Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
Okay, so maybe Oprah and Barbara get to spend a little more time than 12 minutes with their subjects, but I'm pretty sure this is my first time interviewing someone who was actively an Oscar nominee when I spoke to them. I've talked to plenty of people who went on to become nominees and several former nominees and winners, but this might the first time I've gotten to someone in that golden zone between their nomination announcement and the actual ceremony (happening this Sunday). And I couldn't be happier with the subject, Woody Harrelson, who received a well-deserved Best Supporting Actor nom for THE MESSENGER.
Last October, I had a long chat with the film's writer-director Oren Moverman and the film's star Ben Foster about THE MESSENGER while it was still on the festival circuit (and you can see Mr. Beaks talk with Moverman and co-screenwriter Alessandro Camon, who are nominated for Best Original Screenplay). In truth, this interview with Harrelson was set up to talk about his current limited-release project DEFENDOR (yes, that's how it's spelled), about a mentally challenged man who dresses up like a superhero to fight crime. His mental pain goes deep, and Harrelson does his usual astonishing job putting us right in the character's confusion and sorrow. The film also feature Kat Dennings as a crack whore, so how can you not be at least curious. The film had a very limited release this past Friday, and I hope it gets at least an art-house run across the country. It's worth checking out, if only for Harrelson's performance, alternating between pent-up and explosive.
In just the 16 months, Harrelson has been a machine, turning out memorable performances in SEVEN POUNDS, MANAGEMENT, 2012, and, of course, the fantabulous ZOMBIELAND. He's always been an actor you can count on to make a movie a little bit better. He's gifted like that. Anyway, please enjoy Woody Harrelson.
Woody Harrelson: Hi, man!
Capone: Hey Woody, how are you doing?
WH: Good, how are you?
Capone: Excellent. I think you talked to a couple of our guys in Austin when you were down there for Fantastic Fest last year with ZOMBIELAND.
WH: Actually, they were fantastic. I really did like them. Wait, were you one of the guys?
Capone: No, no. I was in town too, but I wasn’t in the room with you guys. I would have loved to have been because I loved ZOMBIELAND, but we had to split up our duties somehow.
WH: [laughs] Okay, I get it.
Capone: First of all, congratulations on your Oscar nomination.
WH: Thank you.
Capone: That’s pretty exciting. I was lucky enough when THE MESSENGER was still on the festival circuit to have a really long talk with Oren [Moverman]. I made the point to him that I hadn’t ever remembered seeing you cry in a film before, and he was positive it was the first time that you had ever done it. Is that true or not?
WH: I might have a little bit in [THE PEOPLE VS.] LARRY FLYNT, but I’m going to do it more now, because I guess if you cry you get nominated.
Capone: There you go, you’ve found the secret.
[Both Laugh]
WH: I was just faking in LARRY FLYNT. In this was I was actually crying.
Capone: It was pretty difficult to watch. That had to be one of the most difficult roles you’ve ever played.
WH: It was challenging you know, I really wanted it to be true and I didn’t know… I wanted it to be a thing where a soldier could watch it and say “Yeah,” where he buys it. It was hard. I guess I felt like two of the hardest roles that I could try would be like a soldier or a cop. For some reason, those just… It’s those professions, I guess I can’t get my head around. Eventually, you know when I was doing THE MESSENGER I got so into it where I really felt like [the character] for a while.
Capone: It’s nice to see people recognize the work. So, let’s talk a little bit about DEFENDOR here. In the wake of so many superhero films, I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there is now this sort of almost secondary wave of films about people that are, in a lot of ways, desperate to be superheroes, whether they just want to feel like they are something special, or in the case of your character Arthur that there’s something else going on there. How did you view him when you first read the script? What was your take on what he was going through?
WH: First of all, I thought it was one of the most interesting and unusual scripts I had read in a while. Peter Stebbings, who wrote it and directed it, I thought he just made something totally unique, and my agent really liked it a lot too and thought I should do it, even though there was no money and there was no [Laughs] probably no chance of anyone seeing it. So you know I don’t let that stop me, the fact that no one’s going to see. I figured “Fuck it, do it anyway." I just thought he was such an interesting character, Arthur Poppington, you know, a little bit mentally challenged guy who thinks he’s a superhero, but gets beat up. He’s a superhero, minus the powers. I just thought it was an interesting and compelling thing, so I was psyched to be in it.
Capone: Did you have any input into the design of his costume or maybe some of his choices of weapons? I think the weapons are a great touch, like the club and the wasps and the marbles. Did you have any say into the way he looked or the actions that he took?
WH: In terms of the weapons, no, that’s all in the script, which I thought was really cool, but as for the look, yeah little things here and there, but mostly that was also just a really good designer came up with that. I guess my influence was more in just trying to decide how to play this guy.
Capone: Did seeing yourself in the mirror with the costume and the painted on mask get you in Arthur’s mind and see yourself as this hero, at least in his eyes?
WH: Hey look, they would say, “Cut,” I’d go out and stop crimes in the street.
[Both Laugh]
WH: I couldn’t get out of it. I couldn’t get out of character!
Capone: It’s addictive it sounds like.
WH: It was really a lot of fun.
Capone: There’s a film coming out in April called KICK-ASS that also plays with this sort of homegrown superhero theme, but it does it for laughs and obviously DEFENDOR is going for something more on the tragic side.
WH: I think there’s a real equal amount of humor and drama.
Capone: It is, you’re right. That doesn't make watching Arthur get his ass kicked repeatedly any easier. Do you judge your comedy roles any differently than when you are considering doing something like THE MESSENGER? Do you have criteria that the different types of films need to meet?
WH: No, I mean there’s no kind of specific set criteria, it’s just whatever resonates. I really grew up just doing tons of reading and still do a lot of reading, so if I read something I can feel it right away usually, and if I don’t and I end up saying “Yes,” it’s just because I’ve lost my frickin' mind, you know?
[Both Laugh]
Capone: Right. You are definitely one of the few actors working today that has avoided being pigeonholed into certain types of roles. Do you make a point not to repeat yourself and try to go out of your way to mix it up a little bit in terms of the kind of roles you play?
WH: Yeah. I like to try all kinds of different roles. It’s ironic, because for six years when I was on "Cheers" and I couldn’t get another job, I really felt like “Oh my God, I’m completely pigeonholed and stereotyped. I don’t think I’m ever going to get another job, besides Woody Boyd. It’s a good job, but still…” So it’s great to be able to do different things.
Capone: That does seem to be something that TV actors have the hardest time overcoming, but it didn’t seem to take you as long as some others.
WH: It turned out good.
Capone: I’ve got to ask, certainly the idea of ZOMBIELAND 2 has been discussed. Is that something that is happening, or do we know yet, or has someone approached you with a basic idea of what the story would be if they did it?
WH: Yeah. I mean, I’ve never done a sequel before partly because the first movie had to be successful.
[Both Laugh]
WH: This one, I really loved the experience. I really think it’s one of the most quirky, funny movies that I’ve been a part of, so I’d love to do another one if everything is right and comes together. That would mean the script would have to be again phenomenal like the last one, and then Ruben Fleischer would have to direct it, which he would, and then it would have to be all the same actors. I wouldn’t want to just take a chance on… I hate going to see… You go see sequels, and they are almost never as good as the original. Maybe the BABE sequel… and then the one with the little mouse.
Capone: Which one? The cartoon one or the CGI one?
WH: The one with the mouse that Michael J. Fox played.
Capone: Oh yeah, STUART LITTLE.
WH: That to me, the sequel was just as great as the original, but that’s so rare you know. Sequels are almost always just trying to be what the first one was. If we can get around that, then they are talking about doing a new one and in 3D.
Capone: That’s what I heard. I was going to ask you about that. That's still what they are going forward with?
WH: It’s going to be 3D, if it happens.
Capone: Wow. How does that strike you? You haven’t been a part of a 3D film before have you?
WH: I don’t know how that portends to the actor you know, how that shifts things, but I’m psyched to try it.
Capone: What else do you have coming up in the near future? Anything you can talk about?
WH: Just this other movie, BUNRAKU, this fight movie. I might do another project with Oren Moverman this year, the director of THE MESSENGER.
Capone: Right.
WH: That’s right, you talked with him. So yeah, you know that’s all that I’m thinking about, well actually one other thing is I’m wanting to direct a play that I co-wrote with a buddy of mine, so maybe that as well.
Capone: Will that be something regionally or is that something you are going to try to take to Broadway?
WH: I was going to try to start it in Toronto and then eventually get to Broadway, or off-Broadway, or off-, off-, off-, off-Broadway, but try to work out all of the kinks first and make sure it’s top notch. It’s pretty funny now, actually it’s extremely funny, but I just want to make it better.
Capone: You said this is something you would direct. Are you in it as well or just directing?
WH: I would just direct it and I co-wrote it with Frankie Hyman.
Capone: I want to bounce back to DEFENDOR for a second and ask about Kat Dennings, because I’m a huge fan of hers and I’ve never seen her play a part like this. Can you talk a little bit about working with her, and how did you sort of view it as idealization of her role in his life?
WH: I think Kat Dennings is just one of the finest young actresses around. She is incredible and to pull off being a crack whore, she couldn’t even be… There is just no way you could imagine this girl as a crack whore if you meet her in life, yet she is absolutely believable and so well done. I was just privileged to work with her. She came in and the first day that she did a monologue that just… I saw the dailies luckily right after, like that night. It really set the bar for the movie, because it’s that scene where we are in the hospital and I’m unconscious.
Capone: She’s just talking to you, yeah.
WH: She’s all sad, and it’s just so beautiful the performance and seeing that really made me like “Okay, I’ve got to really get it together and put this game face on,” because I realized the level of what she was doing. I think that helped the movie all the way around just with her dedication and performance, and she’s just brilliant.
Capone: Right and she really uses her abilities as a comic actress in a very different way in this movie, because she is often giving some very funny lines, but in the context of her character they are a little tragic too.
WH: Yeah, that’s the wonderful thing about the way she plays it you know. She rides a fine line and the movie rides between comedy and drama, which I love that line, and inside there are some things that are really tragic, she just had some golden comedic touches.
Capone: Woody, well thank you so much for spending the time and talking to us.
WH: Tell your buddies I said “Hey!” Are you in Austin?
Capone: No, actually I’m the editor in Chicago, but I’m going down to Austin in like two weeks.
WH: Well, tell those guys hi for me. I really did enjoy them.
Capone: I will. I know they really loved talking to you, so I will definitely do that.
WH: Okay, great.
Capone: Take it easy. Good luck at the Oscars.
WH: Oh, thank you!
Capone: See you later.
WH: Okay, bye.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcool.com
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