The movie Woody Harrelson hated watching: “He walked away really upset”
Woody Harrelson has always been refreshingly candid about his work, very much wearing his heart on his sleeve. If he’s proud of his performance, he’ll shout it from the rooftops. But if he’s disappointed in a film or his role within it, he makes no attempt to hide his dissatisfaction.
Sometimes, this honesty emerges quietly, years later, in interview snippets—like when he admitted he didn’t feel he nailed his villainous role in War for the Planet of the Apes. Other times, it’s far more dramatic—such as the time he was so devastated by one of his films that it brought him to tears and strained his relationship with a director he once considered a close friend.
In 2009, Harrelson starred in The Messenger, a powerful indie movie about the emotional implications of being a US Army casualty notification officer. Oren Moverman helmed the film in his directorial debut, and it was so well-received that both Harrelson and Moverman received Oscar nominations. It made perfect sense, then, when Harrelson joined the director again for 2011’s Rampart, a searing drama about a corrupt LAPD Officer in the ’90s who somehow survived the Rodney King scandal and continued his illegal activities.
Harrelson was initially unsure if he could play a police officer, and Moverman needed to convince him that he was right for the role. “It was a really compelling character, but I was concerned about being able to play a cop,” he admitted to IndieWire. “At the time, I couldn’t picture myself as a cop. But of course, I wanted to do it and accept the challenge. And also to work with Oren, I just can’t pass that opportunity up.”
Indeed, Harrelson had formed such a strong bond with Moverman on The Messenger that he described their relationship as “fused together in such a way, it’s the kind of friendship only death can separate.”
This brotherhood was put through the wringer, though, when Harrelson asked to see an early cut of Rampart. Moverman warned his leading man that he was only four months into the editing process, and what he’d cut together was significantly different from the script. This is because Moverman had heavily rewritten iconic crime author James Ellroy’s screenplay, and the shooting process had involved lots of improvisation from the cast. However, Moverman had also completely removed “a couple dozen” scenes Harrelson assumed would be in the film, meaning entire characters were chopped from it completely.
By Harrelson’s own admission, he “didn’t go for” this early cut of the film. Moverman confessed to The Playlist that he knew it would be a shock for his star and argued that it was difficult for Harrelson “to recognise the fact that this is a love letter to him in many ways, and what I think of him as an actor.”
Either way, the disillusioned star “walked away really, really upset and really unsure of what happened to what we shot.”
This screening was in May, and Harrelson didn’t see the film again until August, so there was a certain tension between the two men at that time. However, Harrelson insisted it was never a question of their friendship falling apart. Still, the two men were nervous when Harrelson sat down to watch the new cut because he admitted he wouldn’t have been able to publicly support the movie if he didn’t feel differently about it the second time around.
After grabbing a couple of drinks to settle their nerves, the two creatives watched the film together. When the credits rolled, and the lights went up, Harrelson got to his feet, but Moverman stayed seated on the floor. He admitted: “I thought he was either going to kick me or hug me. I didn’t know.”
To his delight, though, Harrelson bent down and said, “It takes a big man to admit that he was wrong. Will you be able to forgive me?” You see, the star couldn’t believe how wrong he’d been, and loved the film this time. Moverman confessed, “We both started crying, and we sat down there on the floor, watched all the credits, stayed there in the dark and talked and cried, and it was just an incredible relief.”
