Actor took drugs to play Armstrong
FILM: Ben Foster stars as cyclist in new biopic The Program
TORONTO — Ben Foster was serious about getting into character to portray controversial cyclist Lance Armstrong in The Program.
So serious, that he decided to take performance enhancing drugs, just as Armstrong infamously did.
“The more that I researched, the more that I explored in this subject, the more I wanted to know. It’s such a complex story — it’s such a complex world,” Foster said during an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival, where The Program had its premiere.
“Doping is not the reason why Lance Armstrong won, but it did shape a culture at the time, and it certainly shaped him, and I wanted to understand — on a personal level, on a cellular level — what that experience is like.”
Armstrong — once an American sporting hero, now a divisive figure — has been banned from cycling for life and had his seven Tour de France titles stripped after telling Oprah Winfrey in a 2013 interview that he used performance-enhancing drugs.
For Foster, playing Armstrong involved undergoing a “condensed” drug program under the supervision of his nutritionist and a wellness doctor.
“I took a calculated risk, with a doctor supervising, and what I came away with is that drugs work — they work,” he said.
“You can just keep going. Coming off those drugs is the difficult part. That’s where your health concerns will come in. And it took a while for me to right myself. But that was a calculated risk and part of the joy of the job, I suppose.”
Foster was taking the drugs during the filming of the movie — he didn’t detail specify what substances he used — but his fellow actors and his director didn’t know about it at the time.
“In a way I’m not surprised. He’s a very immersive actor, very focused and committed,” said Chris O’Dowd, who plays an Irish journalist who worked to bring Armstrong’s doping into the spotlight.
Director Stephen Frears also found out about Foster’s doping two days before the film’s premiere, but wasn’t fazed by it.
“It happened. There’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t turn the clock back,” said Frears.
“I’m not interested in the process by which people arrive at their performances. I just expect them to turn up on the first day and be brilliant.”