Famous actor Anthony Hopkins posted a hopeful video message to those struggling with alcoholism on Instagram, celebrating 48 years of sobriety on New Year’s Eve, as he has been doing for several years.

Anthony HopkinsPhoto: Jae C. Hong / Associated Press / Profimedia Images

The 85-year-old actor of Silence of the Lambs and The Remains of the Day posted a video on Instagram on Friday, December 29.

“Hello everyone, Happy New Year!” he says. “All the partying and drinking is fun. Perfectly! Happy New Year, have fun! But if you have a hangover, remember me! I no longer have , because today, 48 years ago, I stopped. I was helped for this, and my life changed,” says the actor, who in recent years wanted to mark his success in escaping alcoholism with a video message on social networks.

“I don’t envy you having fun there”

“I don’t envy you how much fun you have there, but if you need help, there is help,” he urges those struggling with alcohol addiction.

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Hopkins, who turns 86 on Sunday, the last day of the year, still leads an active professional life. He will soon be seen in his latest role in the World War II drama One Life, which will hit screens in early January.

The actor has a long tradition of giving New Year’s wishes and messages of hope to those struggling with alcoholism. In a 2020 interview with The New York Times, Hopkins recalled the moment that led to his decision to get sober in 1975.

He said he woke up in a hotel room in Arizona but couldn’t remember how he got there.

“I thought: well, I have to stop, because I will either kill someone or end my life by suicide,” he admitted. “From that moment on, my life took on a new meaning,” the actor said.

During his career, Anthony Hopkins won two Oscars. The first was in 1991 for the role of the cannibal serial killer Hannibal Lecter in the film “Silence of the Lambs”. In 2021, Hopkins won his second award for the dementia drama The Father, making him the oldest Oscar winner at 83.

In his new film “One Life”, Hopkins plays the role of “British Schindler” Nicholas Winton, who saved 669 Jewish children from the Nazis.