Legendary actor, writer and director Peter Fonda has appeared in over 70 films. These include \u201cWild Angels,\u201d \u201cThe Trip,\u201d \u201cEscape from LA,\u201d \u201cGhost Rider,\u201d and the acclaimed \u201cUlee\u2019s Gold,\u201d for which he won both the Golden Globe and NY Film Critics Choice awards for Best Actor. But it was his breakthrough role as star-spangled biker Wyatt in the landmark 1969 film \u201cEasy Rider\u201d that established Fonda as a true counterculture icon. Hailed as the \u201ctouchstone for a generation,\u201d and voted \u201cTop Drug Movie of All Time\u201d by High Times magazine, the film co-starred Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper (who also directed), and was conceived and co-written by Fonda himself \u2014 earning him an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. Now, on the 50tth anniversary of filming \u201cEasy Rider\u201d, Fonda discusses the role that marijuana has played in both his cinematic masterpiece and his newest film, \u201cBoundaries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cannabis Now:\u00a0\u201cEasy Rider<\/a>\u201d was groundbreaking in several ways: its cinematography, its use of rock music in the soundtrack and of course it\u2019s non-propagandistic portrayal of drug use\u2014particularly in the notorious campfire scene, in which you get Jack Nicholson\u2019s character George high for the first time. You guys smoked a real joint in that scene, did you not?<\/strong><\/p>\n Peter Fonda: Oh yeah. I got Jack so totally ripped on this really good pot that I\u2019d gotten from David Crosby. All the time we were off camera, I would fire up the joint and pass it to Jack. By the time we did his single shot, he was out of his gourd.<\/p>\n But Jack was so good \u2014 he was rocking the scene until he came to the line, \u201cMeeting people from all walks of life\u201d then he just stumbled and laughed. [Dennis] Hopper knew he was ripped, and said, \u201cNo, no, you\u2019re fine \u2014 just go ahead.\u201d So Jack, in character, asks the script clerk, \u201cWell, well, uh, wh-where was I?\u201d and started it over again.<\/p>\n The way we cut the scene, when he does his whole speech about the Venusians coming down and he gets to that part when he laughs, it\u2019s that perfect stoner moment where you\u2019re telling a story and you get flung off to some other place, and you lost the story you were telling.<\/p>\n I\u2019m guessing you smoked a lot behind the scenes too.<\/strong><\/p>\n We didn\u2019t smoke as much as everybody thinks, because we had a lot of riding shots and I was trying to control my motorcycle at 25 miles an hour. [Slow because filmgoers have to see the background, it can\u2019t be just a blur.] So we weren\u2019t puffing that much. Of course, I was 28, so it wasn\u2019t affecting me as if it would today. Like with \u201cBoundaries<\/a>,\u201d the movie that we\u2019re promoting right now, here\u2019s this scene\u2026 have you seen the movie?<\/p>\n Yeah, I\u2019ve seen it.<\/strong><\/p>\n Cool. Well in this scene, there\u2019s Christopher Plummer\u2026 who in my mind, is the finest Shakespearean actor in all the Americas. Both on stage and on screen \u2014 outrageously good performances, just the best. So we\u2019re doing this scene, and there\u2019s Christopher and he\u2019s got the pot and he\u2019s doing his deliveries, and I thought, \u201cThis is so far out \u2014 the finest Shakespearean actor in the Americas is dealing pot to Easy Rider!\u201d<\/p>\n Just so our audience understands what we\u2019re talking about: \u201cBoundaries\u201d features Academy Award winner Christopher Plummer as an elderly\u00a0pot grower<\/a>\u00a0who\u2019s reconnecting with his estranged daughter and grandson during a road trip while secretly selling off his stash to a cast of colorful characters along the way. You play one of those characters, Joey Carlyle, who\u2019s an old friend of Plummer\u2019s character, Jack, and in one scene the two of you get high together.<\/strong><\/p>\n I really had fun doing that scene\u2026 it was hysterical. Chris Plummer has been a friend of mine since I was 18 (when he was in a film with my dad), so when you first see us meet on camera and we throw our arms around each other, there\u2019s such a truthfulness to that because I\u2019d known him for so many years.<\/p>\n You two smoking and reminiscing is my favorite scene in the film. I don\u2019t suppose you guys smoked real weed in that scene like you did in \u201cEasy Rider?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n (Laughs.) No, we didn\u2019t. We couldn\u2019t use real pot. We had a long shoot that day, and I don\u2019t think it would\u2019ve been fair to Christopher to just start passing real pot to him.<\/p>\n But you do still smoke, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n Now, when people ask me about smoking pot, I say, \u201cWell, yeah \u2014 when I\u2019m about to\u00a0go to bed<\/a>, but not if I\u2019m working, not if I\u2019m trying to finish a scene.\u201d When I was 20 it was a whole different scene. When I was writing the story for \u201cEasy Rider\u201d and getting it all together and making my notes, I was stoned out of my gourd. (Laughs.) I had a couple of\u00a0doobies<\/a>, and I think a couple of bottles of Heineken. So I was feeling no pain, and the story just flowed out of me. But I\u2019m 50 years older now.<\/p>\n And still going strong, thankfully\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes. At one point, I came up to Christopher and said, \u201cWe have to keep on meeting like this because it means we\u2019re always working.\u201d At my age, to go to work and have a lot of fun and know that you don\u2019t have to retire\u2026there\u2019s no retirement age on acting. I mean, Clint Eastwood is still directing in his late eighties, you know? In fact, one of my goals is to die \u201cin the saddle.\u201d<\/p>\n I want to be working on a film and hear, \u201cOkay, that\u2019s a cut, and that\u2019s a wrap on the picture!\u201d Thud! I just drop and die, and everyone\u2019s going, \u201cWhat the fuck happened to Fonda?\u201d Or on stage\u2026 there we are, ready to take the curtain call, the curtain\u2019s going up, I drop, and the cast looks back like, \u201cOh yikes\u2014he\u2019s dead!\u201d (Laughs.)<\/p>\n \u201cBoundaries,\u201d directed by Shana Feste and starring Christopher Plummer, Vera Farmiga, Christopher Lloyd and Peter Fonda, opens in select theaters on June 22.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>,\u00a0what is your favorite depiction of marijuana in a movie?<\/p>\n The post \u2018Easy Rider\u2019 Peter Fonda Returns to Pot in New Film<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Legendary actor, writer and director Peter Fonda has appeared in over 70 films. These include \u201cWild Angels,\u201d \u201cThe Trip,\u201d \u201cEscape from LA,\u201d \u201cGhost Rider,\u201d and the acclaimed \u201cUlee\u2019s Gold,\u201d for which he won both the Golden Globe and NY Film Critics Choice awards for Best Actor. But it was hisContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4595,50,4596,4597,4598,4599,86,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26972"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26973,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26972\/revisions\/26973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: \u2018Easy Rider\u2019 Peter Fonda Returns to Pot in New Film<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"