A wronged bear who died from a drug overdose finally gets its due in movie form
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The black comedy Cocaine Bear stars Keri Russell as a human who finds herself at the mercy of a rampaging, drug-crazed bear.
PHOTO: UIP
SINGAPORE – A bear on a drug-fuelled killing spree sounds like a great hook for an exploitation flick.
For Elizabeth Banks, director of the black comedy Cocaine Bear, it is all that and more.
For one, it is about payback for a real bear, one that was killed in 1985 after it ate a shipment of cocaine dumped from an aeroplane flying over a forest in the American state of Georgia. The stuffed body of the American black bear is today a tourist draw in a mall in Kentucky.
“My first thought was that I was really sad for the actual bear because the real bear OD’d (overdosed) on the drugs and died. I was so tickled by the notion that this movie could be the redemption story for that bear,” says Banks, 49, in an online press conference.
“I could avenge that original bear’s death through making this movie.”
Instead of dying, the movie bear becomes a hyper-energised drug-seeking missile, killing anyone who gets between it and one of several cocaine bundles scattered around a national park, the result of a smuggling plan gone awry.
Opening in Singapore cinemas on Thursday, it stars Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr and Alden Ehrenreich as the humans whose paths cross that of the bear’s.
Banks decided to lean into Cocaine Bear’s gory premise, despite not having done a movie like it, says the American actress, who had helmed the musical comedy Pitch Perfect 2 (2015) and action comedy Charlie’s Angels (2019).
“The movie is called Cocaine Bear. It is bold and audacious and I really felt that we needed to lean into that sensibility. There was no reason for us to be shy about any of our choices,” she adds.
Instead of dying, the movie bear becomes a hyper-energised drug-seeking missile.
PHOTO: UIP
The M18-rated movie did not have to exaggerate the amount of damage a bear can inflict.
“They don’t kill their prey before they eat them. They just eat them alive. If you look up a bear attack in Romania, you will see that bears can literally tear human beings apart. And it just made no sense to me that we would shy away from any of those choices in a movie that had to live up to its title,” says Banks. She does not appear in Cocaine Bear, but has starred in The Hunger Games films (2012 to 2015) and is the lead in abortion drama Call Jane, which also opens in Singapore cinemas on Thursday.
Director Elizabeth Banks on the set of Cocaine Bear.
PHOTO: UIP
She is not worried about her movie making people fearful of bears, the way the Steven Spielberg classic Jaws (1975) made sharks terrifying. In a 2022 interview, the Hollywood director said he regretted that his film made the public less sympathetic towards sharks, a species now in worldwide decline.
However, Banks thinks that unlike sharks, bears are hate-proof.
“I don’t think that bears are nearly as inherently scary as sharks. When you see a bear in nature, they’re furry and warm and fuzzy and cuddly. I mean, there’s a reason we give stuffed bears as toys to young children,” she says.
That adorable side can flip in a second, a fact that fascinates her, she says.
“I wanted to play with what happens when our instinct kicks in, when we realise it’s an apex predator with its sights set on us. So I don’t think anyone should interact with a bear in the wild. We should leave the bear alone. And my biggest fear, honestly, is that I will encourage people to give drugs to wild animals,” she says.
“I’m just going to say right now that’s a bad idea. Do not give drugs to wild animals.”
Cocaine Bear opens in cinemas on Thursday.
