Yesterday some quotes came out from Melanie Griffith on how she’s dealing with her longterm addiction. Melanie was in rehab earlier this year to cope with what her husband, Antonio Banderas, explains as a dependence on painkillers following knee surgery. Melanie is a little more forthcoming about what she went through, and likens her addiction as a monster that she has to work to starve. These quotes are from Hello! Magazine (and Hola!, the Spanish-language sister publication) and are part of an epic interview with both Melanie and Antonio that we covered earlier. Since we have access to the print version, I’ll include some more quotes from Melanie that are interesting, particularly her take on her career and addiction. As I mentioned in our story about this on Monday, Melanie and Antonio sound very committed to their relations and their family without glossing over the difficulties they’ve faced. I was kind of impressed by the candid and loving things they said about each other, but many of you found it cloying and speculated that a divorce wasn’t too far behind. You never know.

Melanie, does Hollywood treat older actresses as ruthlessly as it seems to?
“It depends how you see yourself. This industry is terrible for women of a certain age, but if you’re positive and you think you’re good, you can get roles for older women, and you’ll work. At least that’s what I think.”

And in a world where everyone’s looking for young actresses, do you manage not to worry about your age?
“I try. They don’t ask me to take my clothes off in movies anymore! It’s so sad! [laughs]”

As the daughter of Tippi [Hendren] and actor Peter Griffith, you had every possibility of being a spoilt Hollywood kid. Were you?
“It was a different time. These days the paparazzi crucify the girls, and they don’t have any kind of protection. They make a lot of mistakes and they do it in public. When I was that age, things were different. I did a lot of crazy things, but I wasn’t in the papers every day. These days there’s no privacy.”

Quite a few years ago, a photo of you going into a rehab centre set tongues waggin, and a few months ago you went back. How are you now?
“I’m great. When I was 30, I went to a treatment centre for six weeks and that kept me going for a long time. In 2000, I went in for eight days to help me quit pills.”

It had something to do with a neck injury…
“Yes, I’d had a car accident and it was really painful. That was a good excuse for me, because I’m an alcoholic and an addict. All my life I’ve fought against it, and I’ve done a good job.

“This last time, when I went into treatment for painkillers I was taking for my knee, I got the help I needed and I had all Antonio’s and my daughter’s support, the support of Alexander and Jesse. Now I feel free. I don’t drink, I don’t take pills. Nothing. And it’s fantasic. It’s like getting out of prison.”

With all these obstacles you’ve got past, are you a more positive person?
“Yes, and I’m stronger, because addiction’s a tough enemy to defeat.”

Almost like fighting against yourself.
“No, not against yourself. In a way I think of it as a monster. If I feed it, it will always want more and more, so now I’m letting it starve to death in a corner. But it’s always there. That’s why it’s important to keep going to meetings with friends of mine who have the same problems, the same sickness.

“Alcoholism and addiction are an illness and that’s a fact. But I think that the hardest part is the way that people look at you because you have this disease. So if there’s something that I can do, it’s help other people who have it, too.”

[From Hello Magazine, print edition, April 26, 2010]

I admire how open Melanie is about her addiction, and how she says she hopes to take the stigma away from it. As for her take on the paparazzi, I don’t think they’re the monsters she’s making them out to be. When you look at what happened to Britney Spears the photographers are partially culpable, but we’ll never know if she would have had the same problems out of the spotlight. Plus people know where to go to avoid the paparazzi and if they’re hitting the Hollywood hotspots they have only themselves to blame when they’re photographed outside drunk off their asses. I would have worse things to say about how the paparazzi pursue families and children, not 20-something young women who should be responsible for their own (drunken) behavior.

Melanie and Antonio were at the premiere of Shrek Ever After last night and they looked just as united and happy as ever – and Antonio cut off his goat beard! The hot but tired-looking Antonio has returned. I’m not seeing a split in their immediate future, but you never know. These things have a way of happening all too frequently.

Photo credit: WENN.com. Melanie is also shown at Coachella on 4/17 and 4/18.