Keith Allen talks cocaine: 'If I do it nowadays, it’s for the right reasons'
Keith Allen only does cocaine now for "the right reasons".
The 68-year-old actor lives a quieter life these days from his hell-raising heyday but admitted he hasn't quite given up on all aspects of his hedonistic lifestyle.
When asked by The Guardian newspaper if he still takes cocaine, he said: "Not so you’d notice. If I do it nowadays, it’s for the right reasons."
When asked what "the right reasons" are, he said: "Well, why not? As you get older, time rushes past. A hangover can cost you a day. It’s not worth it."
And, Keith insisted cocaine never helped him creatively, explaining: "Cocaine’s great for talking to yourself but it stops you listening."
Keith snorted his first line in the late 1980s when he was pitching a script to UB40 and he was horrified when lead singer Ali Campbell allegedly took a large amount.
He said: "I’d never done coke before. I remember thinking, 'F***, that’s expensive.’ I cut these lines out, then Ali Campbell snorted the lot and I panicked: ‘I’ll phone an ambulance!’ He said, ‘What you on about?’”
Keith also revealed that he believes his wild days cost him a lot of professional opportunities.
When asked if he looks back on those days with fondness, he replied: "I stop myself doing that because there’s always a voice going, ‘Was it worth it?’ In career terms, it probably wasn’t."
His daughter Lily Allen has called Keith a “self-saboteur” who “couldn’t channel his comedic gifts into a career” and he agrees.
He said: “That’s true, yeah. I couldn’t channel anything. You could say I wasted a lot of years. You could also say I had a f****** great time. I was in at the beginning for a lot of things. I presented one of the first ‘yoof TV’ shows. I was one of the first performers at the Comedy Store."
