Woody Harrelson grew up in Texas and Ohio. The troubled middle child of three brothers, W. was a self-described momma's boy. He didn't have an alternative -- his father was twice convicted of murder and is still in prison. It was a difficult upbringing at best but W. eventually stopped acting out and started acting.(Childhood photos)

After striking out in N.Y. Woody moved to L.A. and got his first movie role in the Goldie Hawn film Wildcats.(filmclip) To many W. H. will always be Woody Boyd, the sweet dim-witted bartender who showed up for work Oct. 85 at a bar called Cheers.

(clip from Cheers "I'll work like a slave and I wouldn't take anything more than minimium wage, and if you ever need somebody to yell at, I'm your man.")

Who would've predicted that of all the members of the cast of Cheers Woody would have the most successful movie career. (clip) He was easy to cast as the quintessential good ol' boy in "White Men Can't Jump" or the bad ol' boy in "Natural Born Killers". (clip) In this ultra violent Oliver Stone Film, W. showed us he had a taste for the dark side. (clip from NBK "You ain't seen nothing yet.") (clip speaking to press--"The question I have is who speaks for the trees.") And about this time his off camera persona changed as well. He became Hollywood's poster child for civil disobedience. He believes that we should legalise hemp --the crop that produces marijuana, not for drug use but to stop the cutting of old majestic forests. The hemp he says will provide the same products as the trees.

In person W. is neither aggressive nor argumentative. He is gentle, spiritual and relaxed. Must be all the yoga. He is 35 now and is currently in a long term relationship with his former assistant Laura Louie. Together they have two young children and a small house overlooking L.A., complete with indoor goldfish pond.

--Interview begins-- living room.

B. So you have been nominated for an Academy Award. When you first heard about it what was your first reaction?

W. Ah disbelief, then shock, then uh You know I think I went through the seven stages of death or somethin'. I mean I really was -- I was blown away. I didn't expect that.

B. Gloria Steinem, who speaks for a lot of women and I know you must've heard about this or read about this, felt that the filmmakers & you I guess, in playing the role, acted irresponsibly, because Larry Flynt has portrayed women in such a terrible way--women being raped and tortured and degraded and child pornography and so on. You're in the film, you play him. How do you answer that?

W. Well I think she's wrong. I'm glad that she has stated her mind but I think that there's- that if you want to look at pornography, what you resist you empower, and allthe mostly religious kind of fanaticism that talks about sexuality as a negative thing is what creates a space I think for pornography.

B. Hmm. Let's go back to the beginning. You said you were a momma's boy--she wanted you to be a minister..?

W. Yeah well.. ah yeah I debated that. You really are thorough with your research. But yeah I was thinking about that for a while. I went to college on a presbitarian scholarship. I mean the irony of all the trouble I've gotten into with (cough) well mostly Christians is that I was thinking of being a minister. I actually gave sermons when I was younger. Not a lot, but a few...

B. Were you any good?

W. Yeah I think I was pretty good. Yeah. I believed what I was saying that's for sure. But I saw a lot of hypocrisy. I think that was the main thing that bothered me the most.

B. Why did you become an actor? I mean there you were, you were gonna be a minister, maybe. No more ministry, why an actor?

W. Uh, I guess because it terrified me. I started actually my senior year in high school. I started because I was--I used too --you know when Elvis died-- which was I guess my junior year in high school or somethin' --I started you know singing "m..m baby let me be.."(swaying to a tune, snapping his fingers) --you know singing these Elvis songs...

B. Keep goin' keep goin'.You can even stand up and do it. Here's your stage. Go ahead. (laughter from both)

W. So I did. I went and started singin' I was singin' with my friends and then one time I was in the library and they were like 'do your Elvis, man, do your Elvis' and I was like ' nah, it's crowded in here' they're like 'do it do it' so I ah "ah well bless my soul, what's wrong with me..I'm edgin' like a man on a flooded tree.. ?? wild as a bird & I'm in love, I'm all she got." (all to a tune,lyrics??)

B. Ha! You're good!

W. And then--ah thanks--thanks, well, you know--

B. --and so everybody got up and went "Ah yeah ah" --

W. --and they started clappin' and well that was it.

B. And then you went to New York, where you had a --to put it mildly-- a dark period.

W. Yeah, you have done your--yes and it was a dark period.

B. You had how many different jobs?

W. I had seventeen different jobs--one by the way was working at the Cafe des Artistes and--

B. Oh right 'round from our office--

W. --well I kinda' waited on you one time. Not--I wasn't the only waiter--there were several- they were like 'Barbara Walters is over there'--'no way'.

B. Was I nice or did I ignore you?

W. You were very nice, you were very nice.

B. Oh thank goodness. Boy if I hadn't been--(laughs)

W. If you hadn't been --(shaking his head, with mock gravity)

B. Hey I could've discovered you--I could've been your agent--I could've had a whole new career--

W. Yeah that's right! Could've happened that way. Believe me I tried. (mock servitude) 'Anything else Barbara, Dijon mustard?'

B. And I could've said 'you got that--you've got that'

W. -'you've got that certain je ne sais quoi-'

B. -and I recognised nothing, oh boy. You've also talked about doing a lot of grass in that day, in those days, smoking a lot of marijuana--and just -not even getting out of bed--

W. Yeah..yeah..That was ah pretty excessive...

B. Do you still do a lot of pot or do ANY?

W. (laughs) Ah sometimes, but I don't inhale.

B. I don't think I'll take that on, okay? (W. laughs) --Ah marijuana is made from hemp and you have a cause--you want hemp legalised, to be made into a material--is that what you're wearing? hemp?

W. (pulling on his shirt, serious tone) This is hemp, yeah. Hemp can make all kinds of things from you know clothing, paper, --which is why I initially got into it--ah you know paints, vanishes. It can usurp the petroleum industry as well as the timber industry and it SHOULD.

B. And you really care? --This is not just some ...

W. There's no other reason to do it. 'Cause you--I mean granted, there's people who pat you on the back. But mostly, you know I just--

B. You get into trouble.

W. --seem to get a lot of trouble--a lot of flak, have to go to court, it's a drag!

B. You know, you've had so much in your own childhood that most kids never have to face. It's fairly well-known, if anyone has read anything about you or talked to you, that when you were seven years old, your father went off to prison, convicted of murder. Tell me how you feel today, what the story is today.

W. (with gravity) Well, he is in prison right now for the killing of a federal judge--I think that it was not a fair trial, especially because the guy who supposedly hired my father to commit the murder was later acquitted--on a retrial.

B. Woody, do you think your father is innocent of that second murder? That's what I've heard..

W. I'm not saying my father's a saint, but I think he's innocent of that, yeah..

B. Are you trying to have the case opened up--trying to have it investigated, trying to set him free?

W. Well, let's put it this way--I haven't given up hope.

B. Hmm..You said once that you thought your father was a CIA operative--yes?

W. Yeah he was ..

B. How do you know? What proof?

W. Ah see I shouldn't get into this right now. This is where we're gonna get into trouble.

B. But this is something that you feel and that you're trying to work on?

W. I know it's true, but ah you know...(shrugging)

B. Does it make a difference?

W. That he was trained by the CIA? Yeah I think it makes a difference, yeah..

B. Woody, I want to talk a little about your personal life. You were married once, very briefly, and for the past six years you have been living with your assistant Laura, whom I met, who--

W. --Former assistant--Gave her a raise (grin).

B. (laughs) I see, what is it today?

W. Ah you know..

B. Living companion. okay, you don't want to get married, you've said..

W. Like, I don't believe really in that institution, and I know--(looking into camera) I'm conscious of the fact that Laura's watching this--but you can't really say you're gonna have and hold someone 'til death do you part because you don't KNOW. I don't think it really takes into account how people change. I think it was created because people want to hang on to a good thing.

B. What about commitment? You've got two kids, two little girls!

W. And I'm commited to them. That's the thing, I care. I care about the people in my life. I care a lot about Laura, I care about my kids. I'll never-- you know---I'll never abandon ANY of them. It'll never happen.

B. You know--in knowing that I was going to do this interview, I read a lot. And one magazine writer said of you, I will quote--"Now with his advocacy of industrial hemp and his embrace of new age spiritualism, there's a good chance he will inherit the title of ultimate Hollywood flake."

W. (laughs) Why I don't know how I can inherit a title that's already mine, rightfully so.

B. (laughs) You think you're a flake?

W. Well, no but I understand that to be the perception...you know like people hear about --you know--retaining your ching , or you know --

B. Yeah tell me-- W. no. no-- B. --okay, you brought that up! W. I don't want to--I wish I hadn't--B. --you got to , you got to, you brought it up. W. Yeah okay okay okay...(throwing hands in the air).

B. Retaining is that you have sex without having an orgasm. Is that simply put it?

W. Ah..no, without having ejaculation.

B. Without having ejaculation, okay. WHAT is that all about?

W. Well sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. BUT the idea of it is an ancient Chinese understanding. Ah you know, you come to realise that you have a finite amount of time to-- you have a finite amount of --output. That's why women don't have to go to sleep directly after--and the fact is there's a way men don't have to either.

B. So you believe that if you do not have an ejaculation, that that sperm staying in you gives you greater strength?

W. It's basically ah--it's really --recycling.(with humor)

B. And do you feel this helps you spiritually?

W. Well yeah, because-- I'm not -- you know (twirls hand about his temple)-- 'Cause it makes me think in different terms--

B. I'll bet it does!

W. --when I do have sex...

B. Aha..

W. You know I'm not thinking ultimately of me having a --oh god I can't believe I'm talking --the ratings alone, the number of people listening to me go on about this--This is what I mean you see-- This kind of thing, it's impossible to talk about without coming off like a flake! People have different --they want to read "Cultivating Men's Sexuality" --they're gonna get hip to it or not, but--

B. You know--

W. It's not esoteric knowledge. It's available to anyone.

B. You're a rare bird!

W. (Taken aback, laughs) Well, you are too!

B. There are these two very different sides to you, many different sides to you. On the one hand, you have the reputation of you know liking a lot of women, being you know the guy around. On the other hand, there's this really very serious, very spiritual, very thoughtful, very moral--You're very true to yourself, isn't it?

W. Yeah! That's the side I see. (laughter from all.)

--end--

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