The 46-year-old actor, who became a household name after the sci-fi film reached record-breaking box office success, recently spoke out for the first time about the unknown battles he was fighting following his newfound celebrity, including a secret battle with alcohol abuse. “Nine out of 10 people couldn’t tell,” Worthington told Variety in an interview published Thursday, Dec. 15. “They could probably smell it on me, but when they looked at me, they couldn’t tell. I was still doing my job—I just don’t think I was doing it very well.” He also explained that the alcoholism went hand-in-hand with the increasing amount of notoriety he received, as he was a relatively unknown actor before landing the central role in the $237 million film. In 2014, he was arrested for punching a photographer, an outburst that was a clear repercussion of his abrupt rise to fame. “I’d go haywire over someone asking me for a photograph or taking a photograph of me,” he told the publication. “If someone approached me, my anxiety would go through the roof.” The anxiety, he said, would cause him to drink more heavily, a habit he attributes in part to the culture in his native Australia. “In Australia it’s ingrained in the society,” he said. “We don’t necessarily talk about AA and things like that. You don’t recognize it’s an illness and you don’t understand that some people are just wired differently.” But Worthington says things all came to a head when his wife, Lara Worthington, told him enough was enough. “You can do what you want, but I don’t need to be around this,” he remembered her telling him, noting that it was with love, and eventually got through to him. Worthington, now eight years sober, has since decided to take on only meaningful roles after giving up alcohol, including some of his more interesting performances in Hacksaw Ridge, Lansky, Under the Banner of Heaven and more. “If I can’t bring anything to it, I’m not going to go and be involved in it,” he declared. “I don’t want to do that again. I don’t want to just be the action figure standing in the front. And that’s OK. It takes a lot to understand what you do want from this industry.” Now, Worthington is gearing up for the release of the highly- anticipated Avatar sequel, in which he reprises his famed role as Jake Sully. Avatar: The Way of Water hits theaters in the U.S. on Friday, Dec. 16.
