Woody Harrelson Regrets His ‘Planet of the Apes’ Performance: Now I Could ‘Do It 20 Times Better’

Samantha Bergeson
·4 min read
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Woody Harrelson isn’t going to war with himself any longer, despite looking back in frustration at past roles.

The “Champions” actor reflected on his turn as the villain in 2017 film “War for the Planet of the Apes,” admitting that he felt “rigid” in the role.

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“When things are going right, I don’t feel rigid. But there are performances where I was like, ‘Why couldn’t I just get outside whatever I was doing?’ Ten years later, I’ll think of something I should have done in a scene, and I want to tear my head off,” Harrelson told The New York Times Magazine. “‘Planet of the Apes,’ that’s one of those times where there was so much technology involved in what we were doing, I was a little daunted. If I did that part again, I could do it 20 times better.”

Harrelson added, “There’s several roles that I go back and think: Why didn’t I try this? Why didn’t I do that? Why didn’t I step into a whole another character? But it’s probably best to let those things drop. They can haunt you.”

The “Natural Born Killers” star reflected further on his decades-spanning career, saying that in 1997, he had completed five films back-to-back and it took a toll on his psyche and ultimately the roles offered to him.

“I was so burned out. It was my own fault,” Harrelson said. “I could have easily turned down some of those projects, but at the end of it I had lost my mojo. Whatever it was that made me keen on acting was just gone. And right at the end of that time, my second daughter was born, and I wanted to spend time with those gals. But I’d be foolish if I didn’t admit that probably my popularity was lower. I did five bombs in a row. You do one movie that doesn’t succeed, ugh. But two, three and then five?”

He continued, “Then — I don’t remember if it was 2001 or 2002 — when I said, ‘OK, I’m ready to get back into it.’ I’m thinking, ‘I don’t know if there’ll be a ticker-tape parade, but certainly there’s going to be some warm response.’ Nothing. No response.”

Harrelson shared that he “even agreed to do this movie that was not good” just for the sake of jumpstarting his career again.

“I won’t get into any specifics, but it was a stupid thing,” Harrelson said. “I meet with the director, and I’m going to do it — they’re making it for like $500,000 — then the guy just goes with someone else! Didn’t call me. Nothing. I’m like, whoa, man, things have gotten tough. But slowly and surely I started getting back into it, and things started going better.”

Later in the interview, Harrelson took aim at COVID-19 production protocols, claiming that no one should be “forced to get vaccinated” or wear masks three years into the pandemic.

“I’m just like, let’s be done with this nonsense. It’s not fair to the crews,” the “Zombieland” star said. “I don’t have to wear the mask. Why should they? Why should they have to be vaccinated? How’s that not up to the individual? I shouldn’t be talking about this [expletive]. It makes me angry for the crew. The anarchist part of me, I don’t feel that we should have forced testing, forced masking and forced vaccination. That’s not a free country. Really I’m talking about the crew. Because I can get out of wearing a mask. I can test less. I’m not in the same position they’re in, but it’s wrong. It’s three years. Stop.”

Harrelson echoed the same sentiment during his “Saturday Night Live” opening monologue, comparing COVID vaccine companies to the “biggest drug cartels in the world” who conspired to “buy up all the media and all the politicians and force all the people in the world to stay locked in their homes.”

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