Ben Foster: I Took Drugs For Lance Armstrong Role

By R. Siva Kumar - 13 Sep '15 17:18PM

Ben Foster disclosed that he took performance-enhancing drugs to play the role of Lance Armstrong in the movie "The Program," premiering in Toronto on September 13, according to hngn.

"I don't want to talk about the names of the drugs I took," he said, according to The Guardian. "Even discussing it feels tricky because it isn't something I'd recommend to fellow actors. These are very serious chemicals and they affect your body in real ways. For my own investigation it was important for me privately to understand it. And they work."

Foster added that he had recovered only recently from the experience. He listed the fallout, which involves doping, which affects the mind, though it does not make a person feel "high". He admitted that they also impact behavior when chemicals are running through the body and help you on the bike, "but which, when you're not...." he trailed off.

"I don't know how to separate the chemical influence from the psychological attachment I had to the character. If it's working, it keeps you up at night. This is losing your marbles, right? They're definitely rolling around. They're under the couch but they're retrievable," he added, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Method acting is very common for Ben Foster. It included eating dirt for a Navy Seal role in "Lone Survivor" or using glaucoma medication to impact his eyes when he played a meth addict in "Alpha Dog." While playing a homeless veteran in "Rampart," he lived on the streets.

"I was pissing my pants like everyone else there," he recalled.

Directed by Stephen Frears, "The Program" is adapted by sportswriter David Walsh's book "Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong."

It pursues the scribe's efforts to expose Lance Armstrong's use of performance-enhancing drugs, which lost the cyclist his seven Tour de France titles.