This THE BEAR Actor Celebrates 11 Years Sober
Movieguide® Contributor
THE BEAR’s Matty Matheson is celebrating 11 years of sobriety this month.
“11 YEARS SINCE I FOUND A NEW WAY TO LIVE,” the actor and chef wrote on Instagram. “I LOVE MY LIFE I LOVE MY FAMILY I LOVE MY FRIENDS! THERES A WORLD WHERE YOU DONT NEED DRUGS OR ALCOHOL! THERES ROOMS WHERE PEOPLE WILL LOVE YOU UNTIL YOU LOVE YOURSELF AGAIN! I LOVE YOU!”
He matched the caption with a photo of himself at age 29 in a hospital bed after he suffered a heart attack induced by his substance abuse.
“All the industry clichés are real. Lots of drinking and doing drugs,” Matheson said of his alcohol and cocaine addiction. “Live like that for 10 years? You get kinda burnt.”
“Even at my craziest moments of drinking and drugs, I always showed up for work. I could go hard until six, eight in the morning,” he recalled. “As long as I got two or three hours sleep, I was good.”
The chef began to feel like his substance abuse was taking a toll on him after he opened his first eatery, Parts and Labour, in Toronto.
“It was after long years of going at it. I went to bed Saturday night, and woke up Sunday thinking I was having one. I went to the hospital: I’d had a heart attack in my sleep,” he said.
“Matheson recalled partying less for just a few months before ‘[turning] it back up.’ He said friends banned him from their bars and his drug dealers cut him off until his loved ones held an intervention in November 2013 — two years after his heart attack,” he said.
When he started to make videos for Vice’s YouTube channel, Munchies, he began to pay back his friends and drug dealers.
READ MORE: FORMER VOICE WINNER ON NEAR-DEATH ACCIDENT AND SOBRIETY: ‘I SAW THE LIGHT’
Canadian metal band, Cancer Bats, wrote a song about Matheson’s experience called “Dead Set on Life.” Some of the lyrics are: “The day the doctor told me son, you’re gonna die / If you continue to live like this / You’ve got another year at best.”
Every year, he puts a celebratory post about his sobriety on Instagram. In 2023, he said in his signature all caps:
10 YEARS AGO TODAY I PUT DOWN DRUGS AND ALCOHOL I AM FILLED WITH LOVE AND ACCEPTANCE OF MYSELF AND AM ABLE TO LOVE TRULY! WITH SOME HARD WORK AND CONSISTENT WORK I AM HERE ITS NOT EASY THERE ARE MANY UP DAYS SAD DAYS DEATHS DAYS LIFES DAY LOVE DAYS HATE YOURSELF DAYS BUT WE STAY CLEAN WE STAY SOBER!
WE ARE NOT ALONE YOU ARE NOT ALONE THERE ARE PEOPLE AND ROOMS THAT WILL LOVE YOU TILL YOU LOVE YOURSELF! I NEVER WOULD HAVE THOUGHT OR DREAMED OF THE LIFE I HAVE WITH TRISH AND MY CHILDREN THEY ARE MY EVERYTHING! I PRAY EVERYDAY THAT I DONT PICK UP AND CAN WORK TO PROVIDE FOR MY FAMILY! I LOVE YOU ALL AND PLEASE IF YALL CAN GIVE YOURSELF A LITTLE MOMENT AND LET YOURSELF GIVE YA SOME REAL LOVE AND TENDERNESS! HAVE A BEAUTIFUL DAY! ❤️🔥
“Ten years of marriage, three children, three cookbooks, 1.5 million followers on his YouTube channel and many more accomplishments later, Matheson’s skills have been taken to the small screen for three seasons of THE BEAR,” PEOPLE reported. “He was initially called upon to consult for the Emmy-winning series but was offered the role of Neil Fak, one of the few non-chef characters in the series.”
“I definitely didn’t want to act a chef, I knew that. Maybe this funny, sweet handyman,” Matheson said.
Though he didn’t bring his real-life role as a chef onto the screen, he did bring some of his authenticity by wearing his own clothes on set.
He also served as an essential consultant for THE BEAR’s creator, Christopher Storer: “the realities of how people move, how people talk, how people think about food in restaurants. The high intensity moments. Uncompromising lifestyle,” Matheson said.
READ MORE: DENZEL WASHINGTON REFLECTS ON FAITH AFTER 10 YEARS SOBER: ‘GIVE HIM PRAISE’
