[Video] Elizabeth Banks On Getting Kids To Drop The F-Bomb In Horror-Comedy Cocaine Bear

Everything you need to know about Elizabeth Banks’ Cocaine Bear is in the title.

The M18-rated horror/action-comedy, now in cinemas, is about a bear that did shitloads of, well, cocaine.

And it’s based on a true story. In 1985, a 80kg black bear living in the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia ingested 30kg of Colombian nose candy dropped in an aerial dope run gone awry. In reality, the bear OD-ed.

But the movie stretches the truth a bit — er, a big bit — by reimagining what transpires before the furry beast bought the farm.

The coked-up apex predator —  photo-realistically created by the Peter Jackson-owned FX shop, WETA — goes on a rampage, mauling anyone who gets in its way of getting high.

The motley crew of oddballs the bear encounters include a single mum (Keri Russell) and her precious daughter (Brooklynn Prince); a trio of drug dealers (Alden Ehrenreich, O’Shea Jackson Jr and Ray Liotta, in his final screen appearance before his death last May); a soon-to-retire cop (Isiah Whitlock Jr); a gun-totting park ranger (Margo Martindale, another The Americans alum); and an animal-rights activist (Jesse Tyler Ferguson).

Banks’ excursion in the wilderness — following her underwhelming 2019 Charlie's Angels reboot — is gleefully bonkers, filled with gory situations, colourful characters and punchy quips (“The bear did cocaine!”), and amid the madness, there's still room for a poignant bromance.

Plus, you have kids sampling coke and dropping F-bombs? Seriously, what’s not to like?

8days.sg recently spoke to Banks and her cast via Zoom from LA and asked how much of a bear expert they’ve become after making the movie.

Elizabeth Banks

Keri Russell 

Alden Ehrenreich and O'Shea Jackson, Jr

Cocaine Bear (M18) is now in cinemas. Watch more interviews on meWATCH and Mediacorp YouTube Channel.

Photos: TPG News/Click Photos, UIP