‘Our meth was so realistic it got stolen’: Breaking Bad, Industry and Euphoria’s makers on how TV does drugs
Weed? Moss tied in thread. Crack? Organic shea butter. Cocaine bricks? Shrink-wrapped foam blocks. Designers reveal the secrets of faking drugs onscreen – from popping sugar pills to snorting vitamin D
‘Suitcases of drugs are not exactly something you’d expect to bring to work,” says Paul Cross, who was the production designer of Supacell, the crime-laced superhero series that launched last year. Cross has had to handle quite a few in his time though, albeit fake. He recently found himself driving around London with a vanload of fake cocaine bricks. “It’s quite an odd feeling,” he says. “Not something you’d do in your day-to-day life.”
From hip teen shows to crime dramas, scenes involving drugs are often pivotal in modern TV series – and ensuring these moments are safe, legal and realistic has become so important to producers that thousands of pounds can be spent on getting it right. For every brick of fake cocaine off-loaded into a fake drug den, someone like Cross has spent weeks crafting the perfect powder texture. For every pill taken by an actor, a huge amount of toil has gone into making sure it’s not harmful.
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