Guy Pearce tells GQ Australia about the marijuana habit that almost crushed his career

GUY Pearce says for almost a year he stayed at home, played his 95 guitars, switched off his phone, warned off his agent and relapsed as a stoner.

GUY Pearce has opened up about a history of habitual drug use, speaking openly in the latest issue of GQ Australia about the marijuana addiction that saw him virtually housebound for a year.

In a cover story for the August issue of the magazine, Pearce said he leaned on the drug as the success of his acting career started to run him ragged.

“There was no conscious reason to my all-day, everyday pot smoking other than I was overworked and thought being high was great fun. It’s a terrible thing to advocate, but I’m not the first person to talk about drug taking and creativity in the same sentence and the fact is, I was hooked on it,” Pearce says.

Guy Pearce opens up about drug use in the August issue of GQ Australia.

“I loved the altered state marijuana brought me and I really enjoyed making music and delving into films through the prism of pot.”

After a particularly busy period in which he shot four films in quick succession, Pearce said that for most of 2002, he stayed at home in St Kilda, played his 95 guitars, switched off his phone, warned off his agent and relapsed as a stoner.

Guy Pearce’s role in the 2005 film The Proposition.

“Strangely, it was Nick Cave who got me out of it. The phone rang at home and of course I was stoned and didn’t answer. This big baritone voice started on the answering machine: ‘Look I’m sorry to be calling you at home, Guy. It’s Nick Cave. We’ve sent you a script and I dunno if you’re interested …’ By now I was giggling under the sofa going, ‘Faaaark man, it’s Nick Cave’.”

That film was the 2005 Aussie Western The Proposition, a critical and commercial success that kickstarted a new, more prolific phase in Pearce’s career.

Having now appeared in dozens of films and television shows, with Emmy, AACTA and Logie Award nominations to his name, Pearce still credits his success to Stephan Elliot, director of his 1994 breakout film role Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

“Thank god Stephan Elliot cast me. It was the first time I felt, I have some chops here, some skills I can take somewhere.”

Read the full interview in the latest issue of GQ Australia, on sale now.

Pearce (at left) with Terence Stamp and Hugo Weaving in a scene from The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.