YellowstoneWes Bentley has opened up about losing almost everything in the “fire” of drug addiction years ago. The 44-year-old Actor, whose breakout role came in the year 1999 American beautycandid about his past Men’s health He revealed how his close friend Heath Ledger urged him to be sober.
“I lost everything in the fire. I had no car, no clothes, no money – I owed $400,000,” Bentley recalled.
After moving to Hollywood, hunger Games The star started taking mushrooms and ketamine, and while he realized it could now be a mental health tool for some, it wasn’t for him. Hallucinogens just led to more drugs.
“I ended up going down the path of cocaine and heroin,” he explained. “Hard drugs. Hard partying. You’re in the clubs, you’re in the after parties, there’s cocaine, and eventually it becomes heroin.”
Bentley said he wasn’t “trying to kill myself or anything,” but that he had a competitive energy when it came to his drug use.
“That period was incredibly dark. I did really dangerous things. I went downtown. I went and hung out with really dark people,” he said. This was just me: Go away. Be the man who went the farthest.”
Before addiction temporarily sidelined his career, Bentley made a film in 2002 The four feathers with Ledger. The two were close until the Oscar winner’s grisly death in 2008. Ledger died accidentally due to a prescription overdose.
Bentley skipped Ledger’s memorial service because he was high. “I tried to go, but I was really queasy, and I felt like it wasn’t right. So I got out of the cab on my way to it. And that sits with me forever,” he admitted. “This man loved me. Outside of my family, I have never felt love from…”.
He continued, “I’ve never felt love from someone like him. And he didn’t care what I was, or what I was, and the stupid things I was doing. He just wanted me to be better. I always thought of him as a brother, and I wish I could have him back.”
Bentley began crying during the interview and recalled how Ledger “even begged me to be sober in an email”.
“The last email, he was begging me. I didn’t, at first, but later, I was sober, I was thinking about that email all the time. One from him and one from my dad, begging me to be sober,” he shared.
After spending nearly a decade in the throes of addiction, Bentley is now sober, married, and has two children. He’s been clean for over 10 years and stars as Jimmy Dutton in the mega-hit, Yellowstone. The actor still thinks of Ledger and said it’s okay to talk and cry about his “brother.”
“I’m an actor. I’m not afraid to feel things. And it doesn’t make me feel worse. It makes me feel better. Because I know I love him and I might love him. But what I’m going to accept from this relationship: You have to show people now that you love them every single day.” “Even when you’re mad at them, even when they’re wrong with you…tell them you love them, because it means more than you know, to you and to them. And I didn’t do that well with him.”