Wes Bentley reveals Heath Ledger 'begged' him to give up drugs

Yellowstone star Wes Bentley recently recalled almost losing everything to a “fire” of drug addiction and remembered how close friend Heath Ledger urged him to get sober.

Talking to Men's Health, the 44 year old recalled his dark times saying, “I lost everything in the fire. I had no car, I had no clothes, I had no money — I was $400,000 in debt,"

The Hunger Games star had started taking psychedelics soon after he moved to Hollywood, and that led him down the drug addiction spiral. 

He shared: "I ended up going down the cocaine and heroin route…"

Bentley then reflected on his competitive nature when it came to doing drugs, "that was just me: Go far. Be the guy who went the furthest.”

Before his life was up-rooted due to his addiction, Bentley starred in The Four Feathers with Heath Ledger, and the two became close friends.

Ledger’s sudden death in 2008 came as a devastating shock to Bentley,  who remembers not being able to make it to his brother-like friend’s funeral because he was high at the time, “...I tried to go, but I was really messed up,”

Bentley recalled how Ledger urged him to get sober, “Last email, he was beggin' me. I didn't, at first, but later, getting sober, I'd think of that email all the time”.

After being in the grip of addiction for nearly a decade, Bentley got sober and is now married with two children. He stars as Jamie Dutton in the hit neo Western series Yellowstone.