*LaKeith Stanfield is speaking out for the first time about his battle with alcoholism.
In a new interview with GQ Hype, admits that he realized he had a problem while shooting the Netflix western “The Harder They Fall,” in 2020.
“This is something I never really had talked about before, but I think it’s something that I need to talk about, because I want people to understand that it’s something that you can get through, that it’s something that you can get past,” Stanfield told GQ. “And I want people to feel empowered by the fact that the person they’re looking at on that screen has gone through addiction and survived it.”
The “Atlanta” star said he recognized how serious his addiction was when he went to get a massage during filming and suddenly experience the onset of alcohol withdrawal.
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“I just got up, canceled the massage, and told [the masseuse] to leave,” he recalled. “And she was probably like, What the hell is going on? And I didn’t really know what was happening either. I just thought, I’m anxious, let me just drink some wine. As soon as I drink the wine, the anxiety goes away.”
Stanfield added, “I had become completely dependent upon it. To the point where I wasn’t able to move or function a whole day without having it.”
After going to rehab, his “Knives Out” co-star, Jamie Lee Curtis, inspired him to kick another bad habit… smoking. During filming, she approached him on his cigarette break and shared an empowering message.Â
“I probably said something to the effect of ‘You’re a gorgeous, talented, smart, young father with huge opportunities ahead of you: Don’t f— it up by dying of cancer that you can prevent,'” she recounted to GQ.
Curtis has been sober for over two decades and has helped Stanfield with his sobriety journey.
“My experience is that when you feel you are alone, that’s a very scary feeling,” she explained. “So what I was trying to say to him was, ‘You are not alone. And if I can be a source of comfort or understanding, then I hope you will allow me to do that.'”
Stanfield said one particular text exchange between him and Curtis has stayed with him.
“She asked me, ‘How old are you?'” Stanfield told GQ. “I was like, ‘Uh, about to be 30.’ And she said, ‘No, how old are you from when you became sober?'”
Stanfield replied, “Oh, I’m about seven months,” to which Curtis responded, “You’re seven months old. I am 23 years old.”
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