Anthony Hopkins is 50 years sober.
The Oscar winner, 87, celebrated the major milestone in an Instagram video that he shared on Monday, two days shy of his 88th birthday.
During the clip, Hopkins reflected on his near-fatal “drunken blackout” incident that inspired him to stop drinking.
“Here we are, another happy new year coming up. Lots of cheer, lots of fun and all that. So really have a great time,” Hopkins began. “Congratulations on reaching another year, to all of you.”
“My only problem was I had too good a time because 50 years ago today I was nearly killed by driving my car in a drunken blackout,” he continued. “That’s the way it was. But I realized at that point that I was having too much fun. It was called alcoholism.”
Hopkins told his followers, “So anyone out there who’s got a little problem with having too much, check it out because life is much better. So I stopped. Without bragging, I got help and 50 years ago today was the end.”
“Choose life instead of the opposite. Life life life and more life,” the British actor added. “I’m also going to be 88 in two days. So maybe I did something right, I don’t know. Happy New Year and happy life!”
Hopkins captioned the video, “One day at a time, today I celebrate 50 years of sobriety. Happy birthday to everyone.”
The “Silence of the Lambs” star has opened up about his past alcohol abuse over the years.
In a 2020 interview with the New York Times, he recalled waking up in a hotel room in Arizona without any memory of how he ended up there.
“I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got to stop this because I’m either going to kill somebody or myself,’” he told the outlet. “My life, from that moment on, took on new meaning.”
In his memoir “We Did OK, Kid”, published in November, Hopkins revealed that when he was 37 his doctor told him that he had the physical condition of a 50 or 65-year-old and to stop drinking.
“During my drinking years I had caused a lot of pain. I never had any idea that I was an alcoholic,” he wrote. “Rarely does a heavy drinker wake up to that without an intervention of some kind, and even then it takes a while to sink in.”
“Denial is the greatest killer,” he added. “And I was still in the grips of my addiction, though it was getting harder to deny it.”
Hopkins also revealed in his memoir that he still goes to 12-step meetings.
