Denzel Washington Says He’s ‘Done A Lot Of Damage To The Body’ From Past Alcohol And Drug Use

While promoting “Gladiator II” in recent weeks, Denzel Washington has been giving fans a rare inside look into his decades-long career, including his past struggles with drug and alcohol abuse.
In a new interview with Esquire published Tuesday, the 69-year-old actor, who’s been sober for nearly 10 years, admitted his past habits did “a lot of damage to the body,” despite him not having “a thimble’s worth since” he turned 60.
“I never got strung out on heroin. Never got strung out on coke. Never got strung out on hard drugs,” Washington said. “I shot dope just like they shot dope, but I never got strung out.”
The two-time Oscar winner shared that he wrestled with a “fifteen-year pattern” of drinking as well, which he said began with an unhealthy habit of indulging in too much wine.
Washington said his love for wine first kicked off after he and his wife of 41 years, Pauletta Washington, “built this big house in 1999 with a ten-thousand-bottle wine cellar,” which is where he “learned to drink the best.”
“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. I drank the best,” he said. “And fifteen years into it: Send me two bottles, and make it good stuff, but just two. And I’d drink them both over the course of the day.”
He described wine as “very tricky,” adding, “It’s very slow. It ain’t like, boom, all of a sudden.”
Washington also explained why he only drank two bottles at a time, recalling a time his wife asked him about it.
“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,” he said.
The “Training Day” legend clarified that he “never drank” while “working or preparing” for the 50 movies he’s starred in during his lengthy career.
“I would clean up, go back to work — I could do both,” he said. “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 said.
However, he shared that around the time he finished filming for his 2012 movie, “Flight,” in which he played an alcoholic airline pilot, he was nearing the end of his drinking habits.
“I wasn’t drinking when we filmed ‘Flight,’ I know that, but I’m sure I did as soon as I finished,” Washington 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.
Elsewhere in the interview, Washington opened up about his views on life and said that “things are opening up for me now” as he approaches turning 70.
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“This is the last chapter — if I get another thirty, what do I want to do? My mother made it to ninety-seven,” he said. “I’m doing the best I can. And not only alcohol — forget all that. Strength.”