I was immediately intrigued as to a film named Cocaine Bear.
- A bear? - Cocaine?
The cocaine bear.
I just remember thinking…
"It's a hell of a title."
Should we shoot her? No.
Let's see what kind of effect that has on it.
I really didn't think
it had anything to do with cocaine or a bear.
To the bear? It loves coke.
It was a comedy, but scary.
Damsel in distress here.
What the hell is this?
I don't like this.
There's a bear on freaking cocaine.
From page three, I hadn't even gotten to my character yet,
I was like, "Oh, I'm doing this movie."
Bears are very peaceful creatures.
Oh, shit.
When I read the character, I had that moment of…
I think the exact words were, "Fuck, yeah."
I think it died.
Come on!
It's so out there and bizarre. And the real story is out of control.
The true story of Cocaine Bear
starts way earlier than this movie.
Andrew Thornton was many things.
Lawyer, policemen, DEA agent, then drug runner himself.
Whoo!
Andrew Thornton's M.O. as a drug runner
was that he would take these airplanes and he would fly low and drop loads
that would be picked up by drug runners on the ground.
Upon realizing that his plane was going down,
he threw bags of cocaine out of his plane into the Appalachian Mountains.
It's a total mystery, what happened on the airplane.
Three months later, they found a black bear in the Chattahoochee Forest.
And the bear had consumed
what they thought was about 70 pounds of cocaine.
I essentially make comedies, and I put them inside of other movies.
And this is a comedy inside of a horror movie.
That's a fucking bear.
When I read the script, I just knew how to communicate that tone.
Painted in pink.
I have been a fan of Elizabeth for a long time.
She's got a director hat on, on this one.
I'm not gonna lie, I was bummed that I couldn't do a scene with Elizabeth.
You're not gonna do no cameo, no nothing?
Guys, I can't believe it.
I've gotten the opportunity a few times to work for actors turned directors,
and it's just wonderful.
She's so, so funny and she loves improvisation
and she has this unique feel of what is funny.
And what is true.
You annoyed the fuck out of her, it was so good.
If she says, "Look, I need a little bit more of this,"
I can trust that she's gonna put me on the right track.
How'd he take those two fingers off?
They're not even next to each other.
She's so meticulous on what she wants and so explicit on what she wants.
I think she sees it all in her head really well.
That's her gift.
That bag's worth 14 million.
We have such good luck in nature.
These characters were so well written.
The opportunity that that provides is that you have this great cast.
Apex predator, high on cocaine, and you're going towards it.
It's just a deer.
Or a raccoon. Or a possum.
Squirrel. Squirrel.
Cut!
Liz Banks and I have known each other for 25 years.
When she called me for this,
she said, "I just feel like the next natural step of our relationship
"is you getting mauled upside down in a tree by a bear."
I think I just need, like, a tiny little Band-Aid.
Margo Martindale is in this movie.
Yeah.
I believe her text said something like, um,
"Are you doing this fucking movie?"
And I was like, "Are you doing this movie? What?"
Now I'm definitely doing this movie.
Keri Russell, we did six years on The Americans together.
So, it's fun to be laughing with her instead of killing with her.
I didn't know rangers carried guns.
Park rangers are peace officers.
Which means we can shoot people.
Isiah Whitlock Jr., O'Shea Jackson and Alden Ehrenreich
elevate every single moment.
And, of course, it was a huge get to get Ray.
Holy shit.
The last person to know anything about this bear in the movie
is Syd White, played by Ray Liofta.
The fuck happened to you?
A bear did cocaine.
A bear did cocaine, Dad!
Ray Liotta in that role brings a lot of audience awareness
to a role that doesn't have a ton of screen time
and so you can feel and believe him in this role.
When did you all get so soft?
All got sand in your pussies.
I mean, he's one of the all-time greats
and one of the best actors I've ever worked with.
You left my son in Saint Louis.
Do I look like "daddy day care center" to you?
The movie's called Cocaine Bear.
So finding two kid actors to be in the movie
we always thought it was going to be a little tough.
It's drugs, I think.
You know, it's usually more powdery on the streets.
Christian Convery and Brooklynn Prince just came in and nailed it.
They were top choices the whole time.
So, in this scene that I'm currently filming, we go and try some cocaine.
Shit!
Which we shall never do in real life because that is not good for you.
Let's do more! I think you've had enough.
I did the cocaine
and the funny thing was when we turn around, the bear sneezes cocaine on us.
And because kids can't actually be around cocaine,
you have this machine, they shoot sugar on us.
And it's hilarious.
This is Cokey the Bear, meet Cokey. Cokey, audience. Audience, Cokey.
One of the first things Liz said to us
is, like, the emphasis for her is that it has to be a photoreal bear.
Otherwise, the whole thing falls apart.
We knew we needed to find a great bear performer
to work with us on the film.
We have a bear on set.
And his name is Allan.
And he walks around on these sticks with this helmet.
Allan Henry really stood out.
Oh, hey, what's up?
My role in this film is I am the physical performer for Cokey the Bear.
What Allan's able to do, kind of becoming the physicality of the bear,
and that's so much more useful for the actors.
Oh, fuck.
We wanted somebody who can perform
and gives us the right height, at least for the bear,
and give the actors an eye line to work with.
I wanted somebody that was a big enough stunt guy
that could really throw people around.
You know, really do the stunt work that was also required of this bear.
Climbing, jumping, falling, hitting the ground,
throwing people around.
I have two sets of arm extensions,
so that when I'm crouched down on all fours,
I'm relatively at the same height.
And then I also have this,
which has a really lovely,
soft, kind of, bear snout that's been made by the team at Weta Workshop.
It is actually my first time working with a man in a bear costume.
But I actually have worked with him before.
So it's pretty cool knowing that my friend is a bear.
Cokey is a pretty interesting character.
So it's been fun trying to figure out exactly how she's navigating these scenes.
Liz keeps telling us she's not the bad guy here.
She just loves coke and she wants to play.
And if people get in the way…
It's just so wacky and original
and artistically kind of fun and also a really, really a good time.
I would say it's the most fun cocaine-addled bear story.
I would say this is the most fun coked-up animal of any kind story.
I think you're right, Phil.
WHITLOCK, JR.: You start getting into a deeper level
how we, you know, get into nature and how we deal with animals.
You can't blame nature for turning around on us
when all we're doing is fucking with nature.
I'm not leaving without that cocaine!
This bear is for real.
She's a survivor.
It was really important to me that the bear in our film,
become the hero of the movie.