Responding to media interest in that disclosure, he said: “I think it’s representative of this story: what takes off and what people are attracted to is not necessarily the real whole, entire story”.
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Foster recently disclosed that he took the drugs in an interview with The Guardian, though the actor declined to say which drugs he took or how long he took them.
“Go faster, go longer, go stronger”.
“And they’re saying, “Well, yeah?’ and one of the journalists says, “Why are you obsessed about this?’ and Chris O’Dowd looks at him and says, ‘Why are you not obsessed about it, you’re meant to be journalists, asking questions” and the journalists say, ‘Hey, hey steady on, that’s a bit over the top” and that’s exactly how I was”. “That was initially taken out of the movie but I spoke to Stephen Frears, and it was the only time I intervened as such during the shoot and I told him I was really disappointed that that scene had been taken out, because it showed that Armstrong was having a few misgivings about what he was doing – but they put that scene back in. But they also can damage the body very long-term and in very serious ways”, he said.
When asked about the extremes Foster went to in order to convincingly play Armstrong in his film, director Stephen Frears (The Queen, Philomena) told the BBC he was not aware of what the actor was doing at the time and only found out Foster was taking PEDs a couple of weeks ago. He added: “I think it’s a pretty decent film and I was hugely honoured to be involved in it. We always knew there was going to be a Lance Armstrong movie; we never knew it was going to be this particular movie”. Hopefully when people watch this, they come away thinking: what choices would I make? “The governing bodies just need to keep up with that”. “It’s a brutal, brutal, brutal, brutal sport”.
However, he survived the disease and went on to win seven Tour de France titles between 1998 and 2005, making him the greatest star of the sport. “It’s flesh against machine”, Foster said.
“And this bicycle that’s being locked into something has a punishment to it, unlike anything I have ever seen”.
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The Program is out this Friday, October 16.
