The 2017 movie character Woody Harrelson called Marlon Brando meets Donald Trump
Inspiration can literally come from anywhere, and while it wasn’t necessarily his intention, Woody Harrelson nonetheless acknowledged that one of his big-screen roles ended up coming off as a hybrid of two of Hollywood’s most diametrically opposed personalities.
We’re using the term ‘Hollywood’ fairly loosely in this instance, but not inaccurately, seeing as one of those influences was Home Alone 2, Zoolander, and Two Weeks Notice star Donald Trump, although the former reality TV host and WWE Hall of Famer’s filmography is almost entirely built on playing himself.
Still, by the usual metrics, you’d technically have to consider him an actor. An award-winning actor, no less, with Trump almost impressively managing to win four of the five Razzies he’s been nominated for, not to mention that he was a member of the Screen Actors Guild from 1989 to 2021, so he ticks enough boxes that you could get away with calling him an industry figure.
The other, of course, exists at the opposite end of the performative spectrum, with Marlon Brando the single most influential thespian of the modern era, and almost certainly all time. He’s the benchmark that all of your favourites have dreamed of even coming close to emulating, and when you put the two together, what do you get? 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes, obviously.
In the closing chapter of one of the 21st century’s finest movie trilogies, Harrelson is on antagonistic duties as Wesley McCullough, the military colonel who’s made it his life’s mission to eradicate those damn dirty apes from the top of the food chain, at least, if not the face of the planet.
You can see it, in a way. The three-time Academy Award nominee’s performance absolutely carries shades of Brando’s iconic turn as Walter Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, who also happened to be a colonel, and as for the other fella, well, in a case of art imitating life, seeing as the script was written years previously, McCullough’s forces have constructed a huge wall to keep out anyone they consider an enemy.
As mentioned, he didn’t approach the part with an orange-faced loon and a mumbling method man in the back of his mind, but he did summarise his role as “a combination of Brando and Donald Trump,” pointing out that, much like the latter was at the time, “He’s trying to build a wall.”
“It’s just a coincidence,” Harrelson clarified. “But it’s tapping into something.” Unfortunately, that’s when War for the Planet of the Apes stopped imitating real life, because by the end of the third act, McCullough has been robbed of the ability to speak, and there are more than a few folk who’d love nothing more than for one of his inspirations to suffer from that particular ailment.
We don’t need to point out which one, unless the ghost of Frank Sinatra remains furious that Brando can’t stop mumbling, but hearing Harrelson say it out loud makes it less subtle and more obvious, even if it wasn’t done on purpose.
