Denzel Washington has been very open during this Gladiator II press junket; in fact, he may be a bit too open. The movie star has been offering fans an intimate peek into his decades-long career, including his previous issues with drug and alcohol. He even admitted to doing crack before. Washington has been sober for nearly a decade but got candid about his former vices in the winter issue of Esquire. The Oscar-winning actor said his unhealthy vice was originally wine.
“Wine is very tricky. It’s very slow. It ain’t like, boom, all of a sudden,” Washington shared in the interview. “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.”
This is very honest of Washington to say. Of course, he came up in the 80s, during the infamous crack era, so it’s not too surprising to hear he experimented. However, the Training Day star wasn’t done; he further discussed his wine obsession.
“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 stated. “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.”
Of course, a man of Washington’s stature would have expensive taste. He is the biggest movie star in the world; no way he was drinking Stella Rose. A $4,000 bottle is extravagant, and Washington said he would order two of them every time from his favorite liquor store, Gil Turner’s Fine Wines & Spirits on Sunset Boulevard. He did admit that whenever it was time to shoot he would go on an alcohol break.
“I never drank while I was working or preparing. I would clean up, go back to work — I could do both,” the actor 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 also said he abstained when he was shooting Flight in 2012. Now that we know about his addiction, it makes sense why he killed his role in the movie; he was playing himself — or a version of himself that happened to be a pilot as well.
Gladiator II will be out everywhere on Nov. 22.
