Former Paramount Pictures CEO Barry Diller has revealed that the set of Robert Altman’s 1980 film Popeye, starring Robin Williams, was the most drug-fueled production he ever witnessed during his Hollywood career.
Speaking at New York’s 92Y during a Q&A for his memoir Who Knew, Diller was asked by Anderson Cooper to name the most “coked-up” film set he had seen. His answer came without hesitation: Popeye.
“Oh, Popeye,” Diller said, as reported by Entertainment Weekly. “If you watch Popeye, it’s like watching a movie that runs at 78 RPM on 33 speed.” He described the film as operating on a bizarre and chaotic rhythm, which he attributed to widespread drug use during production.
Diller, who led Paramount from 1974 to 1984 and oversaw the release of major hits like Saturday Night Fever, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Grease, said Popeye stood out for its excessive substance abuse on set. The film was shot in Malta, and Diller claimed that film canisters were being used to smuggle cocaine back and forth between the production and Los Angeles.
“You couldn’t escape it,” he said. “Everyone was stoned.”
Popeye was the big-screen debut of Robin Williams, then best known for his TV work on Mork & Mindy. Shelley Duvall co-starred as Olive Oyl. Despite the turmoil behind the scenes, the film earned $60 million worldwide—nearly double its production budget—though reviews were mixed.
In its original review, Variety noted the film was “better than it might have been,” but pointed out issues with clarity in Williams’ performance: “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.”
Though Popeye wasn’t a critical darling, it remains a curious chapter in Hollywood history—now with an even more colorful backstory.
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