Woody Harrelson on Sex, Drugs, Jail, & Han Solo
The War for the Planet of the Apes star Woody Harrelson opened up to The Hollywood Reporter in one of his most candid interviews yet. And let me tell you… this dude has LIVED.
“I was a pretty happy guy, but I also had a lot of rage,” he said. “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. But it’s like my buddy says: ‘If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much room.’ And I guess I do live on the edge.”
He continued: “I’ve gotten in trouble, too. I’ve been busted a few times. 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.
“I knocked his hands off, pushed him away and started running. And that was the beginning of a real dire episode. He put out an officer-in-distress signal, and soon I’m just surrounded by blue, and they had me down on the ground, knee in my throat. It was so brutal, the way they were handling me. A bunch of students gathered around and were complaining to the cops, and the cops were vicious to them, too. Then they threw me in a paddy wagon, and I’m handcuffed behind my back, and I asked one of the cops, ‘Why are you treating me like this?’ And he slammed my head against the van. They stopped to pick up this other poor bastard peeing on the sidewalk, and when they opened those back doors, I just shot out of there.”
On marriage: “I never believed in the concept of [marriage]. I just never believed that it made any sense, this long-term monogamy thing that humans do. Also, relationships do tend to get very proprietary. And so you end up, before you realize it, in a cage — maybe a very comfortable cage, but still a cage — and you can’t be the person you want. Obviously, you can’t have sex with anyone else, but many times you can’t even be the person that you were before. I just was incapable of long-term relationships. I was with whoever would have me. Then I met my wife.”
Read the very provoking write up at The Hollywood Reporter.