Coming clean. Alec Baldwin got candid about his painful past and his battles with drug abuse and alcoholism — including a drug overdose — in a new interview with Good Morning America set to air Monday, April 3.
“I got sober when I was just about to turn 27,” the actor, now 58, said in a preview clip released Friday, March 31. “And those two years that I lived in that white, hot period, as a daily drug abuser, as a daily drinker … to my misery, boy, that was a tough time.”
In his forthcoming book, Nevertheless: A Memoir, due out on Tuesday, April 4, Baldwin recalls the exact date that he stopped drinking: February 23, 1985. When GMA anchor George Stephanopoulos asked the 30 Rock alum what he thought might have happened had he not gotten sober back then, Baldwin revealed he’d once overdosed.
“I think I was one of the people who was lucky that it stuck, and therefore if I didn’t get it then, I think I would’ve got it eventually. I know that at that time, what I describe — overdosing on drugs — which I’ve kept very private for years and years. But I’m glad I got it when I did ’cause not many people get sober when they’re young.”
Added the Saturday Night Live favorite: “There was really, really a lot of pain in there. A lot of pain.”
Baldwin has in recent months made headlines for his spot-on impression of President Donald Trump on SNL, but in an interview with the British Press Association Thursday, March 30, the veteran actor said he may not revive the popular impersonation after this season ends.
“I don’t quite know if people want to continue with that,” he said. “If everything stays the same in the country as it is now, I don’t think people will be in the mood to laugh about it come September.”
