The Kissing Booth 3 star Joey King reveals she was very high on cannabis while shooting a scene for the movie. King received wide recognition for her leading role in the Kissing Booth trilogy, and is also known for her roles in Fargo, Ramona and Beezus, and The Act, the last of which netted her an Emmy nomination for her performance. The Kissing Booth 3 also stars Jacob Elordi, Joel Courtney, and Molly Ringwald.
The Kissing Booth 3 follows Elle (King) as she's torn between attending Harvard with her boyfriend Noah (Elordi) and Berkley with her best friend Lee (Courtney). The conflict eventually boils over to a confrontation between Elle and Lee on the boardwalk, where Elle tells Lee she's tired of trying to make everyone else happy. The Kissing Booth 3 reviews panned it on release, but similarly to its critically maligned predecessors, it still received high streaming numbers on Netflix.
In an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live! (via Just Jared), King recounts how she took an edible right before shooting the scene on the boardwalk with Courtney. She says she got it from fellow cast member Taylor Zakhar Perez, who took one as well but didn't have any more scenes to film. She recalls being incredibly intoxicated while filming the scene, and having several more setups from that day to shoot. Read her quote below:
On my last day of filming Kissing Booth 2 and 3, I took an edible while we were filming. It was very unprofessional. I had seven more set-ups left. I still had more shots to do. And my friend Taylor [Zakhar Perez] who played Marco, he wasn’t working and he took one too, and I got like so violently high. You know when you’re really high, all you know how to say is ‘I’m so high?’ That’s where I was at... If you’re a fan of The Kissing Booth, you’ll know what scene. I took it during the scene where me and my best friend Lee are on the boardwalk having a heart-to-heart about why I lied to him about college. I was just so effing high.
Rewatching the scene, it's not apparent that King is high, since she's in tears while talking to Courtney, explaining away the puffiness of her eyes. The Kissing Booth 3 was shot in South Africa, where cannabis is decriminalized for private consumption, making King's act only unprofessional and not illegal. It's not uncommon for artists to smoke or consume marijuana while filming scenes; cannabis advocates like Pete Davidson and Kevin Smith claim it enhances their artistic ability.
As long as performers are able to complete their scenes in a timely and professional manner, there's nothing wrong with a little recreational pot. Cannabis' medicinal qualities of sensory heightening and reduction of stress can easily add something to an actor's performance, helping them get into character more easily and reduce the anxiety of having to perform. Even though King isn't keen to do it again after she took too much, it didn't visible The Kissing Booth 3 scene, and with a little self-awareness of one's tolerance, there's no reason why marijuana shouldn't be used by performers to help their work if they feel so inclined.
Source: Jimmy Kimmel Live! (via Just Jared)