Actor Woody Harrelson’s has made the Kessel Run from America’s favorite bartender on Cheers to the Star Wars universe, but it hasn’t always been a smooth ride.
Of late, he’s turned up in a number of Hollywood blockbusters, including a pair of Hunger Games movies and will appear in War for the Planet of the Apes, which hits theaters Friday. (He’s also set to star in the yet-untitled Han Solo spinoff, which recently underwent the wrong kind of drama, a directorial change during filming.)
Harrelson just gave a career-spanning interview to The Hollywood Reporter, during which he touched on a number of topics. RCL has curated a list of our five favorite nuggets from the interview below:
On Acting in the Latest Star Wars Spinoff:
“Definitely (Star Wars) has more secrecy than anything ever. You get an e-reader; you don’t get a script. They give it to you, and you give it back after you read it. But I was like, ‘I’ve got to be with my family, I got to go home.’ I’d been home in Maui one week since November. But I met with (then directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller) one night, and we hung out and we went over to Matthew Freud’s and played pingpong and just had a great time. They were really good guys. I’ve been enjoying it (since then), especially because we just went to (shoot at) the Dolomites in Italy. (Co-star) Thandie Newton said, ‘It’s like being at camp ’cause you got everybody together,’ and we had a couple of epic parties.”
On Ron Howard Replacing the Movie’s Original Directors:
“He’s a wonderful guy. And we did shoot one day with him—we had to shoot because Thandie (Newton) had to leave. We start again July 12. I think I read some stuff where people were worried about the fate of this movie. I wouldn’t worry. The Force is still very much with it.”
On His Life Up Until Now:
“I look back at myself and say, ‘That guy is an asshole,’ to be perfectly frank. I was a pretty happy guy, but I also had a lot of rage. When I was a kid, I had real emotional problems. I would have these tantrums. (Later) I used to fight a lot. I used to go to bars and fight the guys I thought were bullies. I’ve got scars everywhere.”
On His First Time Getting Arrested:
“My first arrest, the police were really brutal. I was 20 or 21, and I was jaywalking, me and a friend, and this cop flags us over, asks to see our ID. My friend showed his ID, but I said, ‘I don’t have my ID,’ which I did, of course. And he says, ‘Have you been out to some of these bars? Then you had to have an ID to get in.’ I go, ‘Oh, good point.’ So I pull it out, and as I pull it out, he goes, ‘Don’t lie to me again, punk!’ And then he grabbed me, smashed me against the wall a couple of times.”
On Life Before Cheers:
“I was anonymous and poor before that show.”
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