Growing up with Jay Baruchel
‘I can’t smoke any dope on set, I don’t want to. Set’s big-boy-pants time’ Sam Riches
Jay baruchel, who grew up in Montreal, but now calls Toronto home, has never been shy about his love for weed.
It’s figured prominently in many of the movies baruchel has had a hand in, whether it was starring alongside friend and fellow stoner Seth rogen in films like This Is the end and Knocked up, or writing 2011’s Goon and directing the follow-up, Goon: Last of the enforcers.
His latest film, a horror feature titled random Acts of violence, was released in August, and baruchel recently chatted with High Times magazine about his creative process and where cannabis fits into his movie-making world.
When it comes to weed and work, baruchel says he’s established some ground rules. Mainly, he doesn’t consume any cannabis while on set.
“I can’t smoke any dope on set; I don’t want to,” he says. “Set’s big-boy-pants time. So much time and money, there’s too much at risk ... I can’t afford to do that.”
but when writing, editing and working through post-production, that changes. In the case of 2017’s Goon: Last of the enforcers, baruchel says he cut the final version of the film in his basement and “smoked weed the whole f---ing time.”
The weed might have been necessary as baruchel says “he lost his mind” trying to wrap up the film on a tight deadline while living as a bachelor in a house of other bachelors.
“When I think of cutting Goon 2, I think of this one specific night. We knew the producers were coming by the house in the morning to see where we were at.” It was shortly before christmas. “We had cut all day and we had to screen it once before we all went to bed,” he says.
“At midnight, I remember just sitting there in my basement, wearing sunglasses, just gripping a bong, like, ‘I’m losing my mind here.’ ”
cannabis wasn’t his only coping mechanism, however. baruchel says he also benefited from a therapeutic “kicking tree” in his backyard.
It was an old, dirty, dead tree that took the brunt of his frustrations. “We would just take a break and I’ll just jump-kick this tree or hack it with a hatchet.” Then he’d go “wrestle in the basement. It was so stupid.”
As for cannabis consumption in his free time, baruchel says he’s a big fan of mixing weed and history documentaries.
“every single night I’ll smoke weed and watch something and work my way through an old history series ... anything to do with the Second World War, the first World War or the crusades... I inhale it. It’s my get-outof-my-head-and-relax thing.” He considers it “time-travelling in my head.”
And when it comes to his openness and acceptance of the plant, baruchel relayed a story to High Times about coming across a weed-smoker as a kid and running home to tell his Mom. It was a foundational moment in shaping his attitude towards weed.
“I remember as a kid being 11 or 12, and I walked by an older fellow smoking a joint on the street and I ran home to my mom and I was like, ‘Mom, this guy was smoking weed.’ She said, ‘Okay, did he offer you some or something?’ I was like, ‘Well, no.’ And she’s like, ‘Well, what did he say to you?’ I was like, ‘Nothing.’ She goes, ‘So he was minding his own business?’ I was like, ‘yeah.’ She’s like, ‘So, what’s the problem?’ I said, ‘Okay. That’s a fair f---ing point.’ So, that’s the tradition I grew up in.”