Date: 5th February 2001

Traffic Writer Says Film Reflects First-Hand Experience


Traffic writer Stephen Gaghan has acknowledged that his previous comments about how he conceived the script for the movie were not altogether truthful and that in fact much of it is based on his own experiences as a drug addict for over 20 years -- much of that time writing screenplays and TV dramas in New York and Hollywood. (He won an Emmy in 1997 for an episode of NYPD Blue.)

"I smoked crack in my office on the Universal lot, always with some heroin to even it out. I smoked crack in my office on the Fox lot. Oh God, what are people going to think when they read this? I will never work in this town again," he told the Times.

Gaghan, a recovered addict, said that he was willing to speak out now about his addiction because "the stigma and shame of drug addiction is part of what makes it difficult for people to raise their hand and ask for help, and I felt that by not being completely honest I was, in a way, perpetuating that stigma."

Source: Studio Briefing