Russell Brand Admits to 'Epic Promiscuity' Before Katy Perry

USMagazine, Thursday, March 24, 2011, 7:42am (PDT)

Russell Brand is a happily married man nowadays. But before he fell in love with Katy Perry in fall 2009, marrying her about a year later, the wacky British star was anything but a one-girl guy.

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Brand, 35, admits to "epic promiscuity" in the April issue of Elle magazine.

"A friend of mine once said, 'You are devoted to your lover of a thousand faces ... If she's not there, you must call her, for you have to see her … three, four times a day -- making love with your lover of a thousand faces,'" the "Arthur" star says in the interview.

"That's how he described my epic promiscuity. I was just as committed then to seduction as I am now committed to monogamy."

That kind of sleeping around screeched to a halt when he met "ET" singer Perry, 26, at the MTV Video Music Awards in September 2009.

Brand fell hard. "I nearly asked her to marry me on our first date. It was like a hit of acid, a wave of confusion, emerging from under the water, a moment of Oh bloody hell, different perception for a moment, extraordinary," he gushes. "And then I thought, I'll give it space and see what happens."

They wed in a lavish ceremony on a tiger reserve in India in October 2010. But ever since that elaborate beginning, he says, "It's the most normal relationship I've ever had with anybody. She's very spirited, bighearted, innocent, but very, very smart. Someone told me that enlightenment is contingent upon being able to hold opposing views simultaneously. I'm actually attracted to that magnetism and sort of repulsion. She's endlessly fascinating ... I was at a point in my life where I was ready to behave. I look at it the way I look at most things: One day at a time. I will say it's very, very rewarding and I love her."

Another remnant from Brand's wild past: His struggle with alcoholism. Brand faced that head-on as he played a very not-sober alcoholic in "Arthur," a remake of the Dudley Moore classic.

"It was very strange," he admits. To get into character but remain sober on set, "I kept little plastic bottles of booze around the set that I'd smell before each take. That really helped me because I've got huge emotional resources to call upon."

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