Robin Williams’ Popeye movie boss, Barry Diller revealed the shocking truth about filming the movie.
The 82-year-old media mogul, who served as CEO of Paramount Pictures from 1974 to 1984, had a conversation with journalist Anderson Cooper, while promoting her autobiography, Who Knew, revealed that there was so much cocaine on the set of Popeye “you couldn’t escape it.”
“Film cans would be sent back to LA daily for processing the film. And we found out the film cans were actually being used to ship cocaine back and forth to the set. Everyone was stoned,” he confessed.
Diller added that the influence of the drug may be apparent in the final scene of the film, saying, “Think of… record speeds. If 33rpm is the standard speed for playing an LP on a record player, this is a movie that runs at 78 rpm.”
It is also pertinent to mention that the renowned comic, Robin Williams, who took his life in 2014 after a long battle with substance abuse and depression, was quite vocal about his struggles with cocaine addiction during the time Popeye was being shot.