The Gladiator II actor opened up about his past in the Winter issue of Esquire and revealed how his unhealthy habits started with alcohol. “Wine is very complicated. It is very slow. It’s not like that, bounce, Suddenly,” he said in the interview.

“I never got high on heroin,” Washington said. Never get stuck on coke. Never resorted to hard drugs. I hit dope shots just like they hit dope shots, but I never got out.

He further added, “And I have never been addicted to alcohol. I had this ideal idea about wine tasting and all that – that’s what it was like at first. And this is a very subtle thing. I mean, it’s the best wine I’ve ever had.”

Washington revealed that he has a huge wine cellar in his home. He said he often spends thousands of dollars on expensive bottles.

“I learned to drink from the best. So I would drink my ’61 and ’82 and drink whatever we had. Wine was my thing, and now I was breaking out $4,000 bottles, just because that’s what was left,” he said. “And then later in those years I would call Gil Turner’s Fine Wines & Spirits on Sunset Boulevard and say, ‘Send me two bottles, the best of this or the best of that.'”

Washington’s wife, Pauletta, would ask him why he would only order two bottles at a time, and he would reply, “‘Because if I order more, I’ll drink more.’ So I kept it in two bottles, and I drank both of them throughout the day.

‘I have caused a lot of damage to my body’

Washington said that although he frequently consumed alcohol, he would never consume alcohol during filming. “I never drank alcohol when I was working or preparing. I’ll clean up, go back to work – I can do both,” he said. “Although shooting for several months, Collide, It’s time to go. Then, Bounce. Three months of booze, then time to go back to work.

Washington confirmed that he “did not drink” when he filmed Flight, the 2012 drama in which he played a drunken pilot. “I’m sure I did that as soon as I was done. He was getting towards the end of his drinking, but I was very aware of waking up and looking around, not knowing what happened,” he said.

Washington finally quit drinking in December 2014, after his 60th birthday. “I have caused a lot of damage to the body. We will see. I’ve been clean,” the actor admitted.

“This is the last chapter,” said Washington, who turns 70 on Dec. 28.

Recently, Washington announced that he would be retiring after his next films. “Things are opening up for me now – like turning seventy. This is real. And that’s OK,” he said. “This is the last chapter – if I get thirty more, what would I want to do? My mother made it to ninety-seven. I’m trying my best.”