The role that almost broke Woody Harrelson: “That nearly killed me”
No one ever said acting is an easy job. Even if you’re an actor who opts for lighthearted and comedic roles, the pressures of performance can still get too much. The demands of showing up for the camera, delivering a range of emotions that might be far removed from how you’re actually feeling, and embodying characters who do unspeakable things can certainly cause even the most seasoned Hollywood star to need a break.
This was certainly the case for Woody Harrelson, who realised pretty soon into his career that he needed to take a step back. While some rare actors consistently appear in projects without pausing for breath, others typically need to slow things down, perhaps to spend a few months in their holiday home or in an extravagant hotel by the sea. For Harrelson, relocating to Costa Rica was needed to rest and rejuvenate, allowing him to take some time away from Hollywood shortly before becoming one of the industry’s biggest stars.
The actor rose to prominence in the mid-1980s with his role as Woody Boyd on the NBC sitcom Cheers. He starred in almost 200 episodes of the popular show, establishing himself as a familiar face in American consciousness. After starring in several films like Wildcats, Mother Goose Rock ‘n’ Rhyme, and LA Story, Harrelson started to earn more attention, soon starring alongside Wesley Snipes in White Men Can’t Jump, which was a hit.
Subsequently, the actor was given more opportunities than ever before, and he even decided to write and direct his own play, Furthest From The Sun. Yet, he found himself overwhelmed by the amount of work he was undertaking, leading him to desperately take a hard-earned break.
He was shooting several movies consecutively in 1993, but Harrelson eventually reached breaking point. “So my decision was, at the end of Cheers, I was doing all that press and I was doing a play that I wrote and directed and acted in that nearly killed me, Furthest From the Sun,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1994. “And then went right into doing Natural Born Killers with Oliver [Stone], then doing [The] Cowboy Way right after that. I was ready to be done with it.”
In a moment of personal turmoil, Harrelson “moved down to Costa Rica” and explained that he hasn’t “really worked since,” adding, “I decided I was taking ’94 off. Past that, I don’t have any plans.”
However, it wouldn’t be long until Harrelson was back at acting, with Snipes and Harrelson reuniting again for Money Train in early 1995, which was released later that year, before landing the leading role in The People vs. Larry Flynt. His role in the latter earned him an Oscar nomination for ‘Best Actor’, cementing Harrelson as a worldwide star.
Still, the pressures of Hollywood got to the actor yet again, and he found himself stepping away for a break after the release of the biopic. He moved off-grid with his family and “just had a ball together”, he once told NPR, adding, “I’ll say this: I’m a good worker and a hard worker, but I’m a world-class vacationer.”
