Unless they want to commit some sort of OSHA violation, most of the time, movies and shows are not actually using real drugs on set. You didn’t really think that they were giving cocaine bear actual cocaine, right? Not on purpose, anyway. The same goes for Breaking Bad, a show where meth is basically its own starring character.
Bryan Cranston recently spilled some Breaking Bad secrets after being tortured by spicy sauces on Hot Ones (the hot sauces are presumably real and not props, but who knows). Host Sean Evans asked about the infamous blue crystal meth shown in the AMC series, and Cranston confirmed that it was actually cotton candy-flavored rock candy, which is exactly what it looks like, but it was nice to get some confirmation.
But despite working around the stuff for years, Cranston said he avoided trying the fake drug candy until one night when Aaron Paul offered him an on-set snack. He explained:
The flavor was cotton candy rock candy. I never tasted it until one night, we were working, it was probably the 16th or 17th hour in our lab down there, and Gus Fring is making sure we’re working. And I see Aaron Paul reach into our product, a handful of our product. And starts shoving the methamphetamine in his mouth. I go, ‘what are you doing? You can’t eat the product.’ “He goes, ‘Im getting so tired, I’m eating.” I go, ‘you’re really getting a high off this? It’s sugar’ And he goes ‘you’ve tasted it,’ I go ‘no I’ve never tasted it.’ He goes, ‘Oh, you should taste it.’ I go, ‘No, I don’t think so.’
I guess I was still in character because Walter White wouldn’t. And he goes, ‘You gotta have one. [In Jesse’s voice] Yo, have one,’ is what he would say. And so, ‘All right, to shut you up…’ I tasted one and it was like, ‘That’s pretty good.’ And so they rolled the camera and he and I are just eating all the methamphetamine.
Out of context, this quote would sound potentially harmful, but the “product” in this instance is really just rock candy. It’s important that you know that. He is not actually talking about eating methamphetamine. Please do not give any ideas to Mr. Cocaine Bear.
You can watch the full episode here.
