*“Cocaine Bear” is one of the most hotly anticipated movies of 2023, and we caught up with two of the film’s stars to unpack this insane true story about a blood-thirsty bear and a missing drug runner in the mid-’80s.
Per the official synopsis: Inspired by the 1985 true story of a drug runner’s plane crash, missing cocaine, and the black bear that ate it, this wild dark comedy finds an oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists and teens converging in a Georgia forest where a 500- pound apex predator has ingested a staggering amount of cocaine and gone on a coke-fueled rampage for more blow … and blood.
As a fan of classic horror films of the 70s and 80s, director Elizabeth Banks said “Cocaine Bear” pays homage to that era.
“For me, as an audience member, and as somebody who had aspired to make films, I have always loved horror and comedy together,” Banks said in a statement via Universal Pictures. “Horror and comedy are two sides of the same coin to me. The best thing you can do is take the audience on a real roller coaster, making them laugh, making them scream, making them jump. That’s what the goal was in making this film. I really felt like this was the opportunity to layer real true comedy, laugh-out-loud moments, with a real sense of suspense and a lot of gore, and have a great time with this big, bright, broad idea of this bear that’s going to fuck some people up.”
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Banks saw this project as a unique opportunity to work with visual effects on a major scale.
“That was one of the reasons I wanted to direct it,” Banks said. “I think a lot of women don’t get the opportunity to do things with a lot of green screen and effects and action because of this assumption that women aren’t interested in that sort of thing. I wanted to prove that that’s a myth. That was one of the reasons that I really liked the idea of doing it. I just love the challenge. And I really wanted to learn a new set of skills.”
“Cocaine Bear” stars Keri Russell (The Americans), as Sari, a gutsy, skilled nurse who takes on the bear to protect her precocious 12-year-old daughter. O’Shea Jackson, Jr. (Straight Outta Compton), also stars as a criminal named Daveed who, along with his two cohorts (Alden Ehrenreich and the late-great Ray Liotta) are on the hunt for the missing cocaine.
Jackson was a “Cocaine Bear” fan before he signed on for the film.
“I was on Twitter and saw that Elizabeth Banks was doing a movie called Cocaine Bear and I just remembered thinking that’s a hell of a title,” the actor said in a statement via Universal Pictures. “I looked up the story, saw it was going to be nuts, and re-tweeted it and everything. Little did I know that behind the scenes, they wanted me.”
We further dished with Jackson and Russell on what they’re most excited about fans experiencing when “Cocaine Bear” opens in theaters nationwide on Feb. 24. Check out my 2-part video exclusive with stars below.
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