![]() ![]() And they blame their victims for their crimes. That’s exactly what Purdue did when in fact, Purdue was the abuser. They are the villains.” I was so taken by that quote that I named one of the episodes after it. Richard Sackler said, “We have to hammer the abusers. ![]() Purdue was able to convince authorities in the government that their drug was safe, that their victims were the ones that were responsible for the abuse. It’s the very core of how this went on for many years. That was also Purdue Pharma’s explanation for the crisis: It was the user’s fault for abusing the drug - nothing to do with how addictive the drug really was. That was another guiding force behind the portrayal of addiction in the show. That condition is called “being dopesick.” It blew my mind that everything that I thought of as addiction was wrong. hijacks your brain, and you feel as if you’re going to die if you don’t get it. When I started researching it, opioid use disorder. It’s their desire to be more interested in drugs and alcohol than in the responsibilities of life. I had preconceived notions of it, I think similar to many people’s preconceived notions - which is that the person who’s addicted, it’s their fault. It wasn’t something I had a strong firsthand knowledge of. And it needs to feel as truthful and as real as possible. That was a guiding tonal concept through the whole production: We’re doing a true story. Were there specific things you wanted to show for the audience to understand, and were there any tropes you hoped to avoid? The show depicts characters in the throes of addiction. I always knew that the spine of the story was the origin story of the opioid crisis, and that it would end with the 2007 sentencing hearing of the Purdue Pharma executives. What were the challenges to working on something based on a story that was ongoing? The Sacklers were still a part of lawsuits while you were creating, and shooting, the show. She really wanted to be a big part of the project, and I thought, “To have an expert in the writers room, how could that be a bad thing?” And then I met with Beth Macy and Warren Littlefield. I thought it was a beautiful book, incredibly well done. I quickly raised the flag, and they asked me if I would take a look at the book, and perhaps even team up with them on their project. I sold it to 20th Century Studios, and before we took it to networks, Fox 21, the sister studio, bought the book in a bidding war. I had done a ton of research, conceived and sold the show before I even knew the book Dopesick existed. How did you develop the show, and when did Beth Macy’s book Dopesick come into play? Strong spoke to THR about the challenges and benefits of fictionalizing true events and how Dopesick was a cathartic experience for many of the cast and crew who worked on the project. 'Barry' Star Bill Hader Looks Back on Final Season, Details His Biggest Film Influences: "The Most Obvious Is the Coen Brothers" The result is a multi-layered true crime saga that traces the Sackler family-controlled Purdue’s shady business practices, the government officials who tried to curtail the distribution and use of the drug, and the victims of deceptive marketing whose lives spun out of control once they were addicted to Ox圜ontin. Dopesick follows the rise of the opioid crisis in the United States and the nefarious actions of Purdue Pharma, which developed and aggressively marketed Ox圜ontin while hiding its highly addictive properties. Strong is a multiple nominee again this year for Hulu’s limited series Dopesick, for which he earned nods for writing and directing in addition to outstanding limited series. Since that double win a decade ago, Strong has gone on to co-create the Fox drama series Empire with Lee Daniels (who also directed The Butler from a script by Strong). He earned two Emmys in 2012 for writing and producing HBO’s political drama Game Change, which followed his Emmy-nominated screenplay for the similarly ripped-from-the-headlines HBO film Recount in 2008. Actor-writer-director Danny Strong is no stranger to celebrating on Emmys night. ![]()
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