Brooklynn Prince and Christian Convery inCocaine Bear(2023).Photo: Universal Pictures/YouTube

Elizabeth Banks Defends ‘Controversial’ Cocaine Bear Scene of Kids on Drugs: ‘There Were Conversations’

Elizabeth Banksis making a case for one ofCocaine Bear’s “controversial” scenes involving children.

“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,” she said. “That’s what was interesting to me about that scene.”

Producer Christopher Miller added, “It’s the naïveté of the kids that makes it okay. It’s what makes it so tense and funny. It doesn’t work if they’re teenagers. It has to be that age where you don’t know anything, but you want to pretend like you do.”

Art Streiber for Variety

Elizabeth Banks Variety cover https://app.asana.com/0/1202556224425358/1203910286109460/f credit: Art Streiber for Variety

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“I lived throughZach and Miri Make a Porno, and the title was a problem,” she said, referring to the 2008 Kevin Smith comedy she co-starred in withSeth Rogen. “But I thinkZach and Miri Make a Pornonow would be like, ‘Whatever.’ I don’t really think anyone would even shy away from it. Because words don’t matter anymore. Words really don’t matter anymore.”

Also in theVarietyinterview, Banks reflected on her own real-life approach to drugs, saying she never experimented with cocaine: “I took ‘Just say no’ to heart. Being a goody-two-shoes played into it. Personal safety played a big role in it. I was a cocktail waitress for years. And I was not interested in not being sober for the s— I saw.”

Cocaine Bear— which also stars Keri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich, Margo Martindale, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Jesse Tyler Ferguson and the late Ray Liotta — is in theaters Feb. 24.

source: people.com