What Actors Really Use for Controlled Substances in Movies

9. Crack – “Half Nelson”

We never thought we’d see Ryan Gosling as a crack addict. However, as Dan Dunne in the 1996 film Half Nelson, Gosling proved his acting range was much deeper than his portrayal of Noah in The Notebook. Before he filmed his first scene, he moved to a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, shadowed a real NYC teacher around town, and interacted with people who had real-life crack addictions. When it came time to film, prop master Jeremy Balon broke an off-white coffee mug into a million pieces, and then dyed in coffee. In many scenes of the film, a crack rock was actually a piece of the porcelain mug that was sitting in front of a small ball of tobacco. When the tobacco was lit, it gave the appearance that the “crack rock” was smoking.