Denzel Washington opens up about 'a lot of damage' from past drug and alcohol use

Denzel Washington admitted that his past drug and alcohol use has affected his health.

Denzel Washington has acknowledged that his past use of drugs and alcohol has taken a toll on his health.  

The “Gladiator II” actor, who will mark 10 years of sobriety when he turns 70 in December, reflected on his journey in a new interview with Esquire. “I’ve done a lot of damage to the body. We’ll see. I’ve been clean,” he said.  

“Things are opening up for me now — like being seventy. It’s real. And it’s OK. This is the last chapter — if I get another thirty, what do I want to do? My mother made it to ninety-seven. I’m doing the best I can.”  

Washington shared that he experimented with various substances over the years but revealed that wine was his primary indulgence.  

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

He added: “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 explained that after his family installed a wine cellar in their home, he developed a preference for high-quality wines.  

“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 revealed he started a habit of ordering wine from Gil Turner’s Fine Wines & Spirits on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California, often requesting “two bottles, the best of this or that.”  

When his wife, Pauletta, questioned why he would only order two bottles at a time, 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.”