{"id":3158,"date":"2018-02-07T16:23:32","date_gmt":"2018-02-07T16:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/harrington-draft\/?p=3158"},"modified":"2018-02-07T16:23:32","modified_gmt":"2018-02-07T16:23:32","slug":"woody-harrelson-charms-uri-students-at-film-screening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/news\/2018\/02\/07\/woody-harrelson-charms-uri-students-at-film-screening\/","title":{"rendered":"Woody Harrelson Charms URI Students at Film Screening"},"content":{"rendered":"

This feature story is written by student, Kaileigh McCarthy (JOR 321\/instructor Liz Rau)<\/em><\/p>\n

The actor Woody Harrelson had plenty to say about his new film, \u201cLost in London,\u201d during a screening at the University of Rhode Island recently, but he was mum on his latest venture: a role in the new Star Wars movie.<\/p>\n

Asked what kind of pressure he endured from producers to keep quiet, the three-time Oscar-nominated actor best known as the dim-witted barkeeper in the TV sitcom \u201cCheers,\u201d joked to the crowd of about 100 at Edwards Auditorium, \u201cI can\u2019t tell you. There\u2019s storm troopers outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harrelson\u2019s Star Wars flick comes out May 25, but these days his focus is on publicizing his brainchild, a film based on what he calls \u201cembarrassing\u201d experiences in his life. The movie takes place in London with Harrelson playing the role of a husband who struggles with losing his wife when a newspaper article surfaces of him in an orgy with three women he met at a bar. The film culminates with Harrelson spending a night in jail.<\/p>\n

After the viewing, Keith Brown, a professor of film\/media at the Harrington School of Communication and Media, peppered Harrelson with questions, and audience members had plenty to ask too.
\n\u201cAdvice for students, because I know a lot of times students sort of focusing on the arts are told don\u2019t do that, there\u2019s no money in it,\u201d said Brown. \u201cDo you have any advice for those kids?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t do what?\u201d asked Harrelson.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t major in a field like that. Go be a doctor,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike English or theater? Yeah, I agree with that,\u201d Harrelson replied, as the crowd burst into laughter.<\/p>\n

One student asked about the Texan\u2019s experience playing Woody in \u201cCheers,\u201d and whether he had a favorite episode. His answer: The finale.<\/p>\n

After the critically-acclaimed sitcom, Harrelson landed big roles in movies like \u201cNatural Born Killers,\u201d \u201cAustin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,\u201d and \u201cNo Country For Old Men,\u201d where he played a contract killer hunting a contract killer\u2014a role that hit close to home.<\/p>\n

Born in Midland, Texas in 1961, Harrelson moved with his family to Lebanon, Ohio where he attended high school and spent much of his time working as a woodcarver at Kings Island amusement park. He attended Hanover College in Indiana to earn a bachelor\u2019s degree in theater and English.<\/p>\n

Although Harrelson\u2019s warm humor and laid-back persona suggest a nurturing childhood, his experience was the opposite. His father was a convicted contract killer who received a life sentence for the murder of Federal Judge John H. Wood Jr. in 1979 in San Antonio. He died in the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in 2007.<\/p>\n

That heartache did not stop Harrelson from pursuing his dreams.<\/p>\n

URI student Harrison Dolan took the microphone and bluntly asked: \u201cI make music. That\u2019s kind of my goal. That\u2019s where I want to go. When you were my age how did you have the patience to just wait it out and wait for the pieces to come together? How long did it take?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s so much a matter of waiting,\u201d said Harrelson. \u201cI think you got to get pretty active with your writing and working and hope that people eventually like what you do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The actor Woody Harrelson had plenty to say about his new film, \u201cLost in London,\u201d during a screening at the University of Rhode Island recently, but he was mum on his latest venture: a role in the new Star Wars movie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1338,"featured_media":3159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1338"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}