Cocaine Bear director Elizabeth Banks DEFENDS scene where 12-year-olds take cocaine

Hollywood star Elizabeth Banks has defended a controversial scene in her upcoming R-rated thriller in which a group of 12-year-old boys accidentally take cocaine, claiming it shows their ‘innocence on the test’.

Banks directed the film, Cocaine Bear, which is based on the true story of a 175-pound black bear who died after finding a duffel bag containing the drug when smugglers dumped it in a Georgia woods in 1985.

In an interview with Variety magazine, the 48-year-old Pitch Perfect 2 director said the film, due for release later this month, could be a “career ending” for her, admitting that the scene showing the children consuming the Schedule II drug is “definitely controversial.” .

‘There were conversations about, should we age these characters?’ Banks told Variety. “We all held hands and said ‘boys you must be 12’.

It is his innocence put to the test. “That’s what interested me in the scene,” she added.

The video shows two 12-year-old boys tripping over packets of cocaine and daring each other to try some.

It was originally intended to be the opening scene, but Banks later changed that plan.

The film is set to open on February 24, but has already garnered dozens of headlines due to the amount of gore it features, while pundits questioned its commitment to the real-life chain of events.

It is also the last film to star actor Ray Liotta, who died in his sleep at age 67 shortly after filming, in May.

The film’s plot centers on a bear who goes on a murderous rampage in search of “blood and punch” after swallowing cocaine dropped from a smuggler’s plane.

It has a budget of around $30 million, and the drug-fueled bear is brought to life via CGI.

There are dozens of gory scenes, with Banks telling Varity that “the blood is part of the fun of the ride.”

But the true story that inspired the film is said to be much less dramatic after medical examiners said the bear likely only consumed a very small amount of the drug.

Cocaine Bear boasts a budget of around $30 million, with much of it going towards bringing the ferocious drug-fueled bear to life through CGI.

Horror: The film, which is scheduled to open in theaters on February 24, centers on an American black bear who goes on a killing spree after ingesting a duffel bag filled with cocaine.

Cast: Stars the likes of Keri Russell, Margo Martindale, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and the late Ray Liotta (pictured)

The bear obtained the drugs from a duffel bag, believed to be a 300-pound shipment of Colombian cocaine, that had been dropped from a plane in eastern Tennessee and north Georgia, authorities said.

Convicted drug smuggler, Andrew Carter Thornton II, was linked to the shipment after his body was found in a driveway in Knoxville, Tennessee, on September 11, 1985, with 77 pounds of cocaine strapped to his waist.

The real-life bear was found dead three months later, along with an empty bag and 40 slammed bags, and a medical examiner ruled it suffered from brain hemorrhage, respiratory failure, hyperthermia, kidney failure, heart failure, and a stroke. .

The plot of the new Elizabeth Banks movie, titled Cocaine Bear, is being kept under wraps for now, but it will be based on the bizarre true story of a 175-pound black bear who died after eating cocaine he found in a bag of cocaine. canvas in a Georgia forest in 1985. A cocaine bear relic is seen in Kentucky above

In 1985, authorities reported that a black bear (file photo, right) died after eating cocaine from a duffel bag it found in a Georgia woods and dumped there by a drug dealer. Police said the duffel bag was part of a shipment left in the area by Andrew Carter Thornton II (left)

His stuffed body is now on display at the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall in Lexington.

Banks also told Varity that she has never used cocaine.

“I took ‘Just say no’ very seriously…being a good-two-shoes played into it,” he said.

“Personal safety played a big role in this. I was a cocktail waitress for years. And I wasn’t interested in not being sober because of the shit I saw.

Cocaine Bear is Bank’s first directing project since the 2019 blockbuster Charlie’s Angels, starring Kristen Stewart, Ella Balinska and Naomi Scott.

It grossed just over $70 million at the worldwide box office on a budget of $50 million. Banks also came under fire after people felt she blamed industry sexism for the failure of Charlie’s Angels.

‘I took full responsibility for ‘Charlie’s Angels,’ certainly no one else did. They gave it all to me and I happily accepted it, because what else am I supposed to do?

With Cocaine Bear seen as her return, Banks wanted to “do something muscular and masculine” and “break some of the mythology about what kind of movies women are interested in making.”

Banks shared that she has never actually experimented with drugs. “I took ‘Just Say No’ very seriously… being a good-two-shoes played into it,” the Man On A Ledge star explained; seen in 2020

She continued: “For some strange reason, there are still executives in Hollywood who say, ‘I don’t know if women can do technical stuff.'”

“There are literally people who say, ‘Women don’t like math.’ It just persists.