Set of Robin Williams’ ‘Popeye’ was “snowed with cocaine”, movie boss reveals
In 1980, a 29-year-old Robin Williams played Popeye in a movie of the same name. Now, the ex-studio boss has revealed that the set of the film was “snowed with cocaine”.
Williams played the cartoon character in a musical co-starring Shelly Duvall and directed by Robert Altman. The production was famously troubled.
Speaking with Verdaily about his new autobiography, Who Knew, former Paramount Pictures CEO Barry Diller reminisced about the musical. “If you watch Popeye, you’re watching a movie that — you think of it in the thing that they used to do about record speeds, 33 (RPM), whatever. This is a movie that runs at 78 RPM and 33 speed”.
He then revealed, “They were actually shipping in film cans at the time. Film cans would be sent back to LA for daily processing film. This was shot in Malta. And we found out that the film cans were actually being used to ship cocaine back and forth to this set. Everyone was high”.
When journalist Anderson Cooper asked which movie in his career was most affected by cocaine, Diller confirmed it was ‘Popeye’. “You couldn’t escape it,” Diller exclaimed. Williams had been open about his struggles with addiction, but famously spoke of cocaine with disdain in 2010. He said ironically of the powder, “Cocaine – paranoid and impotent, what fun.”
Williams took his own life in 2014. An autopsy showed evidence of dementia, while his wife, Susan Schneider, revealed he had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
Despite this, the village set built for the film in Malta still stands to this day, where it is open to the public as a theme park and museum. Far Out wrote of this unique set: “Referred to as “Stalag Altman” by Robin Williams, the set for Popeye was certainly strange considering the rather small budget for the movie. The vast set far outweighed its practical need, and, as a result, Altman’s film is seen as a cinematic oddity, to say the least, being aesthetically marvellous but feeling rather sub-par in every other area.”
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.