9 Behind-The-Scenes Stories You Didn't Know About Your Favourite Films
5. John Belushi’s Cocaine Addiction - The Blues Brothers
The comedy classic musical The Blues Brothers will go down in history as one of, if not the greatest musical of all time. You don't even need to have seen the film to know the songs or even recognise the signature style of one"Joliet" Jake Blues and Elwood Blues, The Blues Brothers.
The studio behind the musical expected it to flop big time when it was shown in cinemas. The reasons behind this were because John Belushi’s last movie had not performed well at the box office at all, as well as claims saying that the movie was "too black" to please its Southern audiences.
The movie had a budget of 17 million dollars but by the time production was over it was way closer to that of 30 million dollars. In fact, some of the film's budget was there just to feed the drug habit of Belushi. The film's director, John Landis admitted to having to flush the actor's stash of cocaine down his toilet in the middle of the day just to make sure he and the rest of the actors were able to work.
Belushi died at the age of 33 after a combined drug intoxication, only two years after the release of The Blues Brothers.