and he’s another man of God.
“I started with him February of last year. He makes the meals for me, and we’re training, and I’m now 190-something pounds on my way to 185. I was looking at pictures of myself and [wife] Pauletta at the Academy Awards for ’Macbeth,’ and I’m just looking fat with this dyed hair. And I said, ‘Those days are over, man.’ I feel like I’m getting strong. Strong is important.”
