‘Popeye’ Had the ‘Most Coked-Up Film Set’ and ‘Everyone Was Stoned,’ Says Diller, Former Studio Boss:
Former studio chief Barry Diller is on a book tour for his recently published memoir “Who Knew”
At the New York City’s 92Y., moderator (CNN anchor) Anderson Cooper asked Diller during a Q&A to reveal “the most coked-up film set” he ever visited during his tenure as the CEO of Paramount Pictures. The former studio executive had the answer immediately: Robert Altman’s Popeye (1980).
“Coked-up film set? ‘Popeye,’Diller answered (Entertainment Weekly). “By the way, you can watch it. 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.”
Robin Williams starred as the title character in “Popeye,” which marked the comedian’s first big-screen acting role after making a name for himself on hit television series “Happy Days” and its spinoff “Mork & Mindy.”
The film co-starred Altman regular Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl.
The movie was a box office success with $60 million worldwide (unadjusted for inflation), nearly double its production budget. Reviews, however, were mixed to negative.
Variety wrote: “It is more than faint praise to say that ‘Popeye’ is far, far better than it might have been, considering the treacherous challenge it presented. But avoiding disaster is not necessarily the same as success. To the eye, Robin Williams is terrifically transposed into the squinting sailor with the bulging arms. But to the ear, his mutterings are not always comprehensible.”
