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CHEERS to Woody!
Excerpts from the October 1995 edition of "PREMIERE" magazine. Actor Woody Harrelson, speaks out on the seeds of spirituality and a change in his diet.
Harrelson has reached a crucial point in his spiritual evolution: He's
about to go beyond vegan to an "80 percent-living-diet"- no enzyme
inhibitors, nothing dead. And every six weeks he's committed to taking
a week off from food altogether. Last time he fasted, three weeks ago,
he lost fifteen pounds, a situation that seriously alarmed the wardrope
and continuity people. At five foot eleven and 153 pounds, he looked
skeletal. Nevertheless, Harrelson says, he plans to follow the regimen
for three years. That way he can clean everything out. Everything?
"The toxins," he says. "What's in there that's so bad."
--snip--snip--
Harrelson is ambushed by a video team from the radical People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals. They hustle him upstairs and perch him
on a table in front of a blackboard, with two gruesome posters of
mutilated rabbits as the backdrop. Meanwhile, a crew from the BBC is
setting up to shoot the PETA people shooting Harrelson. I stand behind
them, taking notes. Layers of ticks. "How do you feel about animals
having a soul and feeling pain and suffering?" the PETA interviewer
asks. "I think there are degrees of consciousness," Harrelson replies.
"If you eat chicken, maybe you're on one level. If you wear a mink
coat, maybe you're on another level. But if you wear cosmetics,
cosmetics that are tested on animals, then your just unconscious.
Really, my message is simple. It's a message of compassion. In this
world that is spinning madly out of control, we have to realize that
we're all related. We have to try to live harmoniously."
This is not doing it for the PETA guy. "What about that haunted feeling
you get when you look into the eyes of a tortured animal?"
"What about it?"
"What do you feel?"
"It makes me really sad for the animals, and for the people who perpetrate that on animals."
"Anything else?"
"That about covers it."
Then It's the BBC's turn. The reporter, model Veronica Webb, wears a
metallic leather jacket, a leather skirt, and snakeskin boots. Very
un-PC. She looks ridiculous, but she's a sharp inquisitor.
"How far are you willing to go for these people?" she asks. "Would you
march naked?"
"I don't know about naked," he says. "I'd sort of like to spare people
of that."
"Do you think your fully aware of PETA's agenda?"
"Probably not"
"Do you ever worry about this backfiring?"
"No," replies Harrelson, "because I'm speaking from my heart."
