And I wrote the script totally fucking cold sober.' with my wife at the time and moved back to France to try and get into another world and see the world differently. I did it, not to an extreme or to a place where I was as destructive as some people, but certainly to where I was going stale mentally. I got into a habit of it and I was an addictive personality. 'I was doing coke at the time, and I really regretted it. 'I moved to Paris and got out of the cocaine world too because that was another problem for me,' he said. Stone actually tried to kick his habit by leaving the country to complete the script so he could be far away from his access to the drug. I wanted to do a sun-drenched, tropical Third World gangster, cigar, sexy Miami film.' Unfortunately, while penning the screenplay, Stone was also dealing with his own cocaine habit, which gave him an insight into what the drug can do to users. 'It got hairy,' Stone admitted of the research process. In order to create the most accurate picture possible, Oliver Stone spent time in Florida and the Caribbean interviewing people on both sides of the law for research. However, since he believed the studio execs wouldn't know the differences between the different cuts that had been submitted, De Palma released the first cut of the film to cinemas anyway, confessing to the fact only after its home video release several months later. However, De Palma surmised that if the third cut of the film was judged an 'R', then the very first cut should have been an 'R' as well, to which the MPAA disagreed. This convinced the arbitrators that the third submitted cut of the film deserved an 'R rating' by a vote of 18-2. They brought in a panel of experts, including real narcotics officers, who stated that not only was the film an accurate portrayal of real life in the drug underworld, but ultimately it was an anti-drug film and should be widely seen. He and producer Martin Bregman arranged a hearing with the MPAA. De Palma refused to cut the film any further to qualify it for an R. He yet again made some further cuts and submitted it a third time yet again it was given an 'X'. He then made some cuts and resubmitted it a second time again the film was given an 'X' rating (one of the reasons apparently being that Octavio the Clown was shot too many times).

When director Brian De Palma submitted the film to the MPAA, they gave it an 'X' rating.

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