White out

>> Ted Demme gets cocaine on the brain with Blow

by MATTHEW HAYS

It might seem odd that a film about a trailblazing cocaine dealer might say as much about marijuana as it does about cocaine, but Blow does. And director Ted Demme says it was meant that way.

"Yeah, the scenes at the opening of the film, where the characters are into grass, are pleasant and carefree," he confirms. "Then, when the coke enters the scene, things get very, very dark. Cinematically, I wanted to talk about the innocence America lost when it went from pot to coke."

And that's a loss Demme conveys well, directing the real-life story of legendary cocaine dealer George Jung, credited as one of the people who brought cocaine in bulk to America in the '70s, thereby setting off a widespread drug craze. "Six years ago, my friend Denis Leary gave me the book about Jung [written by Bruce Porter, also titled Blow], and I went to meet him in prison. He's a very intoxicating person, very fun and very sad at once. He seemed to have so many different people within him, so many sad and amazing stories."

Dodging cops and clichés

Blow follows Jung, played smoothly by Johnny Depp, as he survives an impoverished childhood committed to never having to worry about money again. The pledge leads him to dope dealing and eventually cocaine dealing. Almodovar vet Penelope Cruz plays his money-worshipping addict wife, and Paul Reubens (aka Pee-wee Herman, in a very inspired bit of casting) plays one of his drug dealing partners, a gay hairdresser.

Through it all, Jung is seen fairly sympathetically, as a man who struggles with his own addiction, dodges the police and tries desperately to develop a loving relationship with his daughter. Though Demme says Jung's story was "very unique," he also acknowledges some trepidation about moving into drug-movie territory. Drugs have been done before onscreen, and done very well indeed. The director, whose oeuvre includes Beautiful Girls and The Ref, said part of the challenge was to avoid clichés. "There is the classic rise and fall and rise and fall part of George's life. But the heart of the film is a love story between a son and his father [Ray Liotta plays Jung's father] and later a father and his daughter. In the latter part of the film, I wanted to develop the sense of loss over George's relationship with his daughter. I felt the film would be special if I focussed on this." Demme says he did think about two films that influenced him a great deal: Scorsese's Goodfellas and Brian De Palma's remake Scarface. "Goodfellas' use of voiceover was perfect," says Demme. "I loved Scarface, but at the same time I knew that that was the movie I didn't want to make. The over-the-top coke scenes had been done before."

An epic tragedy

As well as Jung's biography, Demme and screenwriters David McKenna and Nick Cassavetes relied on interviews with Jung, his ex-wife and daughter. "I speak with them quite frequently," he says. And surprisingly, Jung's ex-wife Mirtha had no issue with Blow, despite her coming across very unfavourably. "I think she saw this as a way to turn the page on this chapter of her life," says Demme. "She really is one of the great tragedies of this story. She was very young when she met George. She was taken in by the money and glamour and ended up hooked on cocaine. I think she feels that if she can turn one young woman away from this scene, she will have done some good."

And the casting of the children's TV star who fell from grace, Reubens? "The inspiration came while I was watching episodes of Pee-wee's Playhouse with my four-year-old daughter. That show was brilliant. I wondered what Paul was up to, so I had him over for brunch. That character in the book we couldn't get legal clearance for in the film, so we just gave Paul a very basic description and he built the character entirely from there."

Blow opens Friday, April 6