Patrick Stoner welcomes
your questions about movies and the people who make them. Send your
questions to
pstoner@whyy.org.
Here's the current question and answer...
Q: How much drug usage have you noticed in Hollywood?
A: Lots.
Well, I see the EFFECTS of it. I've never actually seen anybody DOING it. This obviously is a bit touchy.
I don't want to give the wrong impression. Most stars and directors are professional, courteous and delightful. Those, after all, are the qualities that help them survive in a very tough business.
However, some actors have been very casual and obvious about their drug use even during major media interview sessions. I can't -- and shouldn't -- be too specific, but I can give you the example of one actor whom I first met 10 years ago.
I began the interview noting he had been playing "mavericks" in a number of films. His reaction was extreme. He glowered and said, "So, I play mavericks, do I? That's what I do? Huh?"
Perhaps he had misunderstood the tone of my question. I tried another phrasing: "Well, pleasant rogues, I guess you would call them. We like them. Why do you think we like pleasant rogues so much?"
My attempt at soothing him was no help. Instead, he answered with a withering look, "I don't know. Do you?" He sneered through the rest of the interview, and his eyes were filled with antagonism. I left feeling deeply resentful.
A few months later, I interviewed this same actor again. Before entering the room, I checked him out in the monitor room where the technicians keep an eye on the interviews. CNN was interviewing him, and he refused to look at their interviewer and kept talking to the crew. When she left, she had nothing usable.
I was next. I went in and sat in the interviewer's chair. When the actor looked up and realized who I was, he stuck out his tongue and fled into the bathroom. I just sat there wondering what Roger Ebert does when actors stick their tongues out at HIM and leave the room.
The noises emanating from that bathroom sounded like a herd of buffalo snorting and sniffing their way across the plains. Of course, the symptoms -- excitability, paranoia, and nasal sounds -- made me suspect he didn't simply have allergies. He came back into the room, sat down, fastened his eyes on me while his head kept jerking around, did the interview, and then -- just as I was closing it out -- crossed between me and the camera and to go out the door. His next stop was a nearby hospitality suite, where he played the piano like a madman for half an hour.
I heard a few years later that this actor went through the Betty Ford Center and is now a loving husband and father. Wouldn't you call that noticing drug usage?
There have been others -- many others -- who've acted bizarrely in my presence and soon after ended up on the evening news with allegations of major drug use. This is a business with innumerable pressures, lots of money, and tons of people ready to get you anything you want to ingratiate themselves with you. Given those facts, it's amazing that the overwhelming majority of Hollywood's success stories are as normal as they are.