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| Woody Harrelson with his Heart of Sarajevo award Photo: Courtesy of Sarajevo Film Festival |
A few hours before, the three-time Oscar-nominated star entertained a packed and lively crowd at a masterclass with everything from anecdotes to an Elvis impersonation.
The latter stemmed from the star who recalled, in the hour-long conversation with film critic Neil Young, that it was an spontaneous turn as the King that set him on the path to acting in the first place. He'd been practising All Shook Up at home and, egged on by some friends, to break out the song during a gathering at a library. He added: "Towards the end, I jumped on a table. I'd never performed n my life and I just suddenly took a jump on the table. So that was my first performance."
It impressed Robin Rogers, who Harrelson describes as "one of the most beautiful girls in the school", She also happened to be the vice president of the drama club and persuaded him to join. "I tried out for a play because Robin Rogers wanted me to," he added.
Harrelson's chat was free-ranging and included clips from films that he had specifically chosen, including from Rob Reiner's LBJ, in which he stars as the 36th US president Lyndon Johnson. “I wanted to do it because Rob Reiner asked me to do it, and I really wanted to work with Rob," he said.
The star also chatted about his performance alongside Ben Foster in The Messenger, revealing how his ad libs had bolstered a scene. He also observed that the director, Oren Moverman, often shoots only one take, which upset the producers so much that he was briefly fired, until the cast, which also included Samantha Morton, threatened to quit unless her was reinstated.
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| Woody Harrelson and Neil Young on stage Photo: Amber Wilkinson |
The star, who was Oscar-nominated for The People Vs Larry Flynt, The Messenger and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, also recalled his "big fuck up" of not accepting the lead in Jerry Maguire, joking they "didn't want to show me the money".
He said producer James L Brooks had given him the script. "I read the script and I called him and I said, 'I don't think anybody's going to care about this agent'. Jim goes, 'I think you're wrong, buddy'. Then about four days later, suddenly, Tom Cruise is going to do this part and I realised, 'Oh, I think I was wrong'.
During the hour's conversation, the star also talked about reuniting with his True Detective co-star Matthew McConaughey for Brothers. He explained: “We are playing ourselves but fictional, like Curb Your Enthusiasm'. It stems from the revelation a few years ago, and which Harrelson recounted in the masterclass, that his father "knew" McConaughey's mother around the time that the Interstellar star was conceived and that Harrelson believes the two are half-brothers.
Recalling working in Sarajevo on Michael Winterbottom's film, which focuses on journalists in Bosnia during the conflict, he said: “Back then we had a curfew, and it was very sparse comparatively. Now you can barely walk down the street; there are so many people. It’s alive and bustling. It’s incredible the metamorphosis from back then.”
As the masterclass ended and the strains of Elvis struck up on the sound system, Harrelson continued to play to the crowd, performing on stage before jumping off to continue shaking up his fans.
