Woody Harrelson, who plays Katniss and Peeta's mentor in the Hunger Games, talked about his role and filming the movie when promoting Bullet For Adol, in which he was the playwright and the director.
Congratulations on your off-Broadway debut as a playwright and director! How does it feel?
It feels really exciting! To present Bullet For Adolf to New York City has long been a dream of Frankie Hyman and mine. To finally be here, oh my God, it’s equal parts excitement and terror.
Bullet For Adolf is based on the summer you met Frankie Hyman. That title begs to be talked about.
It’s hard to tell you too much. Bullet involves the theft of a World War II artifact, and it was based on a real story. In some ways it’s a whodunit. All of the relationships are as they were. There’s a lot in it that is autobiographical, but we didn’t really have a plot. We had to overlay a fictional plot onto this play. People seem to require it [laughs].
One of the most talked about franchises right now has to be The Hunger Games. Tell us about playing Haymitch Abernathy.
That was a pretty cool experience. [Director] Francis Lawrence, who is doing [the second film] Catching Fire, was over at the apartment and I told him this true story: You can’t imagine being the idiot that turned down The Hunger Games, but I actually did. I turned it down. I don’t know why. Maybe I didn’t feel like there was enough to do in the role. Luckily [director] Gary Ross came back to me. In the meantime I had read all the books and I was like, “Oh my god. This is great!” I felt kind of bad for passing it up. He said, “You gotta do it! I don’t have a second choice.” And I said, “Well, in that case, let’s do it.” What a fool I would have been if I passed it up.
How does it feel to have fans that range from Cheers to The Hunger Games?
It’s kind of that surreal. I guess you can call [fans] “friendly strangers.” It’s like being a hot girl: A lot of people come up and want to talk to you. You don’t really know them, but it’s cool because I like people. It’s been an incredible journey. I feel very lucky that people want shake my hand.
