Dennis Quaid, 70, revealed that the secret behind his piano skills in 1989’s Great Balls of Fire!, in which he portrayed music legend Jerry Lee Lewis, was 12 hours a day of practice—and cocaine. The star told Business Insider Friday, “I had plenty of time to prepare for it, a year,” but he was determined to “look like I knew what I was doing.” Quaid, who more recently portrayed President Ronald Reagan in a very different biopic, ultimately let slip that since he “was also on cocaine... that made it a little simpler to be at the piano 12 hours at a time.” The actor’s been open about his battle with addiction before, telling Today in 2018, “I was basically doing cocaine pretty much on a daily basis during the ‘80s,” and noting that when he grew up in the 60s and 70s, “there was a completely different attitude” about the drug. But the addiction began to take a toll on him and his career, he recalled to People in 2023, “I remember going home and having a white light experience that I saw myself either dead or in jail or losing everything I had, and I didn’t want that.” Having kicked the habit, the actor now looks back gratefully on the benefit to his performance, though he issued the stark warning anyone who wants to emulate his approach: “I’m not advocating to take cocaine to learn how to play the piano… You will wind up in a bad place.”
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