LOS ANGELES (AP) — A documentary filmmaker was surprised by the candor of the movie stars he interviewed for a film about how Hollywood deals with the subject of drug abuse.
Bruce Sinofsky, whose AMC documentary “Hollywood High” was scheduled to air Monday, said director Oliver Stone admitted trying the hallucinogen peyote to get inspiration for “The Doors,” the story of rocker Jim Morrison.
Sinofsky said Willem Dafoe told him the star and his friends used to get high to watch Disney’s animated “Fantasia” when they were young. Writer-director John Waters claimed “100 percent” of the audience, crew and actors were high on marijuana for the premiere of his offbeat 1972 comedy “Pink Flamingos,” Sinofsky said.
“What I didn’t expect was the honesty, the truthful interviews I was doing. I didn’t expect them to be talking about their own drug experiences that openly,” Sinofsky said.
Sinofsky’s film traces the evolution of drug films, from the 1938 cautionary tale “Reefer Madness” and the 1970s marijuana comedies of Cheech and Chong to recent films like “Requiem for a Dream” and “Traffic” about the destructive effects of cocaine and heroin.