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Role Recall: Woody Harrelson on identifying with 'Cheers' character, learning to dunk, and what he really thinks of Jennifer Lawrence
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Over the course of a wildly successful, widely diverse three decades, Woody Harrelson has held down the tap on Cheers, proved white men can jump, and managed to survive The Hunger Games, winning an Emmy and receiving two Oscar nods along the way. The 56-year-old Texas native has two major films out this month — the Rob Reiner-helmed biopic LBJ, in which he’s virtually unrecognizable as the 36th president, and the Oscar-buzzing Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, where he plays a local sheriff under siege from a mother who wants justice for her murdered daughter — and has recently wrapped filming on 2018’s surefire blockbuster Solo: A Star Wars Story. Yahoo Entertainment recently down with Harrelson for a guided tour of his greatest hits in the latest edition of our Role Recall series. Some highlights:
Cheers (1985-93) Harrelson’s breakout role came in the classic NBC sitcom, where he joined the ensemble in 1985 as the kind, yet dimwitted bartender Woody Boyd. “It was a friend of mine who told me that there was this part you should go try out for,” Harrelson explains. “The part’s named Woody, he’s from Indiana, where we had gone to college, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’
“There was a lot about Woody Boyd that I resonated with. And though I didn’t think I was very innocent at the time, I probably was pretty innocent. It was the first time I really broke out of anonymity — and poverty.”
White Men Can’t Jump (1992) Harrelson really couldn’t jump for the Ron Shelton comedy about two basketball hustlers, a fact that resulted in endless taunting (and wagering) from co-star Wesley Snipes. “That was one of the funnest times I ever had doing a movie. I remember having an actual contest with Wes where I was trying to dunk. We were betting and I was losing. Then he went to his trailer … and this [crew member] told me, “Why don’t you ever stretch?” This is my first introduction to yoga,” Harrelson recalls, “and I started stretching and the next thing you know, I could dunk the ball. This is on a 9-and-a-half-foot rim, by the way; I couldn’t do it on a 10-foot rim. … He came out of his trailer and I pretended I couldn’t and we upped the bet and upped the bet and then slammed it. I’ll never forget the look on Wes’s face: It was joyous.
Indecent Proposal (1993) This extremely popular, extremely un-P.C. film starred Robert Redford as mogul who offers Harrelson’s character $1 million for a night with his wife, played by Demi Moore. “My mom was pretty psyched,” says Harrelson. “She didn’t come to visit me on set much, but with Robert Redford was in the movie, she came to the set for sure. She was like a little girl. It was fantastic.”
Natural Born Killers (1994) Harrelson and Juliette Lewis played a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde in Oliver Stone’s graphically violent road-trip movie that polarized audiences upon its release. “I didn’t know it would be that controversial. It was very controversial,” says Harrelson. “People are like, ‘Do you like doing controversial movies?’ I’m like, ‘Hell, no. I like doing movies people would go see, not movies people are boycotting.'”
The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) Harrelson reteamed with Stone and earned his first Oscar nomination playing Hustler magnate Larry Flynt in this biopic. “I wouldn’t have been much into doing this movie if I hadn’t come to respect Larry. I don’t respect much the pornography part of what he does,” Harrelson quickly adds, “But what he is as a person, and the rebel that he is, and even what he did recently offering $10 million for any information that leads to the impeachment of our so-called president… I’ve never met a more honest man.”
The Hunger Games (2012-15) For the blockbuster four-film saga based on the bestselling book series, Harrelson played mentor to Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen. “I love Jen,” Harrelson says with a smile. “She’s absolutely hysterical. She’s her own person. I love who she is. I think she’s a tremendous actress, but even more so as a person, she’s one of my top favorite people in the world.”
True Detective (2014) Harrelson and partner Matthew McConaughey both earned Emmy nominations for HBO’s esoteric mystery thriller. “Love working with Matthew, that’s the third thing we did together,” Harrelson says, ticking off their collaborations in EDtv and Surfer Dude. “He’s a hard-core committed guy… Man, what a performance.” But despite their good vibes on set and off, that doesn’t mean Harrelson wants to reprise their partnership for a follow-up season of True Detective. “I don’t see doing that because it went really well the first time and if you come back around to it, what else are you going to hear? ‘Not as good. Wasn’t as good. Boy, you guys were good before, but this time…’ I don’t want to hear that.”
Watch the complete Role Recall above.
Here’s Woody on why he almost didn’t appear in the upcoming Star Wars movie:
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Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
Woody Harrelson’s sheriff investigates Frances McDormand for dental crimes in ‘Three Billboards’ clip (exclusive)
Woody Harrelson’s ‘LBJ’ transformation was so complete it fooled his daughter
‘War for the Planet of the Apes’ cast on the film’s ending and its connection to previous ‘Apes’ movies
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Woody Harrelson's 'LBJ' transformation was so perfect, it fooled his daughter
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Halloween came early for Woody Harrelson‘s family. While shooting the new drama LBJ, in which he plays America’s controversial 36th president, the actor’s daughter visited the set and got a glimpse of her father in his heavy presidential prosthetics. “I go running up to her to pick her up, and she’s screaming like, ‘Who is this man picking me up!'” Harrelson tells Yahoo Entertainment with a laugh. “I was like, ‘It’s Daddy!’ She was so surprised.” (Watch the interview above.)
Harrelson himself admits to being surprised by his transformation into Lyndon B. Johnson for the Rob Reiner-directed film, even though it subjected him to his least-favorite part of the filmmaking process: lengthy stints in the makeup chair. “I don’t like sitting in that [make-up] chair for any length of time,” he admits. “We got it down to two hours. But then coming out of it and really looking in the mirror, I felt like, ‘Oh, I see LBJ in what my face has become.'”
LBJ opens in theaters today.
Watch: From Cheers to Hunger Games, Woody Harrelson takes us through his career in our Role Recall:
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Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
Woody Harrelson reveals he turned down Han Solo movie; he’s glad he changed his mind
Would Rob Reiner screen ‘LBJ’ for Donald Trump: ‘I would never go to his White House’
Woody Harrelson’s sheriff investigates Frances McDormand for dental crimes in ‘Three Billboards’ clip (exclusive)
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First 'LBJ' Clip: Watch Woody Harrelson Tell a Dirty Story
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Why yes, that is Woody Harrelson’s voice coming out of Lyndon Johnson’s face in this new clip from LBJ. Thanks to some serious prosthetics, Harrelson is hardly recognizable as the 37th President of the United States. Director Rob Reiner’s film, premiering today at the Toronto International Film Festival, follows Johnson for several years of his political career — during which he, apparently, regaled his colleagues with some naughty life lessons. Watch the clip above.
LBJ takes place between 1959 and 1964, following Johnson’s sudden ascension from the Senate to the Vice Presidency to the Oval Office (he was sworn in after John Kennedy’s assassination), and his controversial second term (during which he passed the Civil Rights Act but also waged war in Vietnam). At TIFF, Reiner spoke to Deadline about his complex title character.
“Here was a guy who was so effective in persuading people to come around to his position, and at the same time have this incredible insecurity at his core. I thought if I can get that across somehow then it makes it a more interesting film,” said the director.
Audiences at TIFF are getting well-acquainted with this period of U.S. political history: In addition to LBJ, the film Jackie starring Natalie Portman, about Jacqueline Kennedy in the days following her husband’s assassination, premiered at the festival to rave reviews.
Related: Read our complete Toronto coverage
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Toronto Film Festival to Open With Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt in 'The Magnificent Seven'
Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt in ‘The Magnificent Seven’ (Photo: Sam Emerson/MGM)
By Brent Lang, Variety
The Toronto International Film Festival sounded the opening bell of Oscar season on Tuesday, unveiling a list of high profile films that will use the annual gathering to launch their awards campaigns. Major releases that will be looking to make a splash and score with critics include Denis Villeneuve’s alien invasion thriller Arrival, Peter Berg’s disaster drama Deepwater Horizon, and Rob Reiner’s historical biopic LBJ.
The film festival will kick off on Sept. 8 with the world premiere of The Magnificent Seven, a remake of the John Sturges classic that was itself a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. It stars Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt, while marking director Antoine Fuqua’s third time at the festival. He previously screened Training Day and The Equalizer at Toronto.
“I can’t think of a better place or crowd for the film’s world premiere,” Fuqua said in a brief video statement that accompanied a press conference announcing the lineup.
‘The Magnificent Seven’: Watch a trailer:
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Jonathan Demme, Oliver Stone, and Mira Nair are just a few of the notable directors who will be bringing their latest films north of the border. Demme will offer up JT and the Tennessee Kids, which promises to pull back the curtain on Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience World Tour. The Silence of the Lambs filmmaker has previously shot documentaries about musicians such as the Talking Heads and Neil Young. Stone will be on hand with another piece of political provocation, Snowden, a look at NSA leaker Edward Snowden that stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and was originally supposed to open last spring. Nair is fielding Queen of Katwe, an inspirational drama about a chess prodigy that stars Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelowo.
One film that will likely draw a lot of interest from Oscar-ologists is Lion, a drama about a young man (Dev Patel) who reunites with his long-lost parents using Google Earth. The Weinstein Company, which has struggled at the box office of late and sat out last year’s best picture Oscar race for the first time since 2008, is hoping that the film will propel the studio back into the thick of things.
Related: ‘Nocturnal Animals’ Lands Awards Season Release Date
After setting off a bidding war at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival for his screenplay, Tom Ford will debut Nocturnal Animals. The twisty story of a woman whose life begins to mirror the manuscript of her ex-husband’s first novel stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Though best known as a fashion designer, Ford impressed critics with A Single Man, his 2009 Oscar-nominated feature film directing debut.
Along with Ford, Damien Chazelle will try to prove that his initial brush with success wasn’t a fluke. The indie director turned heads in 2014 with Whiplash, his portrait of an ambitious drummer and an abusive instructor. He’s back at the festival with La La Land, a musical that will try to prove that Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling can hoof it with the best of them and carry a tune.
‘La La Land’: Watch the first trailer:
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In past years, Oscar-winners or contenders such as Spotlight, The Martian, or The Theory of Everything have used Toronto to propel themselves forward in the race for awards glory and commercial success. The Canadian festival is seen as a must-stop on most major awards campaigns.
However, even as the competition for gold statues intensifies, so too has the rivalry between festivals. To that end, Toronto has seen its prominence threatened by the Telluride Film Festival, which has the advantage of appearing earlier in the year, and boasts a more casual and relaxed vibe that some filmmakers find appealing. They’ve also lost out on several prominent fall releases to the New York Film Festival, which last year snagged the premiere of Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies and also nabbed the debut of David Fincher’s Gone Girl in 2014.
At various points, Toronto brass have hit back at the competition, denying opening weekend slots to films that screened at other festivals. Although last year they loosened those restrictions, simply denying them access to their biggest venues.
Related: Why Hollywood Stars Matter to Film Festivals Like Karlovy Vary
There are risks to offering up films for public consumption before they hit theaters. Last year, the gay rights drama Freeheld and the crime thriller Legend both saw their Oscar chances snuffed out and their box office prospects dimmed when they got a lackluster response from Toronto audiences.
This year’s gathering unfolds as society is grappling with a series of terrorist attacks in Europe, mass shootings around the globe, and a divisive U.S. presidential election. But the festival’s leadership said that while movies screening at Toronto will grapple with a host of social and political issues, there isn’t a connective tissue linking all of the work thematically.
“We are living in complex and really unpredictable times, and the wonderful thing about cinema is it’s both entertainment and it’s also an art form, and it always reflects the times that we are living in,” said Cameron Bailey, the festival’s artistic director.
This year’s festival will also include several films that have appeared at Cannes or the Sundance Film Festival. It’s a list that includes Nate Parker’s slave revolt drama The Birth of a Nation, Kenneth Lonergan’s family drama Manchester by the Sea, Andrea Arnold’s shaggy road trip odyssey American Honey, Jim Jarmusch’s slice-of-life portrait of a bus driver in Paterson, and Jeff Nichols’ civil rights drama Loving.
Watch a clip from ‘Loving’:
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Not every film is a prestige play grappling with weighty issues. The lineup boasts a mixture of more commercially minded fare, such as Sing, a comedy animated musical comedy from the makers of Despicable Me, as well as romantic comedies such as Lone Scherfig’s Their Finest or road trip yarns like Eleanor Coppola’s Paris Can Wait. The festival’s closing night film, The Edge of Seventeen, seems like a homage to John Hughes’ high school dramedies. It stars Hailee Steinfeld, Blake Jenner, Woody Harrelson, and Kyra Sedgwick, as well as marks the feature film directing debut from Kelly Fremon Craig.
Most of the major titles already have distribution, but Toronto is a market, as well as a festival. LBJ, which stars Woody Harrelson as President Lyndon Johnson, Jim Sheridan’s The Secret Scripture with a cast that includes Vanessa Redgrave and Theo James, and The Headhunter’s Calling with Gerard Butler, are among the films that are likely to attract attention from buyers.
The lineup also reflects the changing face of the film business. It’s an industry that is no longer dominated exclusively by Hollywood players. Amazon has moved aggressively into the indies space, partnering with the likes of Woody Allen and Spike Lee on projects. It will be a presence at Toronto, screening films such as Paterson and The Handmaiden, an erotic thriller from Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook.
Adam Driver in Jim Jarmusch’s ‘Paterson’ (Photo: Amazon)
The festival said it will add to its initial list of 68 films in the weeks leading up to the festival. The gathering will close on Sept. 18.
Here’s a list of galas and special presentations:
GALAS Arrival (Denis Villeneuve) Deepwater Horizon (Peter Berg) The Headhunter’s Calling (Mark Williams) The Journey is the Destination (Bronwen Hughes) JT + The Tennessee Kids (Jonathan Demme) LBJ (Rob Reiner) Lion (Garth Davis) Loving (Jeff Nichols) A Monster Calls (J.A. Bayona) Planetarium (Rebecca Zlotowski) Queen of Katwe (Mira Nair) The Rolling Stones Olé Olé Olé! : A Trip Across Latin America (Paul Dugdale) The Secret Scripture (Jim Sheridan) Snowden (Oliver Stone) Strange Weather (Katherine Dieckmann) Their Finest (Lone Scherfig) A United Kingdom (Amma Asante)
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS The Age of Shadows (Miljeong) (Kim Jee woon) All I See Is You (Marc Forster) American Honey (Andrea Arnold) American Pastoral (Ewan McGregor) Asura: The City of Madness (Kim Sung-soo) Barakah Meets Barakah (Barakah yoqabil Barakah) (Mahmoud Sabbagh) Barry (Vikram Gandhi) Birth of the Dragon (George Nolfi) The Birth of a Nation (Nate Parker) Bleed for This (Ben Younger) Blue Jay (Alex Lehmann) Brimstone (Martin Koolhoven) BrOTHERHOOD (Noel Clarke) Carrie Pilby (Susan Johnson) Catfight (Onur Tukel) City of Tiny Lights (Pete Travis) The Commune (Kollektivet) (Thomas Vinterberg) Daguerrotype (Le Secret de la chambre noire) (Kiyoshi Kurosawa) A Death in the Gunj (Konkona Sensharma) Denial (Mick Jackson) Elle (Paul Verhoeven) Foreign Body (Raja Amari) Frantz (François Ozon) The Handmaiden (Agassi) (Park Chan-wook) Harmonium (Fuchi ni tatsu) (Kôji Fukada) I Am Not Madame Bovary (Feng Xiaogang) The Journey (Nick Hamm) King of the Dancehall (Nick Cannon) La La Land (Damien Chazelle) The Limehouse Golem (Juan Carlos Medina) Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan) Maudie (Aisling Walsh) Neruda (Pablo Larraín) Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford) The Oath (Baltasar Kormákur) Orphan (Orpheline) (Arnaud des Pallières) Paris Can Wait (Eleanor Coppola) Paterson (Jim Jarmusch) The Salesman (Asghar Farhadi) Salt and Fire (Werner Herzog) Sing (Garth Jennings) Souvenir (Bavo Defurne) Things to Come (L’Avenir) (Mia Hansen-Løve) Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade) Trespass Against Us (Adam Smith) Una (Benedict Andrews) Unless (Alan Gilsenan) The Wasted Times (Luo Man Di Ke Xiao Wang Shi) (Cheng Er)
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Woody Harrelson to Play LBJ in Drama Directed by Rob Reiner
Woody Harrelson (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
By Tatiana Siegel
Woody Harrelson is being sworn in as former president Lyndon Baines Johnson in the Rob Reiner-helmed film LBJ.
Written by Joey Hartstone, the drama chronicles the Southern politician’s rise to become the 36th President of the United States. Filming is slated to begin in September in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Dallas and Washington. LBJ centers on the political upheaval that vice president Johnson faced when he was thrust into the presidency at the hands of an assassin’s bullet in November 1963. With political battles on both sides of the aisle, Johnson struggles to heal a nation and secure his presidency by passing Kennedy’s historic Civil Rights Act.
Johnson, who was known as LBJ for short, has become a character ripe for the screen in recent years. He was portrayed by Tom Wilkinson as a somewhat unsympathetic figure in Ava DuVernay’s Selma. He also will be tackled by Bryan Cranston in the HBO TV movie All the Way (Cranston won a Tony playing the late president on Broadway in a stage version of All the Way).
LBJ is being produced by Acacia Entertainment, Savvy Media Holdings, Castle Rock Entertainment and Star Thrower Entertainment.
Lyndon Baines Johnson (Getty Images)
The project starring Harrelson was originally developed by brothers Tim and Trevor White (Star Thrower Entertainment) and is being financed by Acacia Entertainment, Savvy Media Holdings, Parkside Pictures, ITS Capital and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC).
Matthew George is producing the film alongside Reiner, Liz Glotzer, Michael R. Williams and the Whites. Executive producers include Martin Shafer, Elizabeth A. Bell, Susan Lanot, Danny Roth, Damiano Tucci, Michael Tadross Jr. and Julie May.
Voltage Pictures is handling international sales, and CAA is selling the film domestically.
“Tim and Trevor White did a great job developing this project and Joey’s screenplay truly captures the soul of Johnson as he navigates this turbulent time with a government and a country in crisis,” George said.
Added Reiner: “During the ‘60s, I was a hippy, and Lyndon Johnson was my president. At the time LBJ was the target of most of my generation’s anti-Vietnam War anger. But as time has passed and my understanding of political realities has grown, I’ve come to see LBJ in a very different light. He was a complex man, a combination of brilliant political instinct, raw strength, ambition and deep insecurities. The strength and power of persuasion that he showed to his colleagues existed alongside of a soft, almost childlike quality that perhaps only (First Lady) Lady Bird got to see. His life’s path was nothing short of Shakespearean. From the poor hill country of West Texas to the corridors of power in Washington, he used his brilliant political acumen to pass the most groundbreaking civil rights legislation of the 20th century. And had it not been for the Vietnam War, I believe he would have gone down as one of America’s greatest presidents.”
Related: Jay Roach Attached to Direct HBO’s LBJ Biopic 'All the Way’ (Exclusive)
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Would Rob Reiner screen 'LBJ' for Donald Trump: 'I would never go to his White House'
Woody Harrelson stars as Lyndon Johnson in the new film LBJ. (Photo: Electric Entertainment /Courtesy Everett Collection)
Add Rob Reiner to the list of celebrities who wouldn’t accept an invitation to visit Donald Trump‘s White House. Speaking with Yahoo Entertainment about his timely new political drama, LBJ, the outspoken filmmaker and political activist indicated that he’d steer clear of a one-on-one meeting with Trump, even if the invitation came with the opportunity to screen his portrait of America’s 36th president (played by Woody Harrelson) for the 45th inhabitant of the Oval Office. “I would never go to his White House,” Reiner says, emphatically. “Not only do I not agree with him politically, but I find him to be a disagreeable person, and a person with no feelings or empathy for anybody but himself. Hopefully our country and democracy will survive this presidency, but this is one of the biggest challenges democracy has ever faced — to have someone as disreputable as Donald Trump in the White House.”
Reiner’s impression of Trump is based both on his actions while in office, but also on a past encounter long before the New York businessman and gadfly assumed the presidency. “I met him one time before,” Reiner remembers. “I know a lot of actors, and they all have big egos. But I never anything like I saw with Donald Trump!” Funnily enough, Reiner’s leading man had a similar experience when he met the current president. During a recent appearance on Real Time With Bill Maher, Harrelson recalled a 2002 dinner meeting with Trump and Jesse Ventura that he described as “brutal.”
“I never met a more narcissistic man,” Harrelson continued. “I had to walk out halfway through and smoke a joint just to steel myself for the rest of the [dinner].” Of course, Reiner didn’t tap Harrelson for the role simply because they both happen to agree on Trump. “Woody comes from Texas and has a great sense of humor, as Johnson did. Johnson also had these tremendous insecurities and vulnerabilities. I knew Woody could combine all of those elements; he was my first choice for the part.”
In the unlikely event that Trump does watch LBJ, which opens in theaters on Nov. 3, on his own time, Reiner isn’t holding his breath that he’ll learn anything from it. “He doesn’t seem to want to learn anything; that’s the most upsetting thing. He has no interest in it, because it’s not about him personally. He only cares about his own survival and his own pocketbook.” On the other hand, the director does see the film as being an instructive guide for younger audiences who do want a better understanding of the political process, especially at a time of deep dysfunction in Washington when little seems to be accomplished. And one of those younger viewers could even go on to become a politician capable of getting the wheels of government turning again. “It’s going to take an extraordinary leader who deeply understands the intersection of politics, policy and government. If you understand how all that works, you can bridge divides.”
Rob Reiner with ‘LBJ’ co-stars Bill Pullman and Jennifer Jason Leigh (Photo: Photo By: Priscilla Grant/Everett Collection)
As the film depicts, Johnson had to bridge his own divides while trying to enact such forward-thinking pieces of legislation as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, navigating around strong opposition from those across the aisle, as well as within his own party. The Texan also had to operate in the long shadow cast by his popular predecessor, John F. Kennedy, who had a very different temperament in office. White House lore has it that Johnson had an open door bathroom policy, and often spoke in language that would politely be described as “coarse.” Reiner, who was 16 when Johnson took office, admits to not thinking highly of LBJ during his administration, especially as the Vietnam War grew to overshadow his domestic agenda. “I was of draft age during the Vietnam War, and I hated the guy because he could have sent me to my death. As a I grew up and spent time in politics and policy, I got to understand a little bit more about what he was able to accomplish, and I thought “Wow this guy is much more complicated and complex than I ever thought.”
Vietnam itself isn’t addressed in the film, which instead jumps back and forth between Johnson’s first few months in office following Kennedy’s assassination as well as how he wound up becoming JFK’s unlikely choice for veep. “We wanted to look at that sliver of time, because it was an opportunity to examine who this guy really was. If you wanted to do a movie about his presidency, it would probably be 10 to 12 hours long! It’s really a tale of two presidencies. He had the misguided foreign policy adventure of going into Vietnam, which was really a mistake, but he also had his domestic achievements. If he hadn’t had the Vietnam War, he probably would have gone done as one of the great presidents of all time.”
LBJ opens in theaters Friday.
Watch: Woody Harrelson on playing LBJ:
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Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
From Trump to Weinstein: 6 times TV predicted the future
Oliver Stone: It’s too early to plan the Trump biopic
The Trump Administration is the ‘dark future’ ‘Mr. Robot’ was trying to avoid
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Here's the First Photo of Woody Harrelson as LBJ
Woody Harrelson is ready to take office. Entertainment Weekly has released the first official photo of the Hunger Games star as polarizing President Lyndon Baines Johnson in director Rob Reiner’s biopic LBJ (set for a tentative 2016 release). Check out Harrelson’s image next to the real deal, below.
Woody Harrelson as President Lyndon B. Johnson in ‘LBJ’ (Sam Emerson via EW)
President Lyndon Baines Johnson (Getty Images)
In the film, Harrelson portrays President Johnson from 1959 to 1964, during which time he became a powerful young Senate Majority Leader; was elected Vice President under John F. Kennedy; assumed the Presidency after Kennedy’s assassination; and ran successfully against Barry Goldwater for a second term. Though Johnson passed groundbreaking legislation during his time as President (including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Medicare Amendment to the Social Security Act), his legacy was clouded by the Vietnam War — which is one reason that Reiner was keen on telling his story.
“During the ’60s, I was a hippy and Lyndon Johnson was my president … and the target of most of my generation’s anti-Vietnam War anger,” Reiner said in a statement. “But, as time has passed and my understanding of political realities has grown, I’ve come to see LBJ in a very different light. He was a complex man — a combination of brilliant political instinct, raw strength, ambition, and deep insecurities.”
Woody Harrelson on the set of ‘LBJ’ (Pacific Coast News)
Harrelson isn’t the only high-caliber actor to play Johnson in recent years: LBJ was portrayed by Tom Wilkinson in last year’s Selma and Liev Schreiber in 2013’s The Butler, and he’ll be played by Bryan Cranston in the 2016 HBO biopic All the Way.
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