Will Poulter's 'Union County' Spotlights Ohio Drug Recovery
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- Will Poulter stars as Cody in "Union County," directed by Adam Meeks, depicting a real-life drug recovery court in Bellefontaine, Ohio that Poulter said has an "over 50% success rate"
- The film features first-time actors sharing their real recovery stories, with drug dependency counselor Annette Deao playing a parental figure to Poulter's character
- Poulter criticized the Trump administration for cutting more than $1bn in federal funding to mental health and addiction programs, calling the rollback "devastating" and "informed by harmful stigma and misinformation"
- Poulter said Hollywood addiction films like "Beautiful Boy," "Ben Is Back," and "Hillbilly Elegy" focus too heavily on devastation, praising Meeks for centering the program's success instead
- Poulter's upcoming projects include Netflix's hostage drama "Rabbit, Rabbit" with Adam Driver and Regina Hall, plus Apple TV's "Beat The Reaper"
- A rumored medieval body-horror film "Rapture" with Kit Connor, directed by Jordan Tannahill, is on pause, according to Poulter
Why it matters: Poulter's platform amplifies a recovery model with over 50% success rates at exactly the moment federal addiction funding has been cut by more than $1bn — pairing a destigmatizing film with sharp policy critique that names stigma as the driver of those rollbacks.
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