In his first interview in three years, Danish director Lars Von Trier revealed that he struggles with addictions to drug and alcohol. The sober Nymphomaniac director now fears he will never be able to make another film.
Von Trier spoke with Denmark’s Politiken about his struggles, revealing that his films were written under the influence of drugs and alcohol. His daily bottle of vodka helped him enter a “parallel world,” where he got ideas for his movies. He thinks that without that, he will only make “sh**ty films.”
“I don’t know if I can make any more films, and that worries me,” Von Trier continued, reports The Guardian. “There is no creative expression of artistic value that has ever been produced by ex-drunkards and ex-drug-addicts. Who the hell would bother with a Rolling Stones without booze or with a Jimi Hendrix without heroin?”
Von Trier burst onto the international film stage in the 1990s and won the Palme D’Or at Cannes for 2000’s Dancer in the Dark. His other works include Breaking The Waves, The Idios, Dogville, Antichrist, Melancholia and last year’s sex epic Nymphomaniac.
By Sunday, Von Trier will be 90 days sober. He also attends AA meetings daily, he said, notes Reuters.
Von Trier, who has four children with his wife, a teacher, said he would not recommend anyone take drugs or alcohol just to be creative. “I can't recommend anyone to do the same," he said. "It is very dangerous and stupid in every way."
This was the director’s first interview since his infamous Nazi joke at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. After that incident, Von Trier decided not to do any interviews until now.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com