By Gavin Boyle
Having been sober for over 49 years, Sir Anthony Hopkins shared the moment that caused him to give up drinking after he felt a voice from God.
“Some deep, powerful thought or voice spoke to me from inside and said: ‘It’s all over. Now you can start living. And it has all been for a purpose, so don’t forget one moment of it,’” Hopkins told The New York Times. “It was vocal, male, reasonable, like a radio voice. The craving to drink was taken from me, or left.”
All these years later, Hopkins is convinced that the only way to explain this experience is by attributing it to God. Meanwhile, he has certainly made good on the call to make the most of his life as he has since won two Academy Awards and starred in dozens of projects.
“What happened that morning – when that voice said: ‘It’s over. Now you can start living and it has all been for a purpose’ – I knew that was a power way beyond my understanding,” Hopkins admitted. “Not up there in the clouds but in here. I chose to call it God. I didn’t know what else to call it. Short word, ‘God.’ Easy to spell.”
Related: Can You Believe This Legendary Actor Is Celebrating 49 Years Sober?
In January, the actor celebrated 49 years sober, and shared another aspect to the story, revealing that he did not chose to become sober for himself, but in fear of accidentally hurting another person during his recklessness.
“Forty-nine years ago today, I stopped. And I was having such fun,” he recalled. “But then I realized I was in big, big trouble, because I couldn’t remember anything, and I was driving a car, drunk out of my skull.”
Having stayed away from drinking for so long, the actor is now encouraging others to take sobriety seriously and find help if there is a problem.
“[I’m] “not unique,” he said. “There are thousands of people around like me… [I’ve] had a wonderful life” and an “unexpectedly long life.”
Hopkins is one of many popular actors who have shared their sobriety journeys in recent years and encouraging their fans to give up drinking for a variety of reasons. Spider-Man actor Tom Holland, for example, gave up drinking at the start of 2023 after heavenly engaging in the practice to end out 2022. What began as a thirty-one day “Dry January” challenged ended up becoming complete sobriety as he realized he had an addiction.
“I just sort of said to myself, like, why am I enslaved to this drink?” Holland explained. “Why am I so obsessed by the idea of having this drink? And I would look back and recognize that I would go to events for work and be like, I can’t enjoy myself until I’ve had a few beers.”
Praise the Lord for the boldness of actors like Hopkins who have chosen to enjoy life without the need for a drink and are now using their platform to encourage others to do the same, rather than allow alcohol to control their lives.
Read Next: Tom Holland Opens Up About Journey to Sobriety
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