Longevity isn’t a word typically associated with Hollywood, but Harrelson Harrelson has it in abundance. As the years go by, he’s now four decades into the shift. His popularity only ever seems to increase.
From classic Nineties fodder White Men Can’t Jump, Indecent Proposal, and Natural Born Killers through to Anger Management, No Country for Old Men and Zombieland, into a new era of film that takes in The Hunger Games trilogy, Three Billboards, and the spectacular Venom movies, enriching an already colossal resume comes naturally to the actor.
And yet, what makes the 60-year-old even more engaging is a back story of pain and struggle; of an imprisoned father, infidelity, going off the ropes and, in recent interviews, admitting he wished he had spent more time at home with his family and less time on the road.
Ultimately, the movie world would have been a lesser place without his presence.
STRIPLV: So tell us about Venom 2 – Let There Be Carnage. HARRELSON: I’m thrilled this is back, and I think there’s real energy behind taking this story forward. It was a pleasure to work with so many incredible actors, and I dare say I may have even learned a thing or two. STRIPLV: It’s an advanced role for Cletus/Carnage. HARRELSON: Sure, so I must have done something right in the first one. (Laughs) STRIPLV: People have spoken about the contradictions with Venom. HARRELSON: That’s intentional. Carnage is designed to be a graceful predator. He’s not as full-effect as Venom; he’s a tricky customer who will confuse and disorientate an opponent rather than just going for the glory shot. The superhero genre needs characters like this. There is a lot of attention towards power and special effects, whereas more and more now, we’re seeing the victors coming from a place of intelligence and craft. There’s hope for me yet. STRIPLV: Talk to me about Andy Serkis. HARRELSON: What do you want to know? The guy is a genius. What’s nice about our relationship is Andy thinks I am a genius, so that makes it very easy for me to decide. I think he is a genius as well. Do you see how this works? It’s convenient in a way because if I didn’t think he was a genius, I would still say he was anyway because one good turn deserves another. The fact I don’t have to pretend is pretty convenient. He’s a great guy, and we seem to work together really well. I’m very proud to know him, and we both feed off one another’s energy. STRIPLV: Andy says he starts to change his accent the more time he spends with you. HARRELSON: Is that true? I hadn’t noticed. I kind of like that, though. What I think is amazing is he didn’t direct a film until something like ten years ago, having acted for decades. And now he’s this big force, like out of nowhere. He’s the man everyone wants, and he deserves it. STRIPLV: You turn 60 this year. Are you surprised your career continues at such a pace? HARRELSON: I’ve been lucky. You have to be lucky to have survived for as long as I have. I’ve also worked hard and had the passion to work hard. It’s totally justified that not everyone wants to keep chasing after scripts and jobs once they get past 40 or 50. For me, I don’t know any different, so this way of life for me, for four decades, is my route to happiness, and I certainly wouldn’t want it to end. STRIPLV: Yet you still carry with you all the energy and optimism of youth. HARRELSON: If you saw me in the morning, you wouldn’t say that. I don’t know. This is just the way I am. I laugh sometimes at some of the praise people get for what is, essentially, them being themselves. I mean, if you think about it, it’s basically the laziest version of ourselves, us. There’s no effort. We’re just doing what we want to do. And we get praise for it. That’s crazy! STRIPLV: You’ve been quite open about the struggles you’ve had in the past. HARRELSON: There’s never any reason to hide behind things in life, is my logic. We are all here trying to do our best, trying to find the right way, and I think the world is a better place when we share those experiences. A better place for ourselves, but also for those who can take courage and hope from the fact others are going through these things. At the end of the day, if you’re an actor, then your job is to characterize and personify all these people, all these stories. We are actors. We inhabit other people, be they fictional or otherwise. I would suggest there’s a huge hypocrisy behind someone who is willing to take on the role of being someone else, yet who cannot be true and honest to themselves in terms of who they are, how they feel, and what they have been through. You’re either invested in personality, or you aren’t. I just don’t think you can pick and choose between the two. STRIPLV: You used to have quite an angry streak. Has that now gone? HARRELSON: You want to keep asking these questions and find out? (Laughs) I think as you mature and get older, you take a much more mellow view on life. The things that were important to you somehow become less important; the stresses that you maybe had as a young person you don’t have, often because you realize the fears you used to have didn’t actually materialize. I think most anger simply comes from frustration, and when I was growing up, I had a lot of frustration inside me. STRIPLV: Where did that come from? HARRELSON: Well, not having my father around was a big part of that, and seeing my mother suffer was hard. I did all I could to get my father out of prison and to try to get a better life for him, but coming to terms with that in late life won’t ever change the reality of being a kid who felt incomplete or an injustice. That’s why I would start fights; because I felt injustice in my own life, so when I saw it elsewhere, like someone stealing or bullying, I was sure as hell going to go and do something about it. STRIPLV: And that element of searching out fairness has followed you in your career? HARRELSON: It has, in terms of the projects I will put my name to and the things I try to do to make the world a better place. As much as that is true, I think it’s also the case that you come to understand there is no such thing as fairness, and you certainly can’t ever influence as much in the world as you think you might be able to. You’ll never mend everything, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying. STRIPLV: You’ve had a complicated ride as far as religion goes. Where are you with that now? HARRELSON: I’m in a good place. I feel I had to discover for myself what religion really meant to me, and because of that, and because of taking time out from everything people had told me, I was able to come to my own conclusions. So when I dropped faith for a few years, it was a case of standing back and really assessing everything I’d been told. And, you know, when you do that, you give yourself the chance to look and some things and say, “Well, that’s a load of crap.” That wasn’t the intention, but removing yourself from a situation is only ever going to be the route through to doing something about it. If you’re still inside the bubble, how are you supposed to see what it looks like on the outside? I never wanted to turn my back on faith, but I certainly did want to draw my own views, and that’s what happened. I think stepping away also led me to develop myself, my career, and my personality, so I almost certainly would not be here today in this form if I hadn’t done it. In reflection, I think some of the things I used to think about religion were the angry teenager version of me coming through. I now see the positives in it rather than just those controlling elements that, let’s be honest, still go on. But I would say 99.9 percent of people who invest in religion are in it for the right reasons. STRIPLV: You have been vegan now for almost as long as you’ve been an actor, right? HARRELSON: Well, it’s more than 30 years now. I just see no point in it. We have a sustainable way of living that promotes plants and renewable food supplies, or we can butcher and slaughter innocent animals, all the time adding a huge carbon footprint over what we do. STRIPLV: You are very careful; however, in the way you push the subject, aren’t you? HARRELSON: Listen, if I learned anything from my break from religion, it’s that people do not want to be told how to behave or what to do (notwithstanding a global pandemic). For the most part, you can’t do that anymore, not unless you want a punch in the face. The route forward is to push good things, good initiatives, and good ideas, but leave the final decision with the person. Be nice about it. I learned a long time ago that I didn’t need meat, I didn’t need animals to give myself a better chance of surviving this crazy world, and I didn’t want on my conscience. Everything that went with meat-eating, so I broke free from it. And you know, it was actually very easy. There’s not a single day that goes by where I think I might have been a better or stronger person by eating meat, so that to me is the ultimate answer. If others want to come along for the ride, please do.