David Dastmalchian is eternally grateful for his endless sobriety

• David Dastmalchian is incredibly grateful to have been sober for twenty years.
• The “Ant-Man” actor, battled heroin addiction for five years prior to entering the acting business.
• “Animals,” in which he also starred, Dastmalchian wrote about his heroin addiction.

David Dastmalchian is incredibly grateful to have been sober for twenty years. The “Ant-Man” actor, who battled heroin addiction for five years prior to entering the acting business, claims that his sobriety influences his writing.

In an interview with news on Tuesday at the New York premiere of his most recent film, “Boston Strangler,” he said, “If nothing else, the endless pool of gratitude that I feel for the past two decades of this journey, living without drugs and alcohol, absolutely informs all the work that I do as an actor and think about the characters I want to bring to life.”

Dastmalchian, 47, started using narcotics in high school, but while he was majoring in theatre at Chicago’s DePaul University, his addiction took off.

He lost his job after graduating and spent two years living in his car. The “Teacher” actor later started along the road to recovery after his family assisted him in entering a mental health hospital, then a treatment center, and finally a sober home.

In the 2014 movie “Animals,” in which he also starred, Dastmalchian wrote about his heroin addiction.

He portrays notorious serial killer Albert DeSalvo in “Boston Strangler,” who allegedly confessed to killing 13 women in the Boston region between 1962 and 1964.

Keira Knightley plays real-life reporter Loretta McLaughlin in the film, who was the first to link a string of homicides together.

It explores whether DeSalvo, who passed away in prison in 1973 at the age of 42, was really accountable for all 13 homicides.

Dastmalchian claims that in order to prepare for this part, he did extensive research into DeSalvo’s life.

The actor told us, “Please believe me, this was no little job on my part. There is a great series of books and studies that exists. So, I immediately plunged in as soon as I found out I was going to be bringing this character to life.

I regard the importance of bringing to life someone who caused suffering for so many people—and who was a real person who experienced a great lot of suffering himself—not the slightest bit lightly.

In addition, DeSalvo was interviewed by investigators, according to Dastmalchian, who said that DeSalvo “would just sit with and live with and think about his background.”

The man who was driving around Boston, he said, was “this terrible, troubled soul who injured women.”

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