Anthony Hopkins, best known for his Hannibal Lecter role in The Silence of the Lambs, reflected on overcoming alcoholism while discussing his memoir "We Did OK, Kid" on The New York Times podcast The Interview. The memoir releases on November 4.
Hopkins recalled having an "inner voice" moment after driving in a blackout and realizing he could have caused harm. At a Beverly Hills party, he told his ex-agent, “I need help.” At that moment, he felt a powerful inner presence say, “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 voice, he went on to add, eliminated his drinking urge. “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.”
Hopkins believes that it's a "consciousness."
Drinking helped Hopkins cope with his "lonely" childhood and "bullies."
"You know, booze is terrific because it makes you instantly feel in a different space," he said.
Having outlived some of his contemporaries, such as Peter O' Toole and Richard Burton, Hopkins is grateful for the opportunity to live up to the age of 87. He shared that the thought of being killed by the very thing that has been giving them pleasure was at the back of their minds in his early, fun-filled days with them.
"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.' Those guys I worked with have all gone."
The actor announced last December that he was 49 years sober on Instagram. “Forty-nine years ago today, I stopped. And I was having such fun. But then I realized I was in big, big trouble because I couldn’t remember anything, and I was driving a car drunk out of my skull. Then on that fatal day, I realized I needed help. So I got it. I phoned up a group of people like me — alcoholics. And that was it. Sober. I’ve had more fun these 49 years than ever."
