What did Anthony Hopkins tell Josh Brolin about being an alcoholic?

Josh Brolin told Theo Von that Anthony Hopkins, who is open about his own sobriety, once said how great it is to be an alcoholic. Hopkins's reasoning, as Brolin relates it, is that alcoholics left without direction or tools do more harm than most people, but given a few tools their drive lets them make a bigger impact than most people. Brolin says hearing that from a man of about 80 shifted something in him.

• The story came up after Theo Von said he is working the steps again with his sponsor and asked whether Brolin ever resented himself; Brolin said himself was probably his biggest resentment.
• Brolin praised Hopkins, who is Welsh, for now composing music that orchestras perform.

▸In their words

“given no direction and no tools we create more harm and hurt than normal people” Josh Brolin · at 1:29:35 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von (2026-10-13). Read the whole episode summary →

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