Gérard Depardieu: I Can Drink "12, 13, 14 Bottles" of Wine a Day

French-born actor made his comments to the magazine So Film and was also quoted as saying that he once killed two lions.

By Corinne Heller Sep 17, 2014 9:03 PMTags
E! Placeholder Image

It would be probably be très difficile to beat Gérard Depardieu in a drinking contest, if you're a "normal person." And you may want to keep him away from lions.

The 65-year-old French-born Green Card and Man In the Iron Mask actor, who is known for his love of wine and owns his own vineyard, claims in a recent interview with French magazine So Film that he can drink up to 14 bottles a day.

"When I'm bored, I drink," he is quoted as saying in an English-translated version, when asked about wine. "Apart from occasional compulsory moments of abstinence. After undergoing bypass surgery (five times), and also because of cholesterol and stuff, I have to be careful. Anyway, I'm not going to die. Not now. I still have energy."

"I can't drink like a normal person," he added. "I can absorb 12, 13, 14 bottles...per day. But I'm never totally drunk, just a little pissed. All you need is a 10-minute nap and voilà, a slurp of rosé wine and I feel as fresh as a daisy! I have to admit that when I start counting, doctors start worrying."

Depardieu, who is promoting his new movie Welcome to New York, has talked about his alcohol consumption before. He had said in a 2005 interview with the U.K. magazine The Observer that when he's stressed, he drinks "five or six bottles of wine a day," and when he's relaxed, the number goes down to "three or four."

"But I'm trying to cut down," he said at the time.

The Huffington Post UK also quoted the actor as saying in the So Film interview that he "killed two lions once" "in legitimate self-defense."

"Imagine you're driving and your engine breaks down," the outlet quoted him as saying. "You got out, and in your way are these animals. So you shoot, just to scare them. They don't move. I wasn't there for hunting. I was in Africa for Africa."

Lions in some parts of Africa are nearing extinction. PETA President Ingrid Kewkirk told The Huffington Post UK, in response to Depardieu's comments, "He either had no business being in the lions' territory, or he's a callous, cowardly, miserable 'little' man."

She also cited a famous, embarrassing 2011 incident in which Depardieu urinated into a bottle in the cabin of a plane, to the horror of other passengers.

"And we're sure that he urinated in that airplane aisle to put out a fire and only nets songbirds to prevent his own starvation," Kewkirk said. "How do you say 'Pull the other leg – it's got bells on it', in French?"

Depardieu had apologized for the urination incident, which had spurred Anderson Cooper to explode into a fit on giggles while talking about it on CNN. He said there "was no wine involved" and an actor who had been traveling with him, Edouard Baer, said Depardieu had not been drinking at the time.