And he's proud of all three descriptors in equal measure. Before social media and Twitter made every celebrity slipup or moment of weakness liable to be a viral sensation, a photo following Nolte's 2002 DUI arrest made the rounds on the web, with seemingly the entire world seeing and laughing at his shocked, matted hair, angry scowl and fantastic Hawaiian shirt. In a new feature interview with GQ, Nolte explains it all -- and has no desire to run away from what to many would be a total embarrassment.
Nolte himself has never spoken about the infamous photo -- until now. In the latest issue of GQ magazine, Nolte reveals that the pic wasn't his mug shot at all, it was just a photo that a cop asked to take at the hospital, where Nolte was getting a blood test. "I said, 'Come on, you don't really want to ask that, do you?'" says Nolte. Nolte told the officer to share any proceeds he got from selling the shot with the rest of his squad. "And I let him shoot the Polaroid."
As it turns out, he wasn't drinking the morning that he was pulled over by police for reckless driving; he was on a substance known as liquid ecstasy, which he used to assist his workouts and improve his moods. Many people look down on the drug, but Nolte has a different take. "I had a different opinion about this substance than most people had," he says. "I knew the history of it and I knew the doctors and I knew how to use it." He did, however, know he was doing it too much; he had driven to an AA meeting that morning, but decided to leave and head home. That's when he was nabbed. He was hospitalized, and that's when the photo was taken.
