One on One with Chris Bell - The Prescription Thug

Chris Bell burst on to the fitness industry scene and gained notoriety in 2008 with his educational, entertaining, and very controversial film, Bigger, Stronger, Faster. BSF is a documentary that examined “America’s win-at-all-cost culture from the perspective of bodybuilding and performance-enhancing drugs, as it focuses on a pair of siblings chasing their dream.” At the time, it was a film that hadn’t exposed that side of our culture before, in an engaging way that didn’t seem to talk down to you, or patronize you, if you knew nothing about the topic or the culture. That’s just how Chris Bell makes films—simply and succinctly. He talks to his viewers like he’s on their level, which is part of his charm. It’s also, in my opinion, what makes his movies (in addition to Bigger, Stronger, Faster, Chris has also produced/directed Trophy Kids) so involving. With that said, when Netflix picked up his newest project, Prescription Thugs, in 2015, I knew it was definitely a must-see.

Prescription Thugs is more impactful and thought-provoking than Bigger, Stronger, Faster for several reasons. Firstly, Big Pharma, and the pharmaceutical industry in general, appeals to a much broader audience than steroids, or America’s quest to be the best. Drug addiction, lethal overdoses, overprescribing, pharmaceutical marketing, and drug abuse, affect practically everyone on some level. “In this follow-up to his film Bigger, Stronger, Faster, director Chris Bell turns his camera on the abuse of prescription drugs and, ultimately, himself.” The last line is the second reason this documentary is so personal, emotional, and hard-hitting; it starts by Chris admitting that his brother Mike (“Mad Dog”) Bell OD’d shortly after Bigger, Stronger, Faster came out. He then admits, halfway through the movie, that he has also fallen victim to his own demon—addiction. But we’ll let him tell the story in his own words.

JF: What makes you such an amazing journalist? How do you get people to open up to you so easily?

CB: One thing is that a lot of times journalists, like normal everyday journalists, are very aggressive with people; a lot of times they don’t want to hear the other side of the story, they just go in with an agenda to tell their own story. The way to get someone to open up to you is to be real with them, speak to them as a human being, and be on their level. A journalist goes in trying to be smarter than everyone else, and in the process gets their ass handed to them by the person they’re interviewing. Conversely, the interviewer can go in and decimate the person they’re interviewing, which is just weird and uncomfortable. In BSF, when I interviewed Carl Lewis, I used a couple of techniques that I got from watching 60 Minutes. I read an article by Ed Bradley where he said that the best thing you can do is blame other people. So you start with, “A lot of people say you were on steroids. What do you say to that?” Then, you’re not talking from your own perspective, you’re talking from their perspective. People tell me I’m real all the time, and I don’t actually know what that means other than just being honest and up front with people. In the bodybuilding world, that’s so important. A lot of people are delusional in their thinking, and being honest with them sort of sets them straight.

JF: Immediately after Bigger, Stronger, Faster, did you know what you wanted to do next, or did it take a while to cultivate the next idea?

CB: I actually have a product I’ve wanted to do since BSF, but with all the funding I got for other things, it just hasn’t happened yet. So the second project that I wanted to make is still kicking around in my head, and will probably be made soon. What I wanted to make after BSF was more of a “myth-busters” type in the world of health and fitness. There’s just so much bullshit out there, and it’s hard to wade through it. I think we need to crack some myths like, “What diet works the most effectively?” I need funding for it, though. You have to go where the money is, which is why I ended up making Trophy Kids (which is also on Netflix) before Prescription Thugs, and this other idea in my head. I’ve wanted to do Prescription Thugs for kind of a long time because I’d gotten off pills for maybe two years, but then it turned into a bad drinking problem. I was just so down on myself and unhappy with who I was after BSF. I wasn’t feeling it.

JF: Your brother Mark grew up with two brothers who have struggled with both steroid use and prescription drug abuse. Yet in this movie, you made it pretty clear that he avoids all that. Why do you think two of your struggled with it but he didn’t? Are there any keys you’ve picked up from Mark that you can pass along?

CB: I don’t think he escaped it at all! I think that thinking you need steroids to compete isn’t really the best attitude to have. He doesn’t necessarily have a problem with steroids, where it’s taken over his life, but it’s definitely a part of his life. It’s something that he battles with. He doesn’t want to be on them, but everyone else is. In order to compete in powerlifting, you kind of have to be. I think a lot of people misunderstand steroids; in BSF, my goal was to get across that my brothers are on steroids, but they’re not bad people. They’re not drug addicts. I think that Mark has an addictive personality, but in a weird way, loves pain. He told me in BSF that when I get pain, I take a pill, but when he gets pain, he thinks he accomplished something. A lot of pro bodybuilders are like that too, because it makes them feel like they did something.

JF: How did it feel to admit to the world that you had a relapse while filming a documentary about addiction?

CB: I’ve helped put about 15 people in rehab since the movie came out. That’s just people I know about. There are thousands of comments on Twitter about it, so I believe it really helped people. People like to be engaged. They like to be a part of what we’re doing. I was doing all my drugs and drinking in between when I was promised the money to make the movie, and when it was actually transferred into my bank account. I was just in this miserable limbo phase. I needed something to do to pass the time. I realized, through making the movie, that I never took care of my addiction problem. I took care of the pill problem, but then that became an alcohol problem, and then in the middle of making the movie, the alcohol problem fed into another pill problem.

What got me sober was telling my girlfriend that I had a problem. I was convinced that she was going to leave me; but I knew I had a problem, and I cared enough to tell her. I was scared that if she found out, she’d just leave me. I told her I was an alcoholic and drug addict, and her only words to me were, “How are we going to fix it?” At that point, I stopped drinking for seven days on my own, but the withdrawals from that were so bad, they pretty much drove me back to drinking. I didn’t stop for about two or three days. I ended up in hospital after she brought me there. She found me and called my brother.

JF: After your lost your brother, did it feel like you were doing this for him, so that his death wouldn’t be in vain? Did it have an impact on the direction you wanted to take the film?

CB: When I first thought of the movie and was talking about it to my friend, it was just a bunch of stuff from BSF that didn’t make it to the actual movie. I said, “Why don’t we start the movie [Prescription Thugs] with that stuff, and tell Mad Dog’s story?” I didn’t know it would have this effect on people, but it hits them like a ton of bricks. It was an interesting way to do it to get the viewers really engaged with him and his story. It’s just awesome to be able to tell his story, and give him a purpose. In BSF, he talks about the fact that there’s something out there that the world needs to see. Like a message and a purpose he has, but he didn’t know what it was. My dad said that Prescription Thugs was his purpose. People watched BSF, and no one ever asked about Smelly. They always asked about Mad Dog. No one realized that he’d passed away. Even The Rock called me distraught that my brother passed away. Mad Dog was this happy, larger than life character, and not a lot of people saw his dark side. I remember the amount of outpouring that we received when he passed away, and that means a lot.

JF: Did you know what kind of answers you were looking for when you started the journey of making Prescription Thugs?

CB: No, and I don’t think that you should. I think you should go into any project open-minded. Prescription Thugs was a little bit different because I was angry at the pharmaceutical industry; there’s not a whole to their side of the story. Yes, drugs will help you when you’re sick, but my problem is the “maintenance drugs.” People shouldn’t be on opiates all the time. People just need to realize what their other options are, because Big Pharma is not going to save your life. They’re not in it for that, they’re in it for money. That’s the message I wanted to get out there. I think the movie being available on Netflix is a huge deal. It’s so accessible. I think a lot of people don’t understand that the documentaries I make don’t make any money. I raise money to make the movie, then pay myself from that. But it’s rare to turn a huge profit off these things. It’s chump change compared to what the pharmaceutical companies are making. I just want to get the word out. I just want to have an impact on the world, and this is how I do it.

JF: How have you not been sued by Big Pharma, MuscleTech, the WWE, or even Craigslist?

CB: The best way to avoid getting sued is just to tell the truth. Tell the truth. If what I was saying was completely false, then someone would come after me and sue me. But everything I say is fact-checked. We research everything. Half of my crew worked on Michael Moore movies, so they know what they’re doing. People talk shit about Michael Moore, but I’ve seen the legal documents from Fahrenheit 9/11, because some of the stuff I didn’t believe. But he told me that every single time he made an edit, we had to show it to the lawyers. They all watch every single frame of the movie, and make sure it’s all true. I want to make the world a better place for all of us.

JF: Based on everything you’ve learned between BSF and PS, do you think bodybuilders and powerlifters and MMA fighters are more prone to addictive or abusive behaviors?

CB: I think there’s something about being the alpha in it. There are a lot of girls I want to rehab with, but it seemed like their problems were more emotional. With the guys, it seemed like they were almost trying to one-up each other in terms of how “bad” their situations were. I think there is something to being an alpha. Also, it’s even more simple than that; who gets hurt? Athletes. People that are sedentary don’t get hurt. You can’t injure yourself walking to the computer.

JF: Was it nerve-wracking going up against Big Pharma, similar to David versus Goliath?

CB: If you look at BSF, Arnold was really the enemy in that movie. But in the time that we made BSF, he’d say one thing, and do another. He was just a really big hypocrite. He wasn’t the bad guy, but definitely a guy we pointed the finger at. BSF wasn’t really about steroids either; it was about our “win at all costs” culture. For Big Pharma, I wasn’t trying to make them such a bad guy, but what I wanted people to understand was that the people who say it’s not about money are essentially wrong. Big Pharma was run by scientists and doctors back in the ‘50s. In doing so, if they made a 10 percent profit, that was cool. Now, the profit margins are so high (around 40 to 50 percent), that’s the only way they’ll make enough money to make the drug. “Pharmacy” comes from the word pharmakon. Pharma means “to heal,” and kon means “poison”; so “heal + poison.” A little bit of medicine will cure you, but a lot will poison you—they knew that way back in the day! And as I said, it used to be run by the scientists and the doctors, and then after a while, people realized they could make more money if they did this, this, and this. They wanted to capitalize on the new drugs.

JF: Do you think that universal health care (like we have in Canada) would prevent overprescribing (because we don’t have to pay the doctor every time we go in)?

CB: I think that has something to do with it. I don’t know, but I think so. I think that people go to the doctor for health reasons in Canada, as opposed to the US. You have a different culture there. In our country, we’ll see something on TV, and say, “Oh! I can’t sleep, I need to go to the doctor to get this pill.” We’re constantly pushed drugs on TV. I just don’t think you guys are like that.

JF: Do you think, personally, that the problem with prescriptions would be as intensified if Nixon hadn’t started the War on Drugs (and then Reagan hadn’t subsequently reinforced it)?

CB: A lot of people have been talking lately about decriminalizing drugs, and I’m so fascinated with that. If you decriminalize drugs, people wouldn’t be going to the extent that they do to get it. Drug habits are intense. You seek out the drug, you get them, you take them, and then you go right back to seeking more of them. If you took all the crime out of it, I think it would lower the addiction rates. I think the illegal part is the attractive part. What makes you an addict is when you’ll go to any lengths at any time to get the drug. If you have too much of a good thing, maybe you won’t want it anymore.

JF: Is there anything you want to add about addiction, relapse, or sobriety? Anything you’ve learned from your own experience and making the movie?

CB: If you have a friend who’s into drugs or drinking, you can’t help them. It’s not on you. The best thing you can do for someone with an addiction is to keep trying to drive them towards treatment. Find several centres within the area, find out what insurance they take, and just figure out how to get that person into treatment. One of the biggest things I learned is to stay humble. Especially in the fitness industry, a lot of people need to adopt that same creed. If someone comes up to me and is arrogant, there’s no way I’ll help them. Another thing I learned was that it’s not about the drugs—it’s about us; how do we as a people take control of our lives and be healthy? We need to figure out how to help ourselves rather than just looking for the media or anybody else to help us for the answers.

Check out Prescription Thugs on Netflix and Facebook, and follow Chris Bell personally on Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!