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Director Elizabeth Banks was forced to respond to conservative criticisms about a scene from her R-rated action-comedy Cocaine Bear depicting two 12-year-olds doing cocaine.
Banks—who has moved into filmmaking in recent years over a long and fruitful career in front of the camera—acknowledged the scene is "controversial" but said the scene was all about testing these characters' “innocence.”
Addressing the controversy in an interview with Variety, Banks said:
"It was definitely controversial."
“There were conversations about, should we age up these characters? We all kind of held hands, and we were like, ‘Guys, they’ve got to be 12.’ It’s their innocence being tested."
"That’s what was interesting to me about that scene.”
\u201cVariety\u2019s cover story with @ElizabethBanks: \n \n'This Could Be a Career Ender': Elizabeth Banks Risks It All for the Gory, R-Rated 'Cocaine Bear' https://t.co/146Ot2N6XN\u201d— Variety (@Variety) 1675872001
Christopher Miller, one of Banks' co-producers for the film, said “the naïveté of the kids” makes the scene “OK" and is "what makes it so tense and funny." He said the scene—one of many off-the-wall moments during a very tongue-in-cheek film, "doesn't work" if the characters aren't teenagers.
In fact, he added, the scene's strength lies in the fact that the characters are at "that age where you don’t know anything, but you want to pretend like you do."
Many have also defended the scene—and the film as a whole—while mocking the latest manufactured conservative outrage.
\u201call the bible thumpers and neo conservatives condemning Cocaine Bear are doing exactly what the movie marketing company wants them to do\u201d— KRIS MEETS W\ud83c\udf0eRLD (@KRIS MEETS W\ud83c\udf0eRLD) 1677106742
\u201cConservatives "We should be allowed to say or express ourselves HOWEVER we want, without ANY restrictions."\n\n*Elizabeth Banks puts a scene in Cocaine Bear where two kids eat cocaine*\n\nConservatives...\u201d— Charles Ulysses Farleigh III, Esq. (@Charles Ulysses Farleigh III, Esq.) 1677531538
\u201cwait conservatives are mad at cocaine bear? lmao don't they all do coke?\u201d— buss in boots (@buss in boots) 1677545620
\u201cCar buddy; Why are the woke crowd not yelling about Cocaine Bear? It\u2019s a story about animal suffering?\n\nMe; A embellished story of a bear doing bricks of coke to its dome is something people should be upset about? \n\nI don\u2019t get conservatives.\u201d— Kevin Flanagan (@Kevin Flanagan) 1677448067
\u201cconservatives watching Cocaine Bear and getting mad because they think the bear is too woke\u201d— Kyle \ud83d\ude84 (@Kyle \ud83d\ude84) 1676927951
\u201cTelling my kids this was Cocaine Bear.\u201d— Dan Whitehead (@Dan Whitehead) 1677521646
\u201cHEY KIDS!\n \nBuild your very own Cocaine-Bear at participating Build-A-Bear Workshops!\u201d— Jon Donahue (@Jon Donahue) 1677187347
\u201cMy family and I saw "cocaine bear" last night. The whole family loved it. Not to say that this is a family friendly movie. My kids are teenagers. Bloody, funny and bloody funny. I loved every single character in this movie.\u201d— \ud83d\udc99ErictheCleric. Now with a cat!\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@\ud83d\udc99ErictheCleric. Now with a cat!\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1677591995
Shortly after the film's release, Slate reporter Nadira Goffe spoke with Andrew Stolbach—a toxicologist at Johns Hopkins and an emergency doctor on the board of directors at the American College of Medical Toxicology—"to fact-check the juvenile drug consumption" in the film.
Stolbach said that when ingesting or eating cocaine, as the kids in the film do, "you get about a third of the dose" and the drug's effects peak later. Overall, the effects of cocaine on children and adults are "similar," he said, adding that he expects kids in a real-life situation would become "sick" after eating it.
Cocaine Bear is a B-movie and soon-to-be cult favorite about a bear that goes on a killing spree after eating cocaine it discovers in the forest.
The film is only loosely based on true events: the real "Cocaine Bear" died in 1985 soon after eating cocaine that landed in a forest after a drug smuggler tossed his cargo overboard a self-piloted Cessna and died after his parachute failed to open.
The bear—also known as "Pablo Escobear"—was taxidermied and is on display at the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall in Lexington, Kentucky.