Six years after its release, Woody Harrelson is still thinking aboutWar for the Planet of the Apes. TheZombieland,Venom: Let There Be Carnage, andTriangle of Sadnessactor talked about his regrets regarding his role in the sci-fi film.
Released in 2017,War for the Planet of the Apeswas the third installment inthePlanet of the Apesfranchise reboot. The third film finds humans and apes in an all-out war with one another. Caesar (played by Andy Serkis) is determined to avenge those he’s lost to the humans while furthering his cause. On the other side, the leader of the Alpha-Omega militia known as The Colonel (played by Harrelson) hunts Caesar down, looking for a triumphant end to the war, no matter how ruthless he has to be. Neither Caesar nor The Colonel survives by the film’s ending, with The Colonel killing himself before he can succumb to disease and Caesar being fatally wounded by an explosion.
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Years later, Harrelson wishes he had the opportunity to redo his performance. While discussing his upcoming filmChampionswith David Machese ofThe New York Times Magazine, Harrelson recalled how intimidating the process of makingWar for the Planet of the Apeswas for him and how it impacted his performance. “When things are going right, I don’t feel rigid. But there are performances where I was like, ‘Why couldn’t I just get outside whatever I was doing?’ Ten years later, I’ll think of something I should have done in a scene, and I want to tear my head off,” Harrelson said. “‘Planet of the Apes,’ that’s one of those times where there was so much technology involved in what we were doing, I was a little daunted. If I did that part again, I could do it 20 times better.”
Harrelson also gave his thoughts on the film industry as a whole, stating that while he remains optimistic about howChampionswill perform at the box office, he acknowledges that it’s not the kind of movie people have been flocking to theaters to see. Harrelson referenced Marvel films and “the Tom Cruise thing,“most likely meaningTop Gun: Maverick, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and made over $1 billion at the box office. Harrelson also expressed his distaste for the COVID protocols he’s been asked to comply with on set. When Machese suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how individuals have a hard time “rationally assessing risk” and “handling one another’s different comfort levels with risk,” Harrelson replied with, “Yeah, anyway, as an anarchist, I don’t do well with mandates.”
While Harrelson might still be stuck in the past, his career is moving forward. WithChampionscoming out this year and upcoming projects like Alex Parkinson’sLast Breath, Greg Berlanti’sProject Artemis, and Laura Chinn’sSuncoaston the horizon, there’s no doubt that Harrelson will have plenty of time to hone his acting skills under any circumstances.
War for the Planet of the Apesis available to rent now on Prime Video and Apple TV.
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