'I saw him be so bold': Wes Bentley reveals how Robert Downey Jr helped him battle heroin addiction
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Robert Downey Jr is known for his incredible work and is now being hailed as a loyal and amazing friend. The 'Avengers' star helped actor Wes Bentley when he was going through one of the darkest times of his life. As it turns out Downey is an 'Ironman' in real life too. The 57-year-old 'Sherlock Holmes' actor was arrested several times in the past on drug abuse charges and sentenced to prison as he battled his addiction. This reportedly helped the 'Yellowstone' actor Wes Bentley to get clean.
Bentley is best known for playing Ricky Fitts in 'American Beauty' (1999), which earned him a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Supporting Actor, Seneca Crane in 'The Hunger Games' (2012), Doyle in 'Interstellar' (2014), and Erik in 'Mission: Impossible - Fallout'. The actor apparently had a hard time leaving drugs which unfortunately even led to his marriage falling apart. During this time, he worked sporadically, just enough to pay bills and buy drugs. Read more to know how Robert Downey Jr came to his rescue.
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In a 1999 court appearance, 'Ironman' actor Robert Downey Jr described his condition to a judge, "It's like I have a shotgun in my mouth, and I've got my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gunmetal." Downey was sentenced to a three-year prison stint in 1999 but only ended up serving a year in California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Corcoran. However, according to a 2013 Daily Mail article, the actor credits a combination of 12-step programs, yoga, meditation, and therapy to keep him sober.
Regardless, during a recent interview with Page Six, Bentley, the 44-year-old actor, who stars as the vicious Jamie Dutton in the popular neo-Western drama 'Yellowstone', opened up to the outlet about his efforts to kick his life-threatening addiction while at 'Yellowstone' Season 5 premiere in New York City on Thursday.
"I was in the deepest throes of my addiction and in the worst place and at death's door, I guess, or at risk of it, and I saw him be so bold and brave and open and it saved me," he explained. He further went on saying, "So I thought if I do that too, I can maybe pass that on to somebody else. I never had money before, so there was a lot of combination of things I wasn’t prepared for."
The 'Hunger Games' star continued, “I met a guy who had been sober and didn’t know, that I was struggling. He just talked about what a beautiful life he had now, and how he was looking out the window at the trees, and I missed that. And I thought I want that back. So that’s how that happened. So I just went to meetings and the 12-step meetings really helped me a lot. I already had belief in God, so that kind of was a bit of help - the higher power thing."
The series follows the Dutton family, owners of the largest ranch in Montana, the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, commonly called "the Yellowstone". The plot revolves around family drama at the ranch and the bordering Broken Rock Indian Reservation, national park, and developers.
Catch the newest season of 'Yellowstone,' which is scheduled to premiere on November 13, 2022, only on Paramount.