Daniel Radcliffe Opens Up About Drinking Problem - East Idaho News
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Daniel Radcliffe Opens Up About Drinking Problem

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GETTY E 112911 DanielRadcliffe?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1328580476046Dave M. Benett/Getty Images(LONDON) — Although his admission he’d given up alcohol was already widely known, in a new interview in UK Glamour, Harry Potter series star Daniel Radcliffe explains for the first time how bad his drinking problem really was. Starting at age 18, Radcliffe admits he became too fond of the bottle, saying, “[I]n the last three years of drinking I blacked out nearly every time. Blacking out was my thing … I was living in constant fear of who I’d meet, what I might have said to them, what I might have done with them, so I’d stay in my apartment for days and drink alone. I was a recluse at 20. It was pathetic — it wasn’t me,” the actor says. “I’m a fun, polite person and it turned me into a rude bore.”

Before he decided to quit, the 21-year-old star of the new thriller The Woman in Black says he found inspiration in Gary Oldman. The actor who played Sirius Black — ironically the protector of Harry Potter in two of the Potter films — had bested his alcohol problem years ago. Oldman warned the young actor not to make the same mistakes he did.

“I did talk to him about it once,” Radcliffe says. “He just said, ‘You can’t keep doing this. You’ve got too much to lose.’ And that really went in. But not even he could have stopped me alone — I had to stop myself,” Radcliffe admitted.

“And stopping has shown me a world of happiness that I didn’t think was possible,” says the actor, who’s now happily involved with production assistant girlfriend Rosanne Coker.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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