Cocaine Bear: Margo Martindale never thought she would star in an action movie

When you think of a forest ranger facing off against a black bear going on a drug-fueled rampage, you likely don’t think of Margo Martindale, but you should. Margo Martindale is starring in Elizabeth Banks’ Cocaine Bear, and if you were surprised she appears in the film… so was she.

“I never thought at age 70 I would be doing an action movie, but I guess I did!” Margo Martindale told Entertainment Weekly. The actress, and national treasure, plays a forest ranger named Liz who crosses paths with a bear who has ingested a duffel bag full of cocaine. “She’s no-nonsense,” Martindale said of her character. “She’s devoted to her craft, wanting to go up in the ranger world, does everything by the book, and has her heart set on [a character played by] Jesse Tyler Ferguson.” Martindale has a number of physical scenes in the movie, but it all worked out for her. “When I would have to crawl around on the ground, or through the bushes, or be dragged by my feet, there’d be two very strong men waiting to help me up off the ground,” Martindale said. “It was fine. I was very well taken care of.“

When it was reported that the New Zealand police had recovered more than three tons of cocaine floating in the Pacific Ocean, Cocaine Shark began trending on Twitter, and Margo Martindale was asked if she’d be willing to return for the potential Cocaine Bear sequel. “What, put on a scuba outfit?” She said. “Well, I have no pride left. Yeah, sure!“

The true story of Cocaine Bear is just as compelling as the movie. In 1985, convicted drug smuggler Andrew Thornton was on a smuggling run from Columbia and had dumped several packages full of cocaine before bailing from the plane himself. Unfortunately, he hit his head on the tail of the aircraft and wound up in a free fall to the ground, where he was found dead in someone’s driveway. Several months later, a 175-pound black bear was found dead after devouring approximately $15 million worth of cocaine that Thornton had dropped. “Its stomach was literally packed to the brim with cocaine,” the medical examiner who’d performed the bear’s necropsy said. “There isn’t a mammal on the planet that could survive that. Cerebral hemorrhaging, respiratory failure, hyperthermia, renal failure, heart failure, stroke. You name it, that bear had it.” Cocaine Bear will hit theaters on February 24th.