Simpson had been using cocaine since the 1980s, but increased his usage over the years. The excessive spending (in both films and his personal life) and erratic mood swings caused by his drug use were well known in Hollywood by the 1990s. In a 1994 interview with "The New York Times", Simpson tried to downplay his reputation and claimed that while he had done drugs in the past, he had stopped. He claimed that his only addiction at the time was to food. According to screenwriter James Toback, Simpson’s drug use never stopped, and prompted David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg to stage an intervention to get Simpson to go to rehab.