Elizabeth Banks Says Her Cocaine Bear Will Kick The Revenant Bear's Butt
There are a surprising number of terrifying bears in cinema history, but Elizabeth Banks thinks that the bear in her upcoming film "Cocaine Bear" could defeat them all. The bear featured in "Cocaine Bear," affectionately called "Cokey," is a masterwork of CGI animation technology and a motion-rigged performance from Allan Henry, but if he were a real bear, Banks thinks he could even take on the bear in Alejandro González Iñárritu's 2015 survival thriller "The Revenant." "The Revenant" bear almost makes a meal out of Leonardo DiCaprio, but it was also a computer-generated bit of wizardry, and it wasn't on cocaine, so maybe she has a point.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Banks served as a one-person hype squad for the digital bear, explaining that he was based on real bears as much as possible and is basically the ultimate killer movie bear. Watch out, bear from "The Edge" — Cokey is coming ... and he's gonna get you.
The king of killer bears, baby
A whole lot of work went into making Cokey seem realistic, which is honestly pretty important given he's the movie's title character and ostensibly its star. You can't have "Snakes on a Plane" without snakes or "Jaws" without a shark, so you can't have "Cocaine Bear" without a seriously gnarly bear. The bear was created by Wētā FX, the same folks who did the special effects for Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" movies, the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies, and so much more. With that pedigree, it's guaranteed to look pretty good. Add to that an intimidating performance by Allan Henry, who trained under CG performance wizard Andy Serkis, and you've got one believable killer bear.
Elizabeth Banks explained that performing as a bear is "a whole skill set," and that it was important to hire someone with those specialized skills. She really believes in Henry's performance and the work of the CG team, however, as she told EW that "Cokey outmatches 'The Revenant' bear every time out."
The Revenant bear is a grizzly, while Cokey is a black bear, so Cokey is at a bit of a disadvantage there, but Cokey also has the white powdery nose candy to help him fight through any injuries and stay in bear-zerker mode. That honestly makes Cokey the scariest and most dangerous movie bear since the nightmare creature in "Annihilation," and unless Paddington starts doing bath salts and attacking Londoners with a chainsaw in "Paddington 3," I think Cokey might keep the crown for a long time to come.
"Cocaine Bear" will tear its way into theaters on February 24, 2023.