Cocaine Bear is actually kind of about the War On Drugs, per director Elizabeth Banks
Elizabeth Banks says her new thriller serves as a "revenge story" for her leading bear, aptly nicknamed Cokey
Add it to the list of things that Nancy Reagan wouldn’t approve of were she here today: Elizabeth Banks’ latest film Cocaine Bear. The premise of the project is as simple as the two words that make up its name: there’s a bear, and that bear does copious amounts of cocaine.
Inspired by true events that transpired in Georgia in 1985, Cocaine Bear follows a wild bear—charmingly referred to as “Cokey” on set—that ingests millions of dollars worth of cocaine after a smuggling operation goes off the rails.
“I knew when I read the script that I had the ability to make something truly unique,” Banks tells Entertainment Weekly in a new interview, also sharing that the period of stimulant-induced chaos was a “fun chapter in that bear’s story” to explore.