I was invited by Disney to attend the #HanSoloEvent. Although all of my expenses are paid, all opinions are my own.
Interviewing Woody Harrelson who plays Tobias Beckett in SOLO was both an honor and a privilege. He was so funny and interested in chatting about his role in the movie as well as his other roles in movies and on TV. Check out our other SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY interviews — Alden, Emilia, Joonas, Phoebe, Paul and Ron.
What drew Woody to the Part of Tobias Beckett?
Woody shares that he was in London shooting the movie “Lost in London” which he wrote and directed and he was going to go home. He was asked to meet these guys Phil and Chris about doing another role and he was planning to go home but decided to meet with them. “I felt like my family was tired of being told I’m definitely done after this and I was so scared. Then, I met them and I decided not to do it ironically. The same thing happened with Hunger Games. They wouldn’t take no for an answer. I really am going to take time off after we finish the press on this. I’m going to take the rest of the year off. I’m going to spend a lot of time in Europe and then probably wind my way back to Maui in August or so.”
Woody shares that he feels that Tobias Beckett is “complicated in the sense that he’s not always as chummy as he could be but I’d say he’s a survivor who really also does have this image of life, wanting to be done with this life of Criminality and ultimately, just be playing the Valachord, living in a remote Planet somewhere.”
When did Woody first see Star Wars?
Woody shares “I remember because you probably won’t believe this but I was alive in 1977 and it was a huge thing at the time. I just remember going to see it and its original is so different than another else. I think Harrison was a good Pop for a lot of people.”
Woody would love to be Solo in the original Star Wars Trilogy. “Lucas created these great characters but I guess what Harrison brought to it and now what Alden is bringing to it is making that character just so special, so fun, and funny.”
Woody’s Life Mentor
In SOLO, Woody is like a tough love mentor in his role. He shares that in his life his tough love mentor would have to be Jack Nicholson. “He lives not too far from where I have a place here in LA even though I live in Maui but just the kids don’t want to ever give it up. It’s not too far from Jack’s and I would go over quite a bit to his place and sit and reason and talk story. He’s given me lots of cool advice.”
Woody Harrelson on Being Genuinely Happy
Woody shares “I do feel like a pretty genuinely happy person and I think a big part of it is just gratitude. I’m very grateful for the life I have, I feel like all of us who do movies are breathing a bit of a rarified air. So, I feel really lucky because there was a point in which I kind of gave up and it was early on. I hadn’t even got a job yet and I just was like, I think I can’t do it. And I don’t know how to crack it.”
Working with Alden
Woody really loved working with Alden and shares that he’s a really hard worker, “like very hard worker because we’d have these humongous sets and then there would be little spots that are like a little cloth room. We’d all have our little cubicles and he was next to me. He would be in there taking piano lessons or reading novels. I would be over there playing Speed Chess online. I would be like ‘what the heck, I just lost my Queen.’”
Woody admires his work ethic and just the way he cultivates himself as a human. Woody shares, “he is an extraordinary guy. He’s not just like a silly dopey party animal like some Actors coming up or like I was coming up.”
Woody Harrelson on being a Vegan
Did you know Woody is a Vegan? He shared how he made the decision to be a Vegan, “I was on a bus and I sat next to this gal. I don’t remember too many of the specifics of when I first sat down except that I was probably hoping we could talk. I was 23 or so and we were rolling down the road toward Oklahoma City or somewhere. She looks at me and I had a lot of acne and mucus and I was blowing my nose and wasn’t the most attractive. She says “Hello, how are you? You’re lactose intolerant, you need to stop dairy. If you stop dairy, within 3 days all of these symptoms will go away.”
Woody gave it a try and he said “everything cleared up. My skin cleared up, I stopped constantly blowing my nose, and that was the beginning of a real evolution for me. Then I started thinking well if they’re telling you milk does the body good and it really doesn’t do a body good, what else is not true? Do you need meat for protein? Do you really need meat for protein? I mean, how do gorillas do it? How do horses do it? So, that started the ball rolling and then I started reading. I think the best book I’ve read of all the books was written like around 1910 by this guy Arnold Ehret who was a guy who Jack Nicholson mentioned to me because I’ve tried to lecture him a little. Forget that. Forget lecturing him about anything. But he would tell me, do you know who Arnold Eric is? And then it turns out, this guy wrote a book in 1910 and he said at the time, this information is 50 years old. So this information about the body and so that book is called “The Mucusless Diet.” He has another one called “Rational Fasting” and both of those books have so much great information. He has an unusual style of writing but I quite like it.”
SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY HITS THEATERS MAY 25TH
ABOUT SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY
Board the Millennium Falcon and journey to a galaxy far, far away in SOLO: A STAR WARSSTORY, an all-new adventure with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy. Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo befriends his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and meets the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian, in a journey that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga’s most unlikely heroes. The film stars Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Paul Bettany.
SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY
LUCASFILM
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Christina Gould
Saturday 26th of May 2018
I've always liked Woody Harrelson. I'd love to meet him. Thanks for posting!