During his masterclass at the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival, the acclaimed actor reflected on his early life, the impact of Cheers, and the good times he has enjoyed in Sarajevo.
“I think every actor is something of a showman. I was a showman, I’m still a showman, and I’m always trying to perform something, to impress someone,” Woody Harrelson said with a smile, promising that his Masterclass at the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival would be anything but dull.
With these words, one of the most recognisable and versatile actors of his generation opened up a conversation not only about his life and career, but also about the very impulse that makes acting possible.
The Masterclass with Woody Harrelson was held before a full house at the Festival Centre (Bosnian Cultural Centre), moderated by acclaimed British film critic Neil Young.
Early in the conversation, Young recalled Jesse Eisenberg’s remark that Harrelson may be the one thing America’s divided public can agree on—a comment the actor met with his trademark humour. The discussion then turned to the beginning: his childhood.
Harrelson spoke about a path that did not begin with the ambition of becoming a Hollywood star. Raised in Texas as the middle of three brothers, he studied acting at Hanover College in Indiana. As a child, he said, he never seriously considered that he might make a living from acting. What he did possess, however, was an urge to perform.
“I think I simply had it in me. I always felt the need to do something, show something, perform in front of people. It is probably a natural inclination that many actors carry within them. Of course, as a child, I didn’t know I would one day become an actor, nor did I ever think I could make a living from it. I only knew that I loved performing. Elvis Presley was a major inspiration. After his death, when I was in high school, I started singing his songs—first at home, then in front of others. Once, they persuaded me to stand on a table and sing Elvis in front of the students. A girl named Robin Rogers, who was part of the drama group, came up to me and said I should join the drama club and try acting. That was really the beginning of my acting journey. At the time, I could not have known that such an apparently accidental moment would lead me towards a profession that would change my entire life,” Harrelson said, before delighting the audience with an Elvis number of his own.
The road to Hollywood, however, was far from straightforward. After studying acting and theatre, Harrelson arrived on Broadway, where, at just 23, he found himself performing in a Neil Simon production. At the same time, the first calls from television began to arrive. A college friend encouraged him to audition for the role of Woody Boyd in the television series Cheers.
Harrelson now admits that he was not particularly strong at auditions at the time.
“I somehow managed to mess up every audition. There was this kind of desperate energy about me. But when I went in to audition for Cheers, I no longer cared. I already had Broadway, and I thought nothing would come of it. That was precisely why I was completely relaxed. Then, after I read the text, they decided they wanted me. Within 24 hours, I had to decide whether to accept the television role. I did. And it changed my life. Cheers made me who I am today. The series opened doors and gave me a life I could never have imagined. But I never completely left the theatre behind,” Harrelson said.
A series of film roles followed, establishing his career as one of the most diverse in contemporary American cinema.
Harrelson has received three Academy Award® nominations, including a Best Actor nomination for The People vs. Larry Flynt, and Best Supporting Actor nominations for The Messenger and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. He won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1989 for his portrayal of Woody Boyd in Cheers, while his performances in the television film Game Change and the first season of True Detective also earned him Emmy nominations.
Speaking about Flynt, Harrelson described his relationship with characters who exist beyond the ordinary.
“Larry Flynt was an incredibly powerful character, almost larger than life. I tend to go too far, to be excessive, to imagine things on a very broad scale. Then directors often have to pull me back a little. But that is exactly what I enjoy—the opportunity to imagine something that may not be obvious,” Harrelson said.
He applied a similar approach in LBJ, in which he portrayed US President Lyndon B. Johnson. For the role, he used prosthetics and extensive make-up; the physical transformation, he explained, enabled him to experience the character differently.
“Many actors work from the inside out. I often like to work from the outside in. When you change the body, the face, the way you look, it begins to change the way you think and feel as well. That is why I enjoyed working on LBJ so much. I spent a great deal of time in make-up and prosthetics, and I had the opportunity to listen to Rob Reiner for hours,” Harrelson noted.
Harrelson also joked about his long-standing friendship with Matthew McConaughey, with whom he starred in the first season of True Detective. In recent years, the pair have playfully entertained the possibility that they may in fact be half-brothers—an unusual story that became the inspiration for their new series, Brothers, in which they play fictionalised versions of themselves.
Harrelson also devoted part of the masterclass to Sarajevo. With great emotion, he spoke about his encounters with people in the city the previous evening, saying he had enjoyed himself immensely and confirming that Sarajevo is far more to him than simply another stop on the festival circuit.
Tonight, his return to the city will take on a special significance. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to film art and an exceptional acting career, Woody Harrelson received the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo at the Coca-Cola Open Air Cinema.
Following the ceremony, Michael Winterbottom’s 1997 film Welcome to Sarajevo, in which Harrelson plays one of the leading roles, will be screened. Premiering in Cannes that same year and shown at the third Sarajevo Film Festival, the film examines the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the role of journalists in its media coverage.
