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7 Times Actors Were High Out Of Their Mind On Set

It shouldn't come as any surprise to you that actors and actresses have been high or drunk out of their minds on set for as long as they have been producing movies and television. It has been part of the Hollywood "lifestyle" and it isn't likely to change anytime soon.

This list could go on for days, and it will include some people that won't surprise you in the least. But some of the names on this list will blindside you, making you wonder what else goes on behind the scenes of movie sets.

1. Jack Nicholson - Easy Rider (and likely every movie he has ever done)

Jack Nicholson is the wildest man in Hollywood. His rampant drug and alcohol use is a long-standing joke among his peers and audiences. Robin Williams once said that Jack is the only man on the planet that could make Keith Richards want to go home and get some rest. On the set of Easy Rider while filming the campfire scene, Jack smoked real joints. Every time they needed to film a new angle, he wound up lighting another joint, leading him to be extremely high, even by his own standards.


2. Matthew Perry - Friends

Perry has become quite open and outspoken about his drug use during the 90s, especially while he was filming for Friends. He admitted to taking a ton of Vicodin throughout the 90s, to the point where he claims to not remember three years of filming the show. He was once asked about what his favorite episode was, and he responded that he didn't remember.

Movie Pilot

3. Wesley Snipes - Blade III

According to his Blade III costar Patton Oswalt, Snipes would just sit in his trailer all day and smoke weed the entire time. I guess it would be a lot easier to do your job if you were filming the third movie of a trilogy about a half-human, half-vampire ninja warrior. And the third movie was pretty stupid, so can you blame Snipes for taking a little of the edge off?


4. Robert Downey Jr. - Less Than Zero

Downey Jr.'s struggles with substance abuse are well documented, and he even ended up spending a little time in jail for his indiscretions. But he said before he starred in Less Than Zero, where he played a character who was a junkie, he left his drugs and boozing to after work and on weekends. If anything, he ended up becoming a lot more like the character he was playing than he likely should have.

The Film Magazine

Keep reading to find out who else was a little messed up on set.

5. Carrie Fisher - The Empire Strikes Back

In the years before her death, Fisher was very open about her struggles with substance abuse. She said that she used to do cocaine on the set of The Empire Strikes Back, in the ice planet set, and that she would do whatever it took to get high at that point in her career. Her drug abuse was mitigated because it was apparently hard to get coke back then on the set of movies.  

The Daily Dot

6. Gunnar Hansen - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Hansen played Leatherface in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Would you find it terrifying to know that for some of the time that he was swinging that chainsaw around, and chasing people, that he was high out of his mind from eating weed brownies that one of the catering people brought?

Scared Stiff Reviews

7. Ethan Embry - Can't Hardly Wait

Embry claims that he was so high from smoking a ton of weed while filming Can't Hardly Wait, that he doesn't even know what the movie is really about. He claims he never even read the full script, and he has never seen the movie all the way through to the end. Man, how high does one have to be to make an iconic 90s teen comedy and not even realize what is going on around you?


Did you expect these actors to have been as messed up as the were on set? Let us know in the comments.