Mikael Persbrandt plays shape-shifter Beorn in the last two Hobbit movies. In The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, he helps Gandalf, Bilbo, and the dwarfs hide from orcs, and he can also transform into a bear. The actor who played Beorn has allegedly transformed into a cocaine bear of his own.
Persbrandt has been sentenced to five months in jail after being found guilty of buying 12 grams (fewer than 4 eight balls) of cocaine. Reports the Daily Mail:
Persbrandt, 51, was charged in a complicated drugs case involving ten other people after his number was discovered on a dealer’s phone.
His lawyer Per Liljekvist argued that the number being in the phone was no proof that he had been buying the drugs, saying: ‘If it turns out an order was made, it was another person who used his phone.’
He maintained that Persbrandt had been at a party on the evening when it was alleged the drugs had been bought, and that he often left his mobile phone lying about.
Persbrandt has appealed the conviction, claiming someone else at the party must have used his phone for the drug deal. More importantly, why the hell should taxpayers in Sweden fund a five month imprisonment over a few eight balls?
Perhaps ironically (or not), Martin Freeman joked in an interview last year about The Hobbit cast and crew being fueled by cocaine.
GIFS via Brain Confetti