Jesse Grant/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
Director Ron Howard once accidentally got high while filming the 1995 movie Apollo 13
The event occurred when Howard took a cocktail of medication meant to help the body in zero-gravity environments
But when a flight utilizing zero gravity was scrapped, Howard became a bit loopy as a result of the medication
Ron Howardaccidentally got high while filming the 1995 movieApollo 13.
Far Out Magazineresurfaced Howard's remarks on the incident, which came as he and the crew were filming in a zero-G plane, in order to make the scenes meant to be in space look believable.
The Academy Award-winning film tells the true story of NASA's aborted mission to the Moon in 1970.
Speaking toBAFTAin 2013, the now 71-year-old director said, "We would up using this zero-G aeroplane that does parabolas in order to recreate weightlessness and do scientific testing and training of astronauts."
Howard added that he and the crew wound up doing "13 days" of shots in the vessel, saying, "We took a little cocktail called Scopedex, which is half scopolamine and half Dexedrine."
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE'sfree daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
"Scopolamine evens out your stomach, but wants to put you to sleep, and the Dexedrine keeps you working," he added. "One time we were getting ready to go, and we took our Scopedex – or at least I did – we were all planned out, and then there was some engine failure, and we couldn't go."
But what Howard didn't realize at the time is that, when taken and not used in a zero-gravity environment, the Scopodex has an unintended consequence.
"Everybody was laughing their heads off at me, because I was on the stuff and when you're up there, with the adrenaline, you really don't feel anything, you don't feel any buzz, but apparently I was running around [hyperactively] saying 'okay, so we can't but you can bring a camera over here, we have the set, we'll use the mock up, it's okay, you can light it – Tom come on!'. They were all just looking like 'somebody just hit this guy with a hammer, please,'" Howard said.
The film would go on to be nominated for nine Academy Awards.
Moviestore Collection Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!
In a 2025 appearance onThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Howard revealed that heaccidentally peed himselfduring the physical required to see if he and the other cast members would be
"I'm in there getting my physical with Kevin Bacon. It's everything — it's the treadmill, urine, blood works, heart monitor the whole thing," recalled Howard, who has a condition called vagovasal syncope. "I'm a little more prone to shock and I can get lightheaded. And at times, I can even faint."
"In this particular case, we're going along doing the physical and they're doing the blood test and I start to get woozy. In this case, the vasovagal syncope led to — I've never told this story by the way, for this reason," he said.
Howard added: "It led to Ron blacks out and Ron makes wee wee because I hadn't done the urine test yet."
"I come to and I wake up and Kevin Bacon is looking at me. He's looking down, he's looking up. I'm one degree from Kevin Bacon and I just take a beat and I just go, 'Ten extra closeups in this movie, buddy, if you don't say a word.' He said, 'I'm with ya, boss,'" Howard said.
Read the original article onPeople
