I was just watching Pineapple Express the other day and I was just wondering the level of vigilance Hollywood has for stoner flicks. Like if Franco and Rogen had used actual weed for that cross joint scene, and they ended up smoking that whole joint, how could they not get away with it? The evidence is gone after a few minutes. Who could prove anything?
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Fair enough. I suppose if, for stoner movies, they wanted to actually get high as a sort of method acting, they could smoke in their trailer before they walk on the set. I read somewhere that that's what Rogen did with Kevin Smith in Zack & Miri Make a Porno.
Michael J
I didn't see that film, and there is no way of knowing unless the actors or filmmakers said something in an interview.
But I've worked in the industry off & on, and my understanding is, today - for most big studio feature films, props are just props. Because today, everything is monitored & controlled, from sex scenes, props, action/stunt scenes, and mostly the budget, schedules & insurance. There are a lot of contractual, legal controls over everything in studio movies (not as much for independent films.) So I guess that means it has to be fake weed, because if it was real and they kept flubbing & slurring their lines, and spent all day filming one scene, it would go over-schedule & over-
budget. Big studios are very accountable today. Actors sign a contract & have to be on set & ready for certain days.
A long time ago Hollywood studios learned the hard way and lost millions of $$ when productions got shut down, or accidents happened, an actor got injured. Oliver Reed died during filming Gladiator & it cost over a million to
complete his scenes digitally without him. Michael Cimino lost the studio millions making Heaven's Gate & ruined his career. Marilyn Monroe showed up on drugs, messed up her lines, they had to shut a few of her movies down.
Brandon Lee was killed by a stunt gun w/ a real bullet before The Crow was done filming. They don't allow those kinds of costly mistakes to happen.