This weekend and next, I have an acting gig where I will be required to do two lines of “cocaine” (lactose powder). I do the lines off a stripper’s body, as one does, and then get stabbed to death. It should be good fun.
My only problem is I’ve never done coke or seen anyone do it, and I have no idea how to act this out. The movie is in the style of a 70s exploitation flick, so I think I can go a little over the top, but I can’t go all Lloyd Bridges in Airplane on it. Can anyone point me to a decent clip showing how a real cocaine user would snort it, and what the affects would be in the first ten minutes or so? Assume I’m a habitual user.
Cocaine is a numbing agent. If you snorted cocaine, the tip of your nose would be numb/tingly, causing you to think it’s running, making you frequently ‘sniff’. (As it goes down your throat, your tongue will also numb…this is considered a good thing)
Also, it’s a stimulant, so it will cause your heart to race, your pupils to dilate, your body to fidget, and your mind to ‘race’.
So, acting high on coke could involve:
Sniffing loudly at random intervals
Touching/rubbing your tingly nose
Fidgeting with your hands/unable to stand still
Getting ‘wide-eyed’
Talking quickly/rambling (you may not be able to improvise lines, but you might consider saying them as if you had just ingested a whole lot of coffee)
Becoming overly exuberant
Observe yourself when tired and when brimming with energy. If you like a strong cup of coffee in the morning, that’d be a good time to take note. (Hint: don’t do any of the tired things.) It’s very much the way you’d feel after having two or more cups in the morning. Like the drug itself, a little will go a long way, so don’t overdo it.
Your part reminds me of Woody Allen’s lines in What’s New, Pussycat.
Michael James: Did you find a job?
Victor Skakapopulis: Yeah, I got something at the striptease. I help the girls dress and undress.
Michael James: Nice job.
Victor Skakapopulis: Twenty francs a week.
Michael James: Not very much.
Victor Skakapopulis: It’s all I can afford.
That’s amazing. Thanks. My part is pretty short. It’s my only scene, and I get killed in it. But if I take the approach that I start out pretty high and now I’m trying to bump it up or keep it going, I can do a bit of fidgeting and sniffing throughout my 10 minutes or so.
Cool, thanks. I don’t have many lines, but I think I have enough to get the quick talking/rambling in. I talk pretty fast anyway, so this shouldn’t be a stretch for me.
Before I get stabbed to death, I try to shoot my enemy. I empty the gun but miss. I can try to do a jumpy, jittery, spray and pray. Which is probably about how I’d handle a gun in real life, to be perfectly honest.
Any other good clips I can study?
Aside: another movie I was on last year had me drinking Jack straight from the bottle. I assumed it would be tea or something. Nope! The director handed me a bottle with the seal still intact. Ah, the joys of doing student films!
After the first line, don’t immediately switch to the other nostril and snort the second. Do a few quick sniffs with the first nostril to make sure you got it all, blink, scrunch up your nose like it’s burning, then finally go for #2.
I would imagine if you’re actually snorting lactose powder, you won’t have to pretend that your eyes are watering.
Can you score some of that lactose powder to practice with and see how your body reacts to it? I wouldn’t want to go into something like that not knowing how it would feel. Or if I’m allergic. If nothing else, you’d be embarrassed to shut down production while you went into a coughing fit.
In Pulp Fiction, Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) snorts some coke in the bathroom of Jack Rabbit Slim’s before the dance scene. I bet you could find it online, it’s pretty accurate.
