Actors in Ecstasy film try 'chemical inspiration'

Actors in a short film about Ecstasy to be screened this week on Channel 4, took the dance-drug on set as a form of "method acting", it was revealed last night, writes Ros Wynne-Jones.

Coming Down, which follows five young people through the course of a night in which they take drugs, including Ecstasy and cocaine, is to be shown on Thursday at midnight as the first in a new series of the Shooting Gallery dramas.

The film, billed as "authentically portraying recreational drug use", adds to controversy surrounding Channel 4's programming, following the showing of the movie Trainspotting and last night's planned screening of The Prodigy's violent "Smack My Bitch Up" video.

Set insiders claimed that some of the cast of Coming Down took Ecstasy during one of the 10 days of filming in order to "encourage a faithful representation of what it was like to use the drug". Drugs welfare agencies, including Manchester Lifeline, have praised the film as an authentic and non-judgemental depiction of people using ecstasy.

Matt Winn, 32, the film's director, admitted last night: "People weren't running around the set off their heads, but there is a very little bit where the method acting meets reality. On one day there was a small amount of very informal chemical inspiration ... In the end it wasn't actually very helpful."

He had made the film, funded by Virgin Records, because he wanted to "make something which was honest", he said. "We were fed up of seeing dramas which were a false approximation of our culture."

Sheila Whitfield, who plays Rachel in the film, said: "When actually taking drugs was suggested, I said 'no way'. In the end Matt said he didn't want to know who was taking what and we didn't know who did what either. The bits where everybody looks completely off their faces, everyone is completely straight. It's a very brave film."

A spokesman for Channel 4 said the film was already completed when the channel purchased it. "We really cannot comment on anything that allegedly took place during production," he said.