In a candid interview, the Oscar-winning actor opens up about his journey to sobriety, his past indulgences, and embracing the “last chapter” of his life.
Denzel Washington is a man of many roles, both on and off the screen. In a recent interview with Esquire, the two-time Academy Award-winning actor reflected on his past struggles with alcohol and the toll it took on his body. Washington, who will soon celebrate his 70th birthday, has been sober for nearly 10 years, but he hasn’t shied away from confronting his past vices.
The actor admitted that his unhealthy relationship with alcohol began innocently enough, with wine being his drink of choice. “Wine is very tricky. It’s very slow. It ain’t like, boom, all of a sudden,” Washington shared, noting that he never got hooked on hard drugs but instead fell into a more subtle addiction. “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 explained.
But it wasn’t just any wine — Washington developed a taste for the finest bottles, often spending thousands of dollars on his collection. “I learned to drink the best,” he said. “I’m gonna drink my ’61s and my ’82s and whatever we had.” Eventually, his wine consumption escalated to the point where he would go through two bottles in a day, despite his wife, Pauletta, questioning his excessive habits.
While his drinking was a personal struggle, Washington never let it interfere with his professional life. He made a clear distinction between his personal indulgence and his work, saying, “I never drank while I was working or preparing. I would clean up, go back to work — I could do both.” Notably, when filming the 2012 drama Flight, in which he played an alcoholic pilot, Washington refrained from drinking.
Washington’s path to sobriety came after his 60th birthday, in December 2014, a pivotal moment in his life. “I stopped drinking after my 60th birthday,” he shared. “I’ve done a lot of damage to the body. We’ll see. I’ve been clean.” His journey towards sobriety was not just a personal decision but a reflection on his past. “I’m sure I did [drink] 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,” he admitted.
As Washington prepares for his milestone 70th birthday in December, he reflects on his life, his career, and the next chapter. “Things are opening up for me now — like being seventy. It’s real. And it’s okay,” he said. “This is the last chapter — if I get another thirty, what do I want to do?”
Washington’s latest film, Gladiator II, hits theaters on November 22, marking another milestone in an illustrious career. But with his sobriety firmly in place and a new chapter on the horizon, Washington remains focused on living fully and healthily, regardless of what the future holds.
