‘Cocaine Bear’ director on tackling the R-rated horror-comedy
The Business
KCRW
4.6 • 676 Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Director-producer Elizabeth Banks understood the challenges of making the mixed-genre horror-comedy “Cocaine Bear.”
“I knew that if we could just create inside the movie the sense of chaos that the bear represented, that the title represented, that the ride was for theater goers, the comedy really came second to me,” she states. “I didn't want to make a comedy, if you will. It ended up being really funny, though.”
Banks talks about hearing the call of destiny with “Cocaine Bear,” releasing the raunchy R-rated horror-comedy in theaters, working with Ray Liotta, and how she has dealt with failures in her career.
But first, Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch defends company against Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit. Kim Masters and Matt Belloni discuss if his justification is surprising.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is The Business. |
| 0:05.8 | When Elizabeth Banks caught wind that creative duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were searching for a director to make a movie titled Cocaine Bear, she heard the call of destiny. |
| 0:16.3 | I read the script in April 2020. There was fires all over LA. Like the world was so chaotic. |
| 0:23.6 | And I remember thinking, wow, no greater metaphor for the chaos all around us than a bear high in |
| 0:28.7 | cocaine. Cocaine bear director Elizabeth Banks talks about the risks of releasing a raunchy, R-rated |
| 0:34.6 | comedy in theaters, working with the late actor Ray Liotta on one of his last films, |
| 0:39.8 | and how she dealt with the failure of her 2019 Charlie's Angels remake. But first we banter. Stick around. |
| 0:46.6 | It's the business from KCRW. |
| 0:59.6 | I am joined by my colleague in banter, Matt Bellany. |
| 1:00.2 | Hello, Matt. |
| 1:01.0 | Hi there. |
| 1:12.7 | So let me begin by talking about Lockland Murdoch and the Fox News scandal that has been revealed through this lawsuit brought by the people who make the Dominion voting machines, which were cited as part of some big conspiracy to steal the |
| 1:18.6 | election from Trump. |
| 1:19.6 | And as you know, Matt, lots of internal communications from Fox have become public through |
| 1:24.4 | this litigation. |
| 1:25.7 | And it is clear that everybody from top to bottom |
| 1:28.9 | knew that the election wasn't stolen from Trump, and they perpetuated this story. So this has been |
| 1:34.8 | a gigantic media scandal. I'm just going to note this Lachlan Murdoch quote at this Morgan Stanley |
| 1:41.1 | conference this week. He says, I think a lot of the noise that you hear about |
| 1:44.7 | this case is not actually about the law, and it's not about journalism. It's really about the politics, |
| 1:50.5 | right? And that's unfortunately more reflective of that sort of polarized society that we live in |
| 1:56.8 | today. And I just would like to enter this under the category of what is Hutzpah? Because if we have a |
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