Sir Anthony Hopkins knew he needed to get help for his drinking when he realised he “could have killed” someone.
Sir Anthony Hopkins has been sober for almost 50 years
The 87-year-old actor – who celebrated 49 years sober last December – was driving around California while in a “blackout” and had a sudden moment of awareness that he was an alcoholic and needed to quit the bottle.
He told The New York Times’ The Interview podcast: “I was drunk and driving my car here in California in a blackout, no clue where I was going, when I realised that I could have killed somebody — or myself, which I didn’t care about.
“I came to my senses and said to an ex-agent of mine at this party in Beverly Hills, ‘I need help.’ ”
The Silence of the Lambs actor had a “spooky” moment where he heard a “vocal, male, reasonable, like a radio voice” speak to him from the inside, and he instantly lost his desire to drink.
He continued: “It was 11 o’clock precisely — I looked at my watch — and this is the spooky part: Some deep, powerful thought or voice spoke to me from inside and said: ‘It’s all over. Now you can start living. And it has all been for a purpose, so don’t forget one moment of it.’
“The craving to drink was taken from me, or left. Now I don’t have any theories except divinity or that power that we all possess inside us that creates us from birth, life force, whatever it is.
“It’s a consciousness, I believe. That’s all I know.”
The Academy Award-winning star had gone through a “lonely” childhood and was bullied so turned to alcohol to “nullify that discomfort or whatever it was in me, because it made me feel big.”
He added: “You know, booze is terrific because it makes you instantly feel in a different space.
“Actors in those days — Peter O’Toole, Richard Burton, all of them — I remember those drinking sessions, thinking: ‘This is the life. We’re rebels, we’re outsiders, we can celebrate.’ And at the back of the mind is: ‘It’ll kill you as well.’ “
Anthony feels grateful that he is “still here”.
He said: “Those guys I worked with have all gone…
“There are monstrous difficulties in life and you take notice of them. But finally, approaching 88 years of age, I wake up in the morning going: ‘I’m still here. How?’
“I don’t know. But whatever’s keeping me here, thank you very much! Much obliged!”
