Denzel Washington is 10 years sober and opening up about his past drug and alcohol use that has “done a lot of damage” to his body.
The Gladiator II star covers Esquire magazine, where he gets candid about the wine binges he goes on between filming movies. While he never gets “strung out” on anything, Washington admits to once drinking two bottles of wine a day and shooting up dope in the past.
“Wine is very tricky. It’s very slow. It ain’t like, boom, all of a sudden,” he shared. “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.”
Washington continued. “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.”
The Academy Award-winning film star reflects on keeping his home wine cellar stocked with some of the most expensive bottles, which he would go through quickly. It became such an issue that he started limiting himself to just two bottles at a time, knowing he would drink more if he had easier access.
“I learned to drink the best. So I’m gonna drink my ’61s and my ’82s and whatever we had,” Washington said. “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.’”
His wife, Pauletta, often questioned why he would 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.”
The film veteran, who has over 65 acting credits under his belt, was able to discipline himself not to drink while he was filming a movie. But he admits he would get right back to his habit once filming wrapped.
“I never drank while I was working or preparing. I would clean up, go back to work — I could do both,” Washington 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.”
He recalls playing an alcoholic pilot in the 2012 film Flight, but he says he “wasn’t drinking” while working on the movie. He just shared a deep connection to some of what his character experienced.
“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,” Washington shared.
The Malcolm X star quit drinking in Dec. 2014, shortly after turning 60. It’s been 10 years since he gave up drinking, and he can admit that “I’ve done a lot of damage to the body. We’ll see. I’ve been clean.”