Elizabeth Banks is worried about her mother seeing Cocaine Bear

‘My poor mother is the least informed,’ Banks says

Elizabeth Banks says she’s worried about her mother seeing Cocaine Bear when it opens on Friday (24 February).

The movie, which Banks directed, follows a black bear in Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, that goes on a rampage after consuming vast quantities of lost cocaine.

In an interview with Variety, Banks said “no one knows what to make of [the movie when I tell them about it”.

“My poor mother is the least informed,” the actor- turned-director added. “She’s going to go with my aunts and they’re going to lose their minds.

“I told her she’s going to be mad. She will laugh and she’s going to love Margo Martindale and Isiah Whitlock Jr and the dog. Not enough people talk about the dog, Rosette. She’ll love those parts, but she’ll close her eyes for a lot of it.”

Cocaine Bear stars Keri Russell of The Americans, as well an ensemble cast that includes her husband Matthew Rhys, Margo Martindale, O’Shea Jackson Jr, Alden Ehrenreich and Jesse Tyler Ferguson.

It also features one of the final ever movie performances of Goodfellas actor Ray Liotta, who died while filming the movie Dangerous Waters in the Dominican Republic in May last year.

Read more about the true story behind the movie here.

Film - Cocaine Bear (© 2022 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.)

Earlier this month, Banks discussed a controversial scene in the movie where two children, played by Brooklynn Prince and Christian Convery, try cocaine.

“It was definitely controversial,” Banks told Variety.

“There were conversations about, should we age up these characters? We all kind of held hands and we were like, ‘Guys, they’ve got to be 12.’ It’s their innocence being tested,” she said.

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“That’s what was interesting to me about that scene.”

Producer Christopher Miller added: “It’s the naïveté of the kids that makes it okay. It’s what makes it so tense and funny. It doesn’t work if they’re teenagers. It has to be that age where you don’t know anything, but you want to pretend like you do.”