151 while promoting his new film welcome to new york gerard depardieu said hes still making movies because i have to make a living besides i do other things too the 65yearold french actor told so film cinema is not the only thing i do luckily i hang out with artists i travel im into cuisine and wine he wasnt kidding about the wine when im bored i drink he continued apart from occasional compulsory moments of abstinence after undergoing bypass surgery five times and also because of cholesterol and stuff i have to be careful anyway im not going to die not now i still have energy he continued but if ever i start drinking i cant drink like a normal person i can absorb 12 13 14 bottlesper day but im never totally drunk just a little pissed all you need is a 10minute nap and voil a slurp of ros wine and i feel as fresh as a daisy i have to admit that when i start counting doctors start worrying the actor also commented on his reputation saying i dont care about reputations no one knows me not even myself ego is just a way of being reassured thats why the word exists if you are free you dont need to be egocentric you can do whatever you want to do without paying attention to what people think do you think that if i was egocentric i could approach jeanpaul ii mitterrand castro putin and all those kinds of people i dont care about having an ego as for his runins with the likes of vladimir putin and fidel castro putin is a simple guy a former kgb agent who was long imprisoned in vienna i told him about what i had read about the army in stalingrad i read a lot he said to me but how do you know all that its because it interests me as much as the stories of rasputin ivan grozny and catherine the great or alexander ii then he told me about his father he added fidel was a smart guy he saved chvez chvez was about to kill himself his daughter called fidel and fidel told chvez if you die now youll become some sort of a hero but if you wait until after your twoyear stint in jail you will become president like me a request for comment from depardieus rep was not immediately returned to abc news