Nolte has been attending rehab since his arrest

The actor said the media attention surrounding the incident in California has made him more "open" about his problems.

Nolte's police mugshot, famously showing the 62-year-old looking shabby in a Hawaiian shirt, was reproduced all over the world.

Now looking tanned and healthy, the former alcoholic said it remains a daily struggle to resist the drink and drugs.

I was relieved when the siren came on because I knew it was over - the substance abuse, that is Nick Nolte

He was speaking about the ordeal while promoting his new film The Good Thief, in which he plays a heroin addict.

Nolte was arrested near his Malibu home in September when police saw his black Mercedes-Benz swerving into oncoming traffic along Pacific Coast Highway.

He was proved to be under the influence of the "date rape" drug GHB, a banned depressant.

After pleading guilty, he was sentenced in December to three years' probation and made to undergo counselling and random drug testing.

'No hiding'

"Being out on the road drunk and driving isn't a good thing, and I'm glad I didn't have an accident.

"I was relieved when the siren came on because I knew it was over - the substance abuse, that is."

Nolte begun the drug rehabilitation in October after leaving a substance abuse clinic that he entered in Connecticut three days after his arrest.

Joking that the mugshot was his finest performance, he added: "There's no hiding there. I've always said I had a substance problem ever since.

Huge publicity surrounded Nolte's arrest

"It's something you deal with, and you take care of it, and you can keep it under control."

Nolte has made dozens of films and was nominated for Academy Awards for 1991's The Prince of Tides and 1997's Affliction.

He previously admitted a drink problem and managed to stay sober from 1989-99.

"Now the trick is not to relapse and that's a matter of just daily vigilance," he said.

"It's like having a disease.

"If you had a cancer on your skin and had it burned it off, you'd wash it and clean it every day."

The Good Thief, about a gambler with a drug habit trying to organise a heist, has a limited release in the United States on 2 April.