Danish director Lars von Trier fears he can't make films now that he's sober

Danish director Lars von Trier fears he won't be able to make more films because he has quit drinking alcohol and no longer uses drugs.

"No creative expression of artistic value has ever been carried out by former alcoholics and drug addicts," von Trier told the newspaper Politiken. It was his first interview since Cannes film festival organisers banned him from their event in 2011 after he joked he was a Nazi at a news conference to promote his film Melancholia.

The interview was a front-page story in Politiken, a Danish broadsheet, and ran to seven pages inside.

Von Trier, who has shocked audiences with sexually graphic films such as Antichrist and Nymphomaniac, said he had been sober for 90 days and was going to meetings at Alcoholics Anonymous every day.

He was quoted as saying he used to drink a bottle of vodka every day but to be creative he combined the alcohol with different kinds of drugs.

"I can't recommend anyone to do the same. It is very dangerous and stupid in every way," he said.