November 23, 1996

Harrelson says he's proud of being wacky

 NEW YORK (AP) -- Woody Harrelson is wacky and proud of it.
 "You know, I'm really beginning to realize that everybody thinks I'm weird," the actor says in the December issue of W magazine. "I hear people think I'm, like, nuts... It's a gas!"
 The star of the forthcoming Oliver Stone-produced film The People vs. Larry Flynt says he's cut back on his once prodigious drinking and marijuana smoking but refuses to adopt a holier-than-thou attitude.
 "We all take drugs; everybody I know is a drug addict of some kind," he said. "How else could we live on this planet in its present condition? It's either pot or coffee or sugar or booze or sex. There's all kinds of ways to take emotional refuge."
 Nevertheless, the actor who got his start on the TV sitcom Cheers before moving on to such films as White Men Can't Jump, Indecent Proposal and Natural Born Killers, says sobriety helps his acting.
 "When I let up on the weed -- and the drinking, too -- I cried every day! And I liked that! I like cryin'! And now I not only wanna to cry and show my crying to other people -- I wanna just split myself down the middle and open my guts and just throw everything out! To the world! Or anybody unfortunate enough to bear it."