Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin discussed his previous battles with addiction during a new podcast interview that dropped Wednesday.
The 66-year-old, who is awaiting trial on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the October 2021 shooting death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of his Western film “Rust” in New Mexico, divulged he once used cocaine daily.
After he was able to quit drugs, he ramped up his abuse of alcohol, Baldwin told the “Our Way with Paul Anka and Skip Bronson” podcast on Wednesday.
Baldwin said he mostly prefers not to discuss his previous issues with drug addiction and alcohol abuse.
But if circumstances call for the conversation, he said he is willing to open up about the topic.
Wednesday was one of those conversations in which he felt compelled to discuss his history of addiction.
“I don’t discuss this a lot,” Baldwin said after he was asked if he consumes alcohol.
He added, “I discuss it every now and then when it makes sense. I’m 39 years sober. I got sober Feb. 23, 1985.”
The actor said he dove head-first into using cocaine in 1983 after he moved from New York to Hollywood at the beginning of his career.
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“I had a white-hot problem every day for two years,” he joked. “I think I snorted a line of cocaine from here to Saturn … did one on the rings of Saturn, then we came home — we took it back home.”
“I mean, cocaine was like coffee back then,” he added. “Everybody was doing it all day long.”
Baldwin said that after he was able to walk away from cocaine, his drinking problem got out of hand.
“Because I stopped doing drugs, my drinking increased, which they tell you is going to happen,” he said. “And that did happen. I just started drinking.”
Baldwin admitted he still misses alcohol and that he thinks about it after nearly four decades of abstinence.
“I don’t miss drugs at all, but I do miss drinking,” Baldwin said. “I like to drink.”
Baldwin was ordered by a court in New Mexico to avoid alcohol and firearms when he pleaded not guilty to manslaughter in February, The Independent reported.
The actor will go on trial for allegedly shooting and killing Hutchins in July.
“Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter after she handed Baldwin the loaded pistol that killed Hutchins and wounded the film’s director, Joel Souza.
