David Dastmalchian expressed his gratitude for achieving twenty years of sobriety, which he credits for influencing his work as an actor.
Actor David Dastmalchian Grateful For His 20-Year Soberiety Journey
He had battled heroin addiction for a period of five years prior to his acting career. During his high school days, he started taking drugs and got addicted to them while pursuing his theater degree at DePaul University in Chicago.
Subsequently, after completing his studies, he lost his home and spent two years living in his car. Eventually, with the assistance of his family, he checked into a psychiatric hospital for treatment, went through rehabilitation, and subsequently moved into a sober living facility, starting his journey towards recovery.
With that being said, he was glad to come out of it on the other side. In his comments, he said: “For nothing else, the endless pool of gratitude that I feel for the past two decades of this journey, living without drugs and alcohol, absolutely informs all the work that I do as an actor and think about the characters I want to bring to life.”
Dastmalchian, who starred in the 2014 film “Animals,” also wrote about his addiction to heroin in the same movie.
He also portrayed the notorious serial killer Albert DeSalvo in “Boston Strangler,” who allegedly admitted to killing 13 women in the Boston region between 1962 and 1964.
In the film, Keira Knightley portrays journalist Loretta McLaughlin, who was the initial person to link the string of homicides together.
The movie also explores the question of whether DeSalvo, who passed away at 42 while in jail in 1973, was truly accountable for all 13 murders. And that is something that got him hyped up for the role.
He added: “There’s an incredible series of books and research that exists, so I just dove in as soon as I found out I was going to be bringing this character to life — and please believe me, this was no small undertaking on my part.”
Despite this being the case, the social media response was far from sympathetic. This was on the grounds that people could not understand why the actor would decide to address this publicly, given that it would lead to more eyes being placed on him, thus increasing the pressure on him.
One person wrote: “And [he] lacks the sense to remain anonymous on the level of media.” So there you have it folks. What did you think about this? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
