Actor Denzel Washington opens up on past drug and alcohol use

Popular Hollywood actor Denzel Washington has opened up on his past drug and alcohol use while admitting to the fact that he has done a lot of ‘damage to his body’.

The 69-year-old Oscar winner has been clean for nearly a decade, but in the Winter issue of Esquire, he opened up about his past vices, revealing that wine was the catalyst for his bad habits.

Denzel Washington disclosed that he never got strung out on heroin, never got strung out on coke, never got strung out on hard drugs, but he used to smoke marijuana.

“Wine is very tricky. It’s very slow. It ain’t like, boom, all of a sudden,” he shared in the interview.

READ ALSO: Denzel Washington says he has a few more roles to play before retiring as an actor

The 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 revealed further during the interview that he frequently spent hundreds of dollars on expensive bottles and kept a huge wine storage at his house.

“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”, he added.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now