“Choose life and seek help.” Sir Anthony Hopkins celebrates 50 years of sobriety and has a message for those struggling with addiction. The Welsh actor, two-time Oscar winner, shared a video message on his Instagram profile recalling the decisive moment that led him to stop drinking, on 29 December 1975, after risking his life by driving in a “state of alcoholic blackout”.
“I realized I needed help. Fifty years ago was the end,” said Hopkins, who turns 88 tomorrow, Dec. 31. “Without wanting to be a moralist, I wish everyone to choose life instead of the opposite.” The actor added that he then realized that what he defined as “fun” was actually alcoholism: “Whoever feels like he’s exaggerating, think about it. Life is much better.”
In his message, Hopkins also wanted to congratulate those who are facing a recovery journey “one day at a time”, underlining with irony: “If I am about to turn 88, perhaps I have done something well”.
It’s not the first time the actor has spoken openly about his past. In 2018, speaking at the University of California, he said that he had been “very difficult to manage” at the beginning of his theater career because he often worked with the hangover of alcohol. “I was disgusted, at a loss and unreliable,” he admitted, explaining that he had changed his life after a meeting with a woman from Alcoholics Anonymous in 1975.
Born in Port Talbot, Wales, Hopkins is considered one of the greatest living actors. He is famous for his role as serial killer Hannibal Lecter in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (1991), which earned him the Oscar for best actor in 1992, a role he later reprized in ‘Hannibal’ (2001) and ‘Red Dragon’ (2002). The second Oscar arrived in 2020 for ‘The Father – Nothing is as it seems’ by Florian Zeller. (by Paolo Martini)
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