Extended interview: Woody Harrelson on his religious upbringing, love for television and more

[Music] thank you welcome I'm Lee Cowan and this is Here Comes the Sun a closer look at some of the people places and things we bring you every weekend on Sunday morning after Woody Harrelson found stardom on the Beloved sitcom cheers and parlayed it into a thoughtful career playing complex characters but as he told Ben menkowitz sometimes there's that one role that got away though after getting his big break he wasn't sure there was life after cheers I thought that was just going to be my career because six years in I hadn't done any other part and back then it was much harder to jump off a television in the moves now it's kind of an Open Door both directions he's gone through that revolving door multiple times from TV to movies and back again along the way there have been a couple of whiffs you turn stuff down a lot right or you have well I should Jerry Maguire yeah yeah that was that was a blunder and then like two days later I hear Tom Cruise is doing and I'm like oh oh later in the show Woody Harrelson on how he moved to New York you're a fan of It's a Wonderful Life yeah oh I'm a fan of a lot of Jimmy Stewart's yeah he he's one of the greats I met him you did one time yeah yeah I've got to meet him I was with my buddy Clint and Clint Allen is the guy who got me to move to New York because he got accepted accepted to Juilliard also an actor he was the guy who got all the great Parts in college and then you know he he was destined for greatness anyway he did he got accepted to Juilliard and I said I'd move with them thinking you know what are the odds he's going to get accepted thousands of people trying to get in he got accepted then we follow Seth Doan through Venice as he explores white decorative masks are so closely tied to the Italian Canal City masks allowed the mixing of classes removing divisions in the strict hierarchy of Venetian Society wearing a mask was a social equalizer in a sense a social equalizer yeah a social equalizer this is which one this is the boater in their shop baloney showed us the bauta costume of which The volto Mask plays a key part in concealing identity that's all coming up right here on Here Comes the Sun Woody Harrelson got his very first taste of Fame doing Elvis impressions for Laughs in his high school library and has chased that feeling through a career as one of Hollywood's most multifaceted actors Ben menkowitz sat down with him to talk about the intoxicating high of performing well and the high of other substances as well so Ben what we have here is a lot of marijuana [Laughter] it likely doesn't come as a surprise and this is more like uh smokable stuff that Woody Harrelson is a weed fan it's just a Little Dream of what a a great dispensary could be at the woods the cannabis dispensary he co-owns in West Hollywood his dream has come true a lush and welcoming space complete with a koi pond and macaws there's some macaws here and over here it is not a place young Woody Harrelson raised in a deeply religious Presbyterian household in rural Ohio by his mother ever expected to be let alone own she'd be sitting there she'd have her coffee and cigarette and everything in the morning you know and she'd be like son if I ever hear that you're smoking marijuana it'll just kill me and uh what are you this way Harrelson's day job Remains the Same he spent yo-yoing back and forth between TV and movies comedy and drama versatility is his calling card I've always been much more partial to the more Indie Spirit you know the movies that have this kind of deep heart you know and this movie definitely has heart this movie is Champions Harrelson plays a prickly but Charming basketball coach with NBA dreams who finds himself coaching a team of players with intellectual disabilities called the friends welcome to the team cosentina what's with the boogie board you do you I do me okay where do you got this guy he just showed up one day before the first day shooting director Bobby Fairley who Harrelson first worked with on Kingpin told him the first scene he'd shoot when his character meets the team for the first time my name is Marcus would be almost entirely in Brock basketball coach for the next three months nope to just throw things out and see how it goes it just kind of freaked me I didn't sleep then I went in there I meet these guys and they are just awesome I'm Johnny I'm your homie with an extra chromie I just had the best I love them they're just all incredible people and just phenomenal senses of humor which really comes through Harrelson's sense of humor has been on display since he made his screen debut on the fourth season of Cheers in 1985. what do you think you want to give them a try me Mr Malone this is the proudest day of my life but it's the laugh he got one day in his high school library that hooked him on Show Business the guys from the football team you know who had heard me do it before they're like Woody do your Elvis no Micah kidding me this place is packed I can't do many Elvis in there but just do it quiet they convinced me and so I'm like I start off kind of soft oh well blessing my soul what was wrong with me I mean like a man not a fuzzy tree and before you know it I'm in the middle of a circle of the entire Library including the librarian has gathered around and they're like clapping and at the end of it it was unbelievable like everybody was applauding and the feeling of that like they say that feeling that you get from that Applause that's what makes you say this is it he's been at it ever since he studied theater in college so after getting his big break he wasn't sure there was life after cheers they thought that was just going to be my career because six years in I hadn't done any other part and back then it was much harder to jump off a television in the movies now it's kind of an Open Door both directions he's gone through that revolving door multiple times from TV to movies and back again along the way there have been a couple of whiffs you turn stuff down a lot right or you have well I should no I don't think you should no I do of course Jerry Maguire yeah yeah that was that was a blunder and then like two days later I hear Tom Cruise is doing and I'm like oh I might have there haven't been many mistakes he has an Emmy for cheers three Oscar nominations when he's not working the father of three girls lives in Maui and Texas with his wife Laura we call this the tree house but wherever he is he always seems to be in woodyville you're a vegan you're an environmentalist you're a cannabis Advocate but you seem to know you don't want to bully other people into your ways of thinking even though you feel passionate about it well I never noticed that preaching works like me trying to tell someone don't eat that cheese has never ever worked what works for Woody changes for a while a few years back he even gave up weed I wanted to be emotionally available to your family to my family to my friends is a good experiment it is Long Time Pal and fellow toker Willie Nelson brought that experiment to an end at one of their regular poker games Willie would always act like he didn't know that I quit you know I'm saying for like the fifth time that day I quit you know and he's like oh oh I win a big hand he hands it right to me and I just grab it and I take a big toke and he goes welcome home son [Laughter] welcome home son cause I gotta say even when uh basically I came out of the closet on the herb thing it was not a happy frolicky fun response do you think it hurt your career for a bit right yeah I don't think it helped that was 25 or so years ago this is it in 2023 the world has finally caught up to Woody Harrelson people are just anxious to put you in a little box in this industry you know so I'm I'm the year of the ox you know just slowly I trudge along I'm not the fastest animal out there but I keep going up next an exclusive excerpt from Woody Harrelson's chat one you can only see right here on CBS News streaming stay with us [Music] as promised here's more from Ben mankowitz's conversation with Woody Harrelson I think you would describe yourself now as spiritual but not religious certainly not in the sense you were growing up yeah I mean I it's I'm really actually I'm kind of for religions all bound into one and get a lot more holiday time so it is that was one of my best moves I'm like how can I get that weekend off and no but I uh no I wouldn't call myself religious but you know to me God probably doesn't have a Corporal body he doesn't have something to throw clothes on but if we want to throw clothes on God I kind of like the Hindu version of things you think about some bigger issues still right I mean yeah yeah I mean you're a philosophical guy philosophical yes yeah I'm feeling philosophical right now are you I was driving here today and I was thinking philosophically I said to myself look look at these four ladies walking up the hill they're all in black this is a perfect like microcosm of La they're the four ladies of a Saturday morning walking up the hill in Black it's like and I thought to myself why does everybody wear black it's such a thing of wearing black is like are we in mourning or something I don't know but but then I look down and I'm like I'm wearing black yeah so why do you think that is I mean it's it is it is slimming we are all is that what it is it's slimming we uh constantly that that's explanation I think it is I think it's I mean like a three-dimensional explanation no in Los Angeles that's right that's Los Angeles and we're all very worried about how everybody else looks that's right yeah um so uh you're a fan of It's a Wonderful Life yeah oh I'm a fan of a lot of Jimmy Stewart's yeah he's he's one of the greats I met him you did one time yeah yeah I got to meet him I was with my buddy Clint and Clint Allen is the guy who got me to move to New York because he got accepted accepted to Juilliard also an actor he was the guy who got all the great Parts in college and then you know he he was destined for greatness anyway he did he got accepted to Juilliard and I said I'd move with him thinking you know what are the odds he's going to get accepted thousands of people trying to get in he got accepted moved to New York and then after two years Juilliard he went into a Broadway play and uh you know it was a lot thanks to him but he and I were together one time got on a plane and sitting there and in the little in front of us was Jimmy Stewart with his wife and uh we just had to go over and say how nuts we were about him and he wrote us a beautiful note back and uh Clint has that note I I think we're supposed to trade off each of us get the note for five years he's had he's had hold of it 20 years so I think I get my 20-year stint now by the way he told us make sure you do theater that was his thing yeah young actors that was his advice he did a lot of theater before he uh before he went to MGM yeah or he went over to the ham GM I mean watching you try to do Jimmy Stewart I could do that for a couple hours yeah I'm gonna keep working on this um then you do whatever it is 10 12 years ago you do you do True Detective and it's totally different right I mean now that's the best writing now strikes me is on television yeah that's where the great the best character development Television right yeah and True Detective was a big part of that growth that explosion yeah that that did shift things from it it was the first time and and I don't give myself credit because Matthew was already in but it's a first time movie stars did television never had that it was always people doing television wanting to get to movies this is movie people doing television so that was kind of a cool shift that happened and now I guess it's pretty common you know but but I was amazed I just remember hearing about it like hold up Matthew's doing a television show what so that was a big part of getting you to do it or at least telling you sending a message subliminally like oh this is okay this doesn't mean this doesn't mean I'm done with movies he's one of my best friends he still is I was I I just remember hearing it I couldn't make it it made no sense it's just impossible I heard an interview years ago with Howard Stern and he was uh interviewing uh Bradley Cooper who was uh publicizing American Sniper this is long after True Detective this is long after obviously The Sopranos where it's already clear that television is very good but still Howard asked Bradley Cooper you you know you got whatever it is then two or three Oscar nominations you you wouldn't do uh you wouldn't do TV right you're still a movie star there's still some people who wouldn't do TV right you know and uh and Cooper said he he said I go over the writings you get a good script and it's a character that captures me a quarter side do television and then Bradley Cooper said look he goes man Tom Hardy's doing television if Tom Hardy's doing television and I I was like I had no idea that Tom Hardy was that I thought man other actors must think Tom Hardy is really good for that to be the reference pinky blind yes uh yeah wow so now right now there's no I mean you know what Meryl Streep's doing television for crying out loud right it's over Meryl Streep does television it's over you can't there's no the lines have been permanently blurred uh but is that true for you too that idea that man whatever the if it's TV streaming a movie oh yeah I'm not done doing television in fact I'm going to do more of it you know that's where I agree better characters better writing why not up next going behind the mask [Music] welcome back costume masks can be found in many of the souvenir shops in Venice Italy and for good reason hiding behind them was integral to their society for centuries here's Seth down [Music] inspires wonder and during Carnival the city of canals provides a fanciful backdrop for the festivities leading up to Lent costumes and notably masks have added to the mystery of these celebrations for centuries upstaging everyday uniforms and overshadowing those pandemic face coverings that became all too familiar how do you feel when you wear this mask told us adding it's like living on this stage it's marvelous there's stage on this sunny Sunday was Saint Mark's Square they told us dressing up made them feel 100 venetians it's a traditional historic Venetian mask this man told us of his volto and hers for example he added is the Moretta if you look at longy's paintings you'll see these masks indeed Pietro longy's work reveals how face coverings were a focal point of Venetian life in the 1700s not so different from Davide Bolognese early years in the 1980s my childhood memories are full of masks for sure full of masks baloney's parents were mask makers and now through their family company kamakanap he's carrying on this craft here in Venice it was a tradition um common costume of wearing masks not only during Carnival but for at least six months a year and it was a common fashion to wear a mask not to be recognized so people used to go around the city to public places Cafe Market squares and so on wearing masks what time period are we talking about well we are talking about for sure about the 16 and 1700 but we have some documents that speak about masks that come from the middle age masks allowed the mixing of classes removing divisions in the strict hierarchy of Venetian Society wearing a mask was a social equalizer in a sense a social equalizer yeah social equalizer this is which one this is the bota in their shop baloney showed us the bauta costume of which The volto Mask plays a key part in concealing identity I'm ready to go gambling or to the theater and we'll do whatever you want without me recognizing you and spotting you out and you know chit chatting about you gossiping about you this would be handy to have today and there are other masks with modern relevance this is the the plague doctor mask it dates to the 1500s used by doctors dealing with the plague the eyes were glass and the long beak stuffed with aromatic herbs this was not a carnival this was not a fun mask no not at the beginning at least but in the last century of the Venetian republics in the 1700s this became like a costume and this was used on Mardi Gras on the last day of Carnival to remember people to go back to a better behavior when Napoleon conquered Venice in 7 1997 he did away with masks due to the debauchery they allowed never mind the security challenge they posed and so for 200 years basically this tradition was almost forgotten until the 1970s when Artisans including Carlos presesco got to work masks accompanied Venetian culture practically from its origin brosesco told us and we are trying to recover some of this tradition we met as he was transporting a giant bulb and pigs to be used in a carnival parade noting in Venice everything is more difficult animals represent a carnival time gift the Venetian Republic demanded from a defeated Army hundreds of years ago processco is keeping alive both the story and tradition each year the parade floats down the Grand Canal [Music] the only mask mandate here is the more extravagant the better [Music] I'm Lee Cowan thanks for joining us we'll see you right back here next time on Here Comes the Sun foreign [Music] foreign

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 208,011

Keywords: Woody Harrelson, masks, Venice, actor, entertainment, Italy, carnival, religion, television, woody harrelson interview, woody harrelson movies, weed

Id: v25DjJMivwU

Length: 22min 5sec (1325 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 12 2023