News: C'est bizarre: "I can't drink like a normal person, I can absorb 12, 13, 14 bottles...per day- Gérard Depardieu

It would be probably be très difficile to beat Gérard Depardieu in a drinking contest, if you're a "normal person." And you may want to keep him away from lions.

The 65-year-old French-born Green Card and Man In the Iron Mask actor, who is known for his love of wine and owns his own vineyard, claims in a recent interview with French magazine So Film that he can drink up to 14 bottles a day.

"When I'm bored, I drink," he is quoted as saying in an English-translated version, when asked about wine. "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, I'm not going to die. Not now. I still have energy."

"I can't drink like a normal person," he added. "I can absorb 12, 13, 14 bottles...per day. But I'm never totally drunk, just a little pissed. All you need is a 10-minute nap and voilà, a slurp of rosé wine and I feel as fresh as a daisy! I have to admit that when I start counting, doctors start worrying."

Depardieu, who is promoting his new movie Welcome to New York, has talked about his alcohol consumption before. He had said in a 2005 interview with the U.K. magazine The Observer that when he's stressed, he drinks "five or six bottles of wine a day," and when he's relaxed, the number goes down to "three or four."

"But I'm trying to cut down," he said at the time.