Dennis Hopper’s five craziest drug stories

(Credit: YouTube still / United Artists)

Tuesday 15 October 2024 16:45 UK

Few actors have had lives as crazy as Dennis Hopper’s. He was a man who really had no inhibitions, and for this reason, he earned a great reputation in Hollywood. If he wasn’t organizing orgies or doing the Russian Dynamite Chair of Death Act, Hopper was probably blowing something and waking up somewhere else.

The actor loved drugs to the point where they largely dictated his life. He was even paid in cocaine when he starred with Francis Ford Coppola apocalypse nowfinding more use for the substance than actual cash (much of which would presumably have been blown on the rise). There are so many stories about Hopper’s drug use that seem simply unbelievable, but he really put himself in some of the weirdest situations imaginable during his addiction.

It is difficult to understand that Hopper was able to become a successful actor due to the fact that he was always on something, but he seemed to possess an innate ability. In fact, Hopper often used his experience with drug addiction to shape his performances.

For example, in Easy Riderwhich he also directed, drug use is the focal point of the film, with Hopper encouraging drug use on set to achieve the desired results. Years later, when he appeared in David Lynch’s Blue velvet as substance abuser Frank Booth, he again channeled his knowledge of drug use and its effects to create a compelling character.

From throwing trees after making acid to the entire production of The last moviehere are five of Hopper’s craziest bouts of insanity.

Dennis Hopper’s five craziest stories:

Blowing a woman’s ashes

During the performance of Easy RiderHopper, Peter Fonda and Jake Nicholson were on a lot of drugs, to put it mildly. The film, a countercultural masterpiece about the dying days of America’s hippie era where freedom seems futile, sees the characters consume their fair share of drugs as they travel the country.

However, in a moment of desperation, the trio began looking for drugs while at BBS, a production company. They found some powder to snort, doing so in a drug mess, only to discover that they had just consumed the ashes of a woman who was married to one of the BBS executives.

Easy Rider scene of a drug trip

Speaking of Easy RiderHopper filmed one of his most memorable scenes in the film in a cemetery, where an acid trip occurs. Alongside Fonda, Toni Basil and Karen Black, Hopper took LSD between the gravestones to make the drug trip scene seem more realistic, and for many, it’s one of the most authentic depictions of its kind on film .

As haunting clips of characters experiencing their journey intercut with a sentence being read over the top, you can feel the true horror of the sequence. What’s even worse, though, is the fact that Hopper allegedly convinced Fonda to talk to the Madonna statue as if it were his mother who had killed herself when he was only ten years old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDADzb9IeGU

The last moviedrug fueled orgies

When Hopper named his second feature The last movie he seemed to accidentally curse himself. Although it wasn’t actually his last film, it was his last for a while, as the reception of the feature was so poor that he did nothing for several years. Part of the reason the film turned out bad was because the production saw Hopper and his crew enjoying a wide variety of drugs and indulging in orgies.

Hopper claimed that this production style really helped make the film, but as the end result suggests, the filmmaker may have been thinking a little too optimistically about it. Filming took place in Peru, where many cast members were too busy snorting lines of cocaine to know what was going on.

Wandering naked through a Mexican jungle

While Hopper was filming Warriors of the Jungle in Mexico, he ended up doing so much acid (along with a lot of alcohol, too) that he experienced something you can only imagine happening in a movie. The actor took off all his clothes and ventured into a jungle, prompting the police to come and find him.

“I was making a movie, but I never made it to the set,” he said the guardian “They found me naked running through the jungle. Earlier, at the airport in Mexico City, I thought I was in the middle of a movie and I went out on the wing. I was out of my mind. It was then when I decided it was time to go into rehab. My liver, my body, my brain were shot.”

Mistaking a tree for a bear

We all know that acid can have some pretty wild effects, and even Hopper, the king of frequent substance use, had his fair share of terrifying moments while under the influence. He once took so much acid that he wandered into a tree and, thinking it was a bear, started shooting at it with a gun.

Of course, this story can only end one way. Hopper was arrested and thrown into prison temporarily. It seems that even the most seasoned drug users are not immune to a bad trip now and then; unfortunately for Hopper, all of his were documented.