Denzel Washington has opened up about being “clean” for the past decade in a brand new interview, joining the growing chorus of scientists, doctors and others questioning the concept that regular wine consumption is sweet for you an individual's health is.
“I did a lot of damage to the body,” said Washington, 69 in an extended recent interview with Esquire. As the film legend and Oscar winner stars within the highly anticipated film Gladiator II, he talks about how he developed a habit of drinking a number of wine day by day for 15 years – as much as two bottles a day.
So it’s true that Washington was not a “moderate” drinker. But the actor said his habit appeared to start harmlessly. He began drinking every day to enjoy his Hollywood success and the wealth that got here with it, collecting and consuming excellent, very expensive bottles of wine.
“Wine is very difficult,” Washington said. “It's very slow. It's not like, boom, all of a sudden. And part of it was that in 1999 we built this big house with a ten thousand bottle wine cellar and I learned to drink the best.”
Unlike other people within the entertainment world, Washington said he has never been “off” on heroin, cocaine or other hard drugs. He was also never “worn out by alcohol.”
“Wine was my thing,” Washington said, telling Esquire that he often drank $4,000 bottles of wine.
“I had this ideal idea of wine tasting and all that — and that was the case at first,” Washington said. “And that’s a very subtle thing. I mean, I drank the best. I drank the best.”
Washington said he wouldn't drink for the roughly two months he was working on a movie. For example, he didn't drink in the course of the filming of “Flight,” the 2012 film through which he plays a pilot fighting alcohol addiction.
But once his work on a movie was finished, Washington said he would return to his normal life, which meant he would start drinking wine again. In his pattern of disordered drinking, he said he would call Gil Turner's Fine Wines & Spirits on Sunset Boulevard and say, “Send me two bottles, the best of this or that.”
But Washington would never order more bottles directly. “And my wife says, 'Why do you only ever order two?' I said, 'Because if I order more, I'll drink more.'”
“So I limited myself to two bottles and drank both throughout the day,” Washington said.
Fifteen years after his heavy drinking, Washington said he would call the liquor store and say, 'Send me two bottles and make great things out of them, but only two.' And I’d drink them each throughout the day.”
Speaking of “Flight,” Washington said he was working on the film “towards the tip of his drinking.” In the film, for which he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor, he played a very experienced commercial pilot who, while drunk, manages to make a miraculous emergency landing. But as the film progresses, its pilot has to confront the personal and professional damage caused by his addiction.
Washington, who claims to have a strong belief in God, also recognized that he was “sent to this planet to do good.” I’ve been blessed with that agency and I’ve tried to use it for goodness sake.”
Washington said he got clean at the age of 60 and “hasn’t had a thimble since.” He also trains with a personal trainer. “I feel like I'm getting strong. Strong is important.” As he approaches 70, he also realizes that “everything is opening up for me now.”
Washington's personal story and the self-described “damage” he believes he did to his body could be added the growing backlash against the long-held idea that regular but moderate alcohol consumption – usually a glass or two of red wine with dinner – could be beneficial to health.
The possibility that a glass or two of red wine could reduce a person's risk of heart attack is “a pleasant idea” that researchers “picked up” starting within the Eighties, said Tim Stockwell, an epidemiologist on the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, told the New York Times in a report in September.
In fact, there have been “lots of” of studies in the 1990s that linked alcohol to good health, including a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, the New York Times reported.
However, some researchers remained skeptical, insisting that these results were based on flawed data. A 2006 study co-authored by Kaye Middleton Fillmore, a researcher at UC-San Francisco, found that a few glasses of wine won't hurt you, but it won't help you much either. the Los Angeles Times reported.
More recently, “many other studies” have found that alcohol may even increase people's risk of developing heart problems and related illnesses, including high blood pressure and irregular heart rhythms, The New York Times reported, citing Dr. Leslie Cho. Cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic.
The link between alcohol and cancer is clear, according to the World Health Organization it's been said since the 1980s. More recently, the WHO and other organizations have insisted on this No amount of alcohol is protectedno matter whether you drink wine, beer or alcohol, The New York Times reported in 2023.
Originally published:
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