Most of the time, famous people try to forget the bad things that have been said about them. The famous Hollywood actor Woody Harrelson is not one of them. People like him for being honest because he talks openly about his hard childhood and admits that he can be hard to be around sometimes. He also often says that he owes his success to his wife, whom he describes as a modest woman who lives a life separate from the glittering world and who has been his support system in all parts of his life.
Since we at Hiptoro have been fans of this actor for a long time, we decided to find out more about what led to his success in the business world. And it surprised us to see how much love can change a person.
The unglamorous past of Woody Harrelson.
The future actor spent his childhood very far away from the glitz and glamour of the entertainment business. Woody and his two brothers were raised by their single mother, who worked very hard to support the family. As a kid, Woody Harrelson was desperate for work and would do almost anything to make money. He worked for a while at the Kings Island amusement park, which was his first job.
The actor remembers that he had a short fuse that got him and those around him into a lot of trouble. He also remembers that it made other people feel bad. He thought that to get the most out of life, you had to always be on the edge of danger. But while he was going through this hard time, he thought of a way to connect his life to acting.
The gifts Hollywood gave Woody Harrelson.
As soon as he got to New York, he began to understand that it wouldn’t be easy for him to be successful. He decided to start working for any regional theater in order to meet the right people. Before he got the lead role in the NBC sitcom Cheers, he spent the better part of a year going to auditions. The new actor didn’t want to work on TV, but he didn’t have any other choices, so he gave in and agreed to do it. It’s hard to think of a better way to start a career than getting an Emmy for this role. However, the most important gift he got after “Cheers” wasn’t the award.
On the TV show Cheers in 1987, Woody Harrelson met the woman who would become his wife. Before that, he had never even thought about getting married. He thought that monogamy wasn’t for him and that he wasn’t the right person for a long-term relationship. After working as his assistant for three years, Laura Louie became an important part of his career.
He once went all the way to Africa for Christmas. And there, tens of thousands of kilometers away, he realized that Laura was the love of his life. He wrote a song just for her in which he told her how he felt about her. He couldn’t believe it when she listened to the song and said,
Woody, I’ve been in love with you for the last two and a half years.
“It’s an odd beast, fame. It’s got multiple personalities.”
After playing in Cheers and getting a lot of attention, Woody Harrelson was asked to be in a lot of movies and TV shows. During the 1990s and 2000s, he worked on two to three projects a year and also took part in plays. But along with the money and fame, the family also had to deal with a lot of stress because of the fame.
At one point, Woody let himself get out of control. Soon after that, he started going to parties and making appearances in tabloids. Because of this, he was photographed with two different women on one of those nights. He might have lost his family because he wasn’t careful. Harrelson later told the press that he had really tried to make up with his wife about how he had treated her. He knew that he couldn’t keep going on in that way. And Laura was able to forget about it and keep being with him.
“My heart at that time needed her.”
Twenty years after they first started dating, Laura and Woody got married. This happened in a very short time. They lived together for a long time without ever getting married in the legal sense. During this time, they had three daughters. Deni was born in 1994, Zoe was born in 1996, and Makani was born in 2006. The actor says that after the birth of his first child, his life changed completely. He thinks that becoming a father was the most important thing that has ever happened to him.
I remember my daughter Deni coming along, and she was so pure and caring of everybody and everything. And somehow, this little being managed to get around all the obstacles—the gun turrets, the walls, the moats, the sentries—that were wrapped around my heart. My heart at that time needed her,
Harrelson says.
At the start of Woody’s career, Laura was the only person he could work with. After that, she was a must-have around the house. In the end, she became a loyal friend to him in other parts of his life. In the 2010s, Woody Harrelson found his calling in a very different field than the entertainment business. He changed his job to work for the environment. He started a business where wheat straw is used instead of wood as the main raw material to make paper. One tree can be saved by using two boxes of this kind of paper.
His wife liked the new thing he was interested in. She also started a business that sells products that are good for the environment. She was inspired to do this by the fact that her husband has been a vegetarian for a long time. And when Woody decided he wanted to live in the wilderness, she just went with him. They moved to Hawaii and started living in a commune in a house that didn’t have electricity. They looked up at the stars every night and enjoyed it. And there, tens of thousands of miles away from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, Woody and his wife, and their kids learned what it meant to be truly happy.
I went through a period of arrogance. But, luckily, this life and my family — my wife and my daughters, they kind of loved me into a better human being,
Woody says about his family.
He used to be a rebel and a womanizer, but he grew up and started caring about his family and the future of the world. He looks much better this way.
Which movie starring Woody Harrelson do you like to watch the most?
