Given that this was the '70s and he's only the seventh-weirdest-at-the-time thing in that picture, you might think that the cast and crew must have been blasted out of their minds half the time -- and not in the plasma-gun sense. You would be right, to the extent that character animator Phil Tippett thought nothing of nipping off for a little acid break during production of Return Of The Jedi. He felt fine, so he went back to work, where he realized he was so not fine, maaaaan. But he powered on, having received a vision for the Rancor pit monster, which he describes as "a cross between a bear and a potato."
At least this explains Tippett's future failure at dinosaur supervision. He was far from the only one "expanding his mind" while making these movies. It's hard to tell how much of what we see on-screen is the result of creative genius and how much is just drugs, but one thing's for sure: Once you notice Carrie Fisher's coke nail, you will never unsee it.
Lucasfilm
She confirmed it on Twitter, but we're just impressed she can remember that decade at all.
Thankfully, Fisher didn't let the infamous partying that once prompted John Belushi to tell her she had a problem affect her performance -- mostly. Have you ever noticed how Han and Leia are smiling when they arrive in Cloud City, a dangerous mission that they should be not at all happy to embark upon? That's because, according to Fisher, they were both up partying with The Rolling Stones and Monty Python the night before and arrived on set still wasted. To paraphrase Fisher: Look, when The Stones come over, you don't turn them away, early calls be damned. It's hard to say she was wrong.
Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm
Maybe the prequels would be a lot better if Natalie Portman and the other dude had partied with 'NSync.
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