Cocaine Bear: Elizabeth Banks Say Ray Liotta Gave Her the "Confidence" to Make a "Masculine" Movie

Cocaine Bear is being released in theaters this weekend, and it marks one of the last films to star legendary actor Ray Liotta. Liotta, who was best known for playing Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, passed away last year at age 67. In honor of Cocaine Bear's release, director Elizabeth Banks has been sharing stories about the late actor. During an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, Banks explained how Liotta gave her the confidence to make the movie.  

"I mean, I'm just so grateful that he blessed this movie that he trusted me as a director," Banks shared. "I'm a female director. I wanted to make a big [movie that] has a lot of action and CGI, and it's a very muscular, masculine kind of a project. And I've been told by people [in Hollywood], 'I don't know if you can direct those things because I don't know if male actors will follow you.' And I say to that, 'When Henry Hill follows you, you can make anything you want.' So that was the gift that Ray gave to me. He gave me the confidence to know that I can direct anybody doing anything."

How Did Elizabeth Banks Get Involved With Cocaine Bear?

"Cocaine Bear is a ginormous risk," Banks shared with a laugh in a recent interview with Variety. "This could be a career-ender for me." She explained that when she read the script, "The movie flashed before my eyes." 

Cocaine Bear was written by Jimmy Warden who sent the script to Phil Lord and Christopher Miller at their production company Lord Miller. The producing duo known for The LEGO Movie and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ended up sharing the script with Banks. Of course, Banks has worked with the duo before, having voiced Lucy AKA Wyldstyle in The LEGO Movie.

"She had a pitch deck, and it was pretty gory," Miller explained with a laugh. "It had a lot of body parts and internal organs in it." He added of the script, "It was one of those things where you hear the concept and you're like, 'That's interesting, but is there a real movie in it?'  ... But Jimmy did a great job making it into something that would be fun – better than you'd imagine for something called Cocaine Bear."

Cocaine Bear has a release date of February 24th.