Bill Nighy, 73, got candid about his younger years in a new interview as the Oscar nominated actor spoke about his life before becoming an actor. The Living star revealed he moved to Paris as a teenager and applied to work in a bar after leaving formal education.
The film star said that while waiting tables he turned down the offer of employment over fears he was too inexperienced.
The London-born actor admitted he had very little confidence with the opposite sex when he was a young man.
As a teenager, he was offered money to sleep with older women but turned it down fearing his lack of experience.
He told The Sun: “I was offered a job at a club and it was explained that if I slept with women of a certain age, they’d give me 200 francs.
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“I never did it because I’d never done it and would not know how.”
The award winning actor also opened up about ditching drugs and alcohol early on in his career.
The veteran star, whose film credits include Love Actually and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, detailed the pivotal moment which forced him to make a change.
He told the publication: “Had I continued to drink and take other drugs, I would not be having this conversation. That is the central fact of my life. I got help.
“There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t thank my lucky stars I do not have to drink.”
The on-screen star’s comments come ahead of this year’s Oscars on Sunday night where Bill is nominated in the Best Actor category for his role as Mr Williams in Living.
The actor has previously won Baftas and a Golden Globe, plus a string of nominations for some of his previous films, but this marks the first time he’s had a nomination from the Academy Awards.
Living, directed by Oliver Hermanus, is adapted from the 1952 Japanese film Ikiru, which in turn was inspired by the 1886 Russian novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy.
The film is set in London and follows a bureaucrat, played by Bill, who is facing a terminal illness and quickly sets out to discover a purpose and sense of meaning for his life before he dies.
The film explored the idea of intergenerational friendship – with Sex Education’s Aimee Lou Wood playing Margaret, a young colleague to Bill’s character Mr Williams.
Aimee previously opened up about her special friendship with co-star Bill with Glamour.
She said: “I love having friendships with older people – whenever I’m in a play, for instance, it will always be the oldest person in the cast that I make best friends with.
“I have many friendships with older men that are totally a space of safety, joy and comfort for me. I see evidence every day of amazing, unlikely connections and friendships.”
The Oscars are taking place on Sunday 12 March 2023.
The ceremony will be held in its usual venue of the Dolby Theatre which is located in the heart of Hollywood, California.
For those based in the UK the show will begin from 12am UK time on Monday 13 March and run until 2am GMT.
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