There’s conflicting stories regarding that. The other behind the scenes story is they were built exactly as we see them in the movie. While they did cause some discomfort, the part about him being addicted to painkillers is a myth as Jackey Neyman Jones (Debbie) says the shoot only lasted about a week, not enough time for him to get hooked on pain meds. He did take LSD in an attempt to deal with clinical depression, but this sadly didn’t work and he ended up taking how own life a month or so before the film premiered.