Cocaine Bear Director Elizabeth Banks Reveals How She Landed Star-Studded Cast

By Jamie Jirak

Cocaine Bear is hitting theaters this weekend, and the movie's wacky title has already earned it a lot of attention. Director Elizabeth Banks has joked that the movie could be a "career-ender," but she still managed to score some big names for the project. The film is set to star Keri Russell (The Americans), Margo Martindale (The Americans), Ray Liotta (The Many Saints of Newark), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story), O'Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Outta Compton), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family), Kristofer Hivju (Game of Thrones), Kahyun Kim (American Gods), Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth), Brooklynn Prince (The Florida Project), and newcomer Scott Seiss. During a recent interview with Syfy, Banks talked about getting the cast to sign up for the project.

"It's super easy with Jessie," Banks shared with a laugh (Banks and Ferguson are longtime friends and appeared in many episodes of Modern Family together). "And Margo was like, 'I want to come. I think it's gonna be really fun. But this really seems insane.'" Banks explained that Martindale was worried about performing the stunts, but she assured the Emmy-winning actor that they would make it look real without putting her in danger. "I get it. She's 70 years old," Banks explained. "She's not a stunt woman and it's really physical. I think she read it as a fun character who will flirt with Jesse but how would I do all the physicality? I really had to reassure her that we would take care of her."

"Keri really is the actual center of the movie in that she's almost a straight woman," Banks continued. "She grounds it, right? We said about Pitch Perfect 2, you can have Fat Amy and Cynthia Rose and Anna Camp puking because Anna Kendrick is just grounding it all, watching everybody be crazy around her. I think you always need that grounding presence in a movie. And to me, that was Keri."

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She added of Liotta with a laugh, "He came so joyfully and was game to do it. And he knew what he was getting into ... My favorite memory, frankly, is the day that he wrapped ... We shot his very final scene on the ledge of a waterfall and he's covered in blood and guts; laying there. We wrapped him and then he gave a really beautiful speech to the crew, thanking all of them and talking about how everyone assumes he's Italian because he's played these Italians. He actually found out through his genetic tests that he was mostly Irish, so being in Ireland was really meaningful to him. And it truly brought all of us to tears. It was just so lovely."

Cocaine Bear hits theaters on February 24th. 

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