Woody Harrelson"My main hope for myself is to be where I am." source: www.rottentomatoes.com |
A vegan who also doesn't eat sugar or flour (making his desire for Twinkies in Zombieland somewhat humorous), he's also a huge proponent of marijuana legalization and describes himself as an anarchist. That's quite a huge gap between the characters he plays and who he really is! He's received Academy Award nominations for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, yet seems to have settled into supporting roles as his go-to. Although I would pay good money for a Tallahassee-centric movie, and am more than a little curious how Haymitch's Hunger Games would look on film, Hollywood is either unwilling to let him or Harrelson isn't interested in carrying movies. Along those same lines, Harrelson often steals the scenes of movies he plays supporting roles in with his turn as the gay friend Tommy in Friends with Benefits being a prime example of a pretty memorable performance despite a forgettable movie.
Given his more than passing similarity to Matthew McConaughey (in personality, not looks), it's interesting that he can next be seen in "True Detective", a limited run HBO series also starring McConaughey. Between the two of them, they probably have 85% of the most interesting marijuana stories in Hollywood, but regardless, the premise of a 17-year hunt for a serial killer and the trailer (despite using music from Gladiator and 28 Weeks Later, a strange mashup) both make it look pretty can't-miss. On a side note, the tagline for that project is "Man is the Cruelest Animal", but I would actually prefer McConaughey's quote from the trailer of "The world needs bad men."
His languid pace of projects allows him to only take the ones that interest him, ensuring that at the very least, his part will be worthwhile, and there's something to be said for that kind of reliability when choosing where to spend your money on a movie ticket. While there are obviously actors whose work I enjoy more, Harrelson would be my pick for the one actor I'd love to get a beer with, because man, that guy must have stories.