“I ended up going down the cocaine and heroin route”: The Yellowstone Star Who Almost Met the Same Fate as His Dear Friend Heath Ledger

Since Heath Ledger’s tragic death in 2008, Hollywood took a turn for the better in terms of addiction and sobriety. The lingering yet rampant effects of hard substances from the industry’s rock-n-roll era subsided and actors like Robert Downey Jr. and Yellowstone star Wes Bentley turned over a new leaf for good.

However, the haunting memories of those years spent under the influence still aggrieved the actors who survived their addiction to see healthier and happier days. Yellowstone star Wes Bentley, who has been on everyone’s radar since his appearance as the cruel and bloodthirsty Head Gamemaker Seneca Crane in The Hunger Games, now relives his past with a touch of nostalgia.

Yellowstone Star Reveals His Fiery Struggle With Addiction

Wes Bentley has had a formidable career to boast of, with films in his résumé that most would kill for. From The Hunger Games to Interstellar and from Mission: Impossible to Yellowstone, Bentley’s filmography is stacked with choice roles and excellent selections – none of which would have been possible, if the actor had given in to his addiction in the early 2000s.

Speaking to Men’s Health in a detailed interview, the Yellowstone star revealed:

I ended up going down the cocaine and heroin route. Hard partying. You’re in clubs and you’re at afterparties, and there’s cocaine, and eventually it became heroin. That period was incredibly dark.

I did really dangerous stuff. I went downtown. I went and hung with really shady people. I wasn’t trying to kill myself or anything. That was just me: Go far. Be the guy who went the furthest. I lost everything in the fire. I had no car, I had no clothes, I had no money – I was $400,000 in debt.

After starting off with recreational drugs, mostly psychedelics at Hollywood parties, Wes Bentley’s addiction soon transformed into something entirely different. In his words, he wanted to be “the most impressive drug addict ever.” However, that soon changed after meeting his future wife Jacqui Swedberg, an assistant director.

I met a girl, and this girl was awesome and funny and just had the weirdest sense of humor and made me laugh and made me want to live again – like, live live, not go deal drugs.

The pair tied the knot in 2010. Soon after, his career took off with The Hunger Games in 2012, followed by a freaky turn in American Horror Story in 2014, a touch of sci-fi in Interstellar, a musical romance in We Are Your Friends in 2015, and ultimately, the epic Western Yellowstone in 2018.

Wes Bentley Recalls Sobriety and a Very Dear Friend

The influence and mere existence of Heath Ledger was such that the people who came in contact with him lived to tell the tale of how The Dark Knight actor forever changed their lives. Yellowstone star Wes Bentley was one such person who could afford to call Ledger their friend, although sadly, he recalls their shared moments as a tragic afterthought of the events that led to their friendship.

After meeting while filming a 2002 action drama, The Four Feathers, Ledger took an interest in Bentley due to the latter’s struggles with addiction. The Yellowstone actor revealed:

He even begged me to get sober in an email. Last email, he was beggin’ me. I didn’t, at first, but later, getting sober, I’d think of that email all the time. 

Recalling Ledger’s memorial service after his death in 2008 from an accidental drug overdose, he said, “I tried to go, but I was really messed up, and I felt like that wasn’t right. So I got out of the cab on the way to it. And that sits with me forever.”

I’d never felt love from someone like him. And he didn’t care what I was, or what I was like, the stupid things I was doing. He just wanted me to be better. I always thought of him as a brother, and I wish I could’ve given that back.

As of 2024, Wes Bentley celebrates almost 15 years of sobriety. With his career at a peak due to his series regular role in Yellowstone, Paramount’s flagship series and television’s greatest Western, Bentley celebrates unprecedented fame as the Dutton family’s black sheep. With only a few more episodes to go, the character remains entangled in a storyline that has been keeping most fans awake, for better or worse, until Taylor Sheridan drops Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 this November.

Yellowstone is available for streaming on Paramount+