Wes Bentley, who was in the movie Yellowstone, talked about how he almost lost everything to a “fire” of drug abuse and how his close friend Heath Ledger told him to get clean.
In an interview with Men’s Health, the 44-year-old said, “I lost everything in the fire. I had no car, I had no clothes, I had no money. I was $400,000 in debt.”
Soon after moving to Hollywood, the star of “The Hunger Games” started taking psychedelic drugs, which led to a cycle of drug abuse. “I ended up going down the cocaine and heroin route.”
Bentley thought about how he was competitive when he did drugs and said, “That was just me: Go far. Be the guy who went the furthest.”
Before his drug use turned his life upside down, he worked with Heath Ledger in The Four Feathers, and the two of them became close friends.
The sudden death of Ledger in 2008 was a huge shock to Bentley. He remembers being unable to go to his brother-like friend’s funeral because he was high. “I tried to go, but I was really messed up.”
Bentley also remembered that Ledger had asked him in his last text to stop drinking. “Last email, he was beggin’ me. I didn’t, at first, but later, getting sober, I’d think of that email all the time.”
Bentley was addicted to drugs for almost a decade. He got clean and is now married with two kids. In the hit neo-Western TV show Yellowstone, he plays the role of Jamie Dutton.