Gary Oldman Says He’d ‘Either Be Dead or Institutionalized’ If He Hadn’t Gotten Sober 28 Years Ago

https://people.com/gary-oldman-says-he-would-be-dead-institutionalized-if-he-didnt-get-sober-11792754

16 comments

  1. > However, he added that he “didn’t start drinking because I liked Hemingway.” The Slow Horses star said, “It was a social norm, and at some point it got out of control. And that’s nothing to do with anyone other than me. But you do glamorize it. That sort of crazy behavior. You read about Richard Burton, who I think did 136 performances of Hamlet, eight shows a week on Broadway. He’d drink a whole bottle of vodka and then play the whole part completely drunk.”

    > “It’s just an excuse, really, and you’re just kidding yourself,” he said. “My own life, my personal life, is immeasurably better from just not living in a fog. But I think the work is good, too. Going at the rate I was going, I wouldn’t be sitting here with you by now. I’d either be dead or institutionalized.”

  3. Having recently gone sober, reading stories like this always helps. It resonates with me a lot what he says about not living life in a fog, and how when it’s a social norm, it’s easy to convince yourself it’s not a problem. I’m really glad that he feels his life is much better today and that we’ve been so fortunate to see him in many more performances.

  4. Most of us are all just teetering on the brink these days.

  5. I definitely agree with the “dead or institutionalized” bit. Towards the end of my 25 year run, I had some pretty unhealthy and erratic behaviors. Life was a fog. I wasn’t even functioning anymore. I would quit jobs when I suspected they (managers) were on to me. I never been fired or lectured for drinking, but I was blitz all the time. I looked at it as drinking just enough to feel normal. That’s a pretty bad place to be.

    Today, a total hatred of alcohol has replaced the burning desire to consume it. I had a breaking point where I just couldn’t go on, yet I couldn’t stop. It was horrible. No amount of “help” in the world ever succeeded. I went for treatment twice in my life because other people wanted me to. One day, I woke up. I was on my way to buy a couple hard seltzer’s before work in a fog from the day before and almost got hit by a car. Something came over me and I turned immediately around (I was on foot), went back in my house, and asked for a ride to a treatment center. I never looked back. I like myself today because I’m actually useful to others.

    My advice to anyone quitting is you have to hate the substance more than you hate yourself for falling under its spell. Once you can clear your head, you need put in some work on yourself and turn your perceptions upside down. Everything you’ve come to believe while drinking you discover is false. So many thought patterns that triggered you need to become clear. I didn’t hate the world. I hated myself. I blamed everyone for my misery because I was an ungrateful piece of garbage.

  8. Good on him. He got close to dying as Gary Youngman

  9. He wouldn’t have reached his full potential as Gary old-man, it would have said Gary not-so-oldman on his grave stone

  12. Personally I’d be dead or institutionalized without drugs.

  13. >28 years sober

    Was Zorg his last role before that? He has not been very positive about The Fifth Element (1997) in interviews…

  14. There were stories of him during the filming of Dracula that just sounded really bad

  15. Listened to Kathy Burke being interviewed on a podcast recently saying that whilst they are friends now he really wasn’t a very nice person in the early years of their acquaintance thanks to the drinking

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