How a bizarre but real Big Pharma exec's video inspired Chris Evans's surprising hip-hop scene in 'Pain Hustlers': 'He can rap like a professional'

Their main character never actually existed, but that doesn't mean there aren't still heavy doses of reality in Pain Hustlers, the new dramatic thriller about a financially struggling exotic dancer named Liza Drake (Emily Blunt) who strikes it rich when she joins a shady pharmaceutical company peddling fentanyl-laced cancer painkillers to doctors.

"I would describe it as 'inspired by a true story,'" says David Yates, who energetically directs Wells Tower’s adaptation of Evan Hughes's 2022 book of the same name about the rise and fall of Insys Therapeutics. "Evan's book is meticulously researched, and the whole Insys story is documented with multiple, multiple, multiple characters, all of whom are fascinating. When it comes to building a movie from that, you require a cleaner, simpler shape just because you want to create a story that pulls in people from around the world is and accessible and entertaining.

"So to do a literal translation of the Insys story was challenging. There were multiple points of view. So we used it as a starting point to inspire the creation of Liza. Liza's based on several people and not exclusively related to any one of them. And also there's a fictional element to her as well, and it's our way of taking what was a very complicated story and making it as relatable as possible, rather than sort of weighing the audience down with huge amounts of detail… We wanted to bring the audience to something that's entertaining, subversive, funny, but in the experience of that, they'll learn something about the [opioid] crisis."

There are still plenty of moments in the film that might feel like creative license, but accidentally happened. The most outrageous example — and one that will surely remind audiences of a certain Succession character — comes when Pete Brenner (Chris Evans), the slithery executive who recruits Liza after meeting her at a strip club, raps while dressed up as a life-size drug dispenser at a company rally.

It was based on an actual, highly cringey video.

"One of the things that was an early signal for us [to make the film] was this rap video performed by some Insys pharma executives where they're dressed as fentanyl products and have created this mock rap video where they're essentially rapping their crimes," says producer Lawrence Grey.

"And Chris Evans, in a fentanyl suit designed by the illustrious Colleen Atwood, goes and does this amazing rap video that he had basically a few hours to get the lyrics and the song down. And he comes out and you just think it's going to be like, oh my God, this actor [is gonna blow] this first take. And the entire room is like, 'Chris Evans can rap like a professional. Oh my God.'"

It's a scene-stealing moment for Evans, but the heart, soul and moral compass of Pain Hustlers is Blunt's Liza Drake. It's a film the A Quiet Place and Oppenheimer actress was deeply passionate about, the filmmakers say.

"She was right there at the top of our list when we started to get the film close to being greenlit," Yates explains. "Emily got a copy of the script and literally within a Zoom that lasted [only a few minutes], she was in straight away. She just felt compelled by this character, this woman, really wanting to bring her to life in a way that was empathetic. She was excited by Liza Drake's imperfection, really. And Liza Drake's a dreamer. She longs to make something of her life, but in doing so, she crosses a few red lines, and that moral maze of a journey is what intrigued us."

Indeed, the arc of Liza Drake is particularly intriguing because she's a likable underdog that audiences will feel compelled to root for at first — until a reality sets in (both for viewers and for Liza) that her actions are getting people killed.

And Yates and Grey make no secret of the fact that holding pharmaceutical companies accountable for the opioid epidemic was a major driving force behind Pain Hustlers.

"That's absolutely part of the journey, to really remind people," Yates says. "The extraordinary thing about Insys is they were the first people to do jail time for the things that they did. And that seemed remarkable to me that there had been so many players in this field who had probably caused more damage and more harm than these [people]. Insys was a minnow in the pharma world. It was even a minnow that can turn over hundreds of millions of dollars and get an IPO valuation of billions.

“And so really it's a question of accountability. It's a question of what is the right way to look at white-collar crime and the harm that is done when rules are broken or bent in the pursuit of profit? That's absolutely one of the reasons we wanted to tell this story in a way that brought the audience into this world, engaged them and entertained them, but hopefully leaves them thinking about those kinds of issues.”

Pain Hustlers premieres Friday, Oct. 27 on Netflix.