Anthony Hopkins has revealed the moment he decided to seek help for alcohol addiction, after realising he “could have taken out a whole family” while driving drunk.
The 88-year-old Welsh superstar – who has won two Oscars, for his performances in The Silence of the Lambs and The Father – has been open about addiction and the effect it had on his early career and those closest to him. In a new interview, he went into detail about the turning point that convinced him to turn his life around.
“I go back to 1975, 27 December,” he told The Observer. “I was driving my car, going to a party. I was in an alcoholic blackout. I knew about alcoholism but I didn’t want to confront it. I realised I could have taken out a whole family by my driving. And someone in New York had said: ‘If you ever want to talk to anyone … phone this number.’ And on the Monday morning, I phoned the number. And it was AA. I said: ‘I’ll come and see you.’ I didn’t want anyone coming to me. I still had some sort of pride.”
He continued: “An elderly lady was there, was very kind. She said: ‘How do you feel?’, and I said: ‘I know I’m in big trouble and I don’t know what to do.’ She said: ‘Well, you don’t ever have to drink again.’ And she said – I knew she was going to do it – ‘Why don’t you just trust in God?’ And I got down on the street, and an immensely powerful voice inside me said: ‘Now it’s all over. You can start living … and it has all been for a purpose.’ And that craving for drink left me. It’s never come back. In 50 years.”
open image in galleryHopkins previously wrote about his addiction to alcohol in his memoir We Did OK, Kid, which was released last year. In it, he described booze making him pick fights with directors and collaborators, and that it made him a poor husband to his first two wives. “That’s the ugly side of alcoholism,” he wrote. “It brought out a brutal side of me. I’m not proud of it at all.”
He also recalled making a “terrible early 1970s film” that he has no recollection of appearing in. “No one in that movie could remember a minute of doing it: we’d all been blackout drunk,” he wrote.
Hopkins is currently promoting his debut album, Life Is a Dream, which is inspired by his memories of growing up in Margam, south Wales, and the farmland, meadows and mountains that surrounded his family home in the 1940s. The album comprises of songs Hopkins has written over the last six decades, but never published until now.
open image in galleryWhile Hopkins began acting almost 70 years ago and has won numerous awards including four Baftas, he said in a statement that music was actually his “first desire”.
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“I’ve been composing music all my life,” he said. “Some of these pieces have lived with me for decades and I still find myself returning to them.”
Hopkins is considered one of the world’s greatest living actors, with credits that range from the period drama The Remains of the Day to David Lynch’s The Elephant Man and several of the movies in the Thor franchise. He has played cannibal serial killer Hannibal Lecter in three films, first in 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs, its sequel Hannibal (2001) and is prequel Red Dragon (2002).
If you or someone you know is suffering from alcohol addiction, you can confidentially call the national alcohol helpline Drinkline on 0300 123 1110 or visit the NHS website here for information about the programmes available to you.