In a candid and characteristically bizarre interview with So Film, French actor Gerard Depardieu shared private details of his friendships with dictators and claimed he's incapable of drinking less than 12 to 14 bottles of wine per day.
In regard to the drinking, Depardieu said his unapologetic alcoholism hasn't devolved to the point where he must drink that much every day -- many days he's fine with no drinks at all. But when Depardieu does drink -- which the actor and vineyard owner says is when he's bored -- he cannot stop.
"If ever I start drinking ... I can't drink like a normal person," Depardieu explained to So Film.
"I can absorb 12, 13, 14 bottles...per day. But I'm never totally drunk, just a little pissed. All you need is a 10-minute nap and voilà, a slurp of rosé wine and I feel as fresh as a daisy! I have to admit that when I start counting, doctors start worrying."
In addition to his hefty appetite for wine, Depardieu spoke candidly about his personal friendships and fascination with Russian president Vladimir Putin and former Cuban president Fidel Castro.
"Putin is a simple guy, a former KGB agent who was long imprisoned in Vienna," assessed Depardieu.
"His father was injured during Stalingrad. When he got back home, his house had just been bombarded. Dead bodies were being moved away. Among them he saw his wife. 'Get an ambulance!' yelled his father, with his wife in his arms. People around him said that it was over, and that she wouldn't survive, but he tried anyway, and saved her. Putin's elder brother, he died. Putin was born in 1952, because her husband saved his mother's life. That's destiny."
While Putin was simple -- yet apparently anointed by destiny -- in Depardieu's eyes, Castro was a "smart" leader with long term vision. Depardieu even claimed Castro talked late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez out of committing suicide before his 1992 imprisonment for attempting to overthrow then-President Carlos Andres Perez.
"Fidel was a smart guy. He saved Chávez. Chávez was about to kill himself. His daughter called Fidel. And Fidel told Chávez: 'If you die now, you'll become some sort of a hero, but if you wait until after your two year stint in jail, you will become president, like me.' Fidel did the same in Angola. He was an exuberant Latino."
Despite the controversial nature of his powerful allies, Depardieu insists both men -- even Putin -- are simply smart men trying their best, not the dictators they're often portrayed as.
"These guys aren't dictators, they're very intelligent people. What about Pussy Riot? Putin doesn't give a damn about Pussy Riot. It's a joke for him. He even says: 'When they are free, it will be awkward for them because they will have nothing.'"
Depardieu currently stars in Welcome to New York, available on VOD.