March 24, 2017
by Carla Hay
In the dark comedy “Wilson,” Woody Harrelson plays the neurotic title character, whose “no filter” approach to life can be offensive, amusing or both. Wilson, a divorced curmudgeon who lives alone, is still not quite over his ex-wife Pippi (played by Laura Dern), who left him nearly 17 years earlier and has her own personal issues, along with a big secret: After she left Wilson, she gave birth to their daughter, whom she put up for adoption. When Wilson discovers this secret, after he believed for years that the pregnancy had ended in abortion, he and Pippi have an awkward reunion, which leads to Wilson trying to make up for lost time with their daughter, Claire (played by Isabella Amara), who is a troubled teen outcast. Wilson and Pippi’s attempt to bond with Claire leads to dysfunctional family moments and bridges the gap for the former spouses to come to terms with their past. “Wilson” (directed by Craig Johnson) is based on the graphic novel of the same name by Daniel Clowes, who wrote the movie’s screenplay. Here is what Harrelson and Dern said when they say down for an interview with me and other journalists at the New York City press junket for “Wilson.”
“Wilson” has a mix of quirkiness and realism. Can you talk about that juxtaposition?
Dern: I think it’s a world we loved to find the tone—and obviously, carefully—but Daniel Clowes’ writing is so flawless in that way—and obviously, his artwork. So that as a template to invite you makes working with someone like Craig [Johnson] and someone like [cinematographer] Fred Elmes and his work, starting with David Lynch. We’ve worked with a lot of filmmakers and have similar journeys in that way. They expect us to make something authentic in a very boundry-less world. It’s a really fun playground, to say the least.
I think we all know that in the world of subversive comedy, you can see much more with deep poignancy than you might get away with another film tonally. So it’s gorgeous. A couple of journalists have quoted some of the things we [as Wilson and Pippi] say to each other. And as they say them, I almost get tears in my eyes, because it’s just so beautiful—the poetry of their longing to be seen and their love of each other and want to be parents and all of that. And it’s so touching because it’s irreverent-seeming.
Woody, is it fun to play someone with “no filter”?
Harrelson: I actually have less filter than I should, but playing him there really is no filter. I don’t think he’s a mean guy, but he’s a very honest guy who doesn’t know the repercussions of what he’s saying a lot of the time, and it comes out as harsh. I did notice that I was doing that quite a bit when we were shooting and even a little while after where I couldn’t shake it. I’d say, “Why did I say that?” And you could feel the uncomfortableness.
According to the production notes for “Wilson,” the set design for Wilson’s apartment included 4,000 books and about 35 crates of magazines. It’s symbolic of how he has a lot of emotional baggage. Is there anything you’ve personally collected that you can’t let go of easily?
Harrelson: I live in Maui now, but I have a place in L.A. My buddy Owen [Wilson] tells me I should be on an episode of “Celebrity Hoarders.” There are boxes everywhere. It really isn’t that I’m hoarding. It seems like it. But it’s that I have to go through and decide what to keep and what to throw away.
When I go on location, eventually everything that was on location ends up back there in the box. I don’t ever look in the box. Yeah, I think maybe I’m collecting too much stuff, and eventually my day will come when I can’t even walk in the house because I’ve just got to go through those damn boxes.
As actors, what have you learned about letting go of emotional baggage when you dive into a new role or a new character?
Dern: Maybe it’s being confronted with the fact that I should have been thinking about this a long time ago. He’s collecting boxes. I’m collecting parts of my personality that I’ve discovered playing some beautifully complicated people, but complicated nonetheless, so I go, “Oh, wow! Okay, I have to find the part of me that understands this, and then I keep that as a character trait.” So I think that I haven’t done any cleaning house. Maybe I’m just becoming more and more and more complicated because I like to collect all these people somewhere inside me.
Harrelson: Who’s the woman who has 16 personalities? Sybil. So you’re like the Sybil of actors. Sybil Dern. You’ve got all every character you’ve played in there ready to …
Dern: Ready to come out of me. [She laughs.]
Harrelson: Oh my God! What a thought!
So what kind of personality did you bring to Pippi?
Dern: Woody and I worked together years ago [in the 2005 movie “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio”], so my love of Woody, I’ve been carrying all along, and I would love to re-ignite it.
Harrelson: [He says jokingly] This could be the night!
Dern: In addition, I think one thing I felt from Daniel’s artwork and, of course, the script, is that I’ve always been interested in the question of voice. And certainly, as a female actor, that’s very interesting to me. But this idea that as fierce as she is and as in love as she is with someone who has no filter, I feel like in some ways it’s not that she’s trying to understand how to use her voice, but that she ever was even entitled to one in the first place.
And I think that’s why her rage is boiling over, because she’s never been seen or given space—by her family, by anyone, which is where addiction came into her life and now she’s back with the only person who ever gave her room to be all of herself and even loved her for it, which was probably terrifying to her. So that was the through line that was deeply interesting to me. And I think what Daniel intended, and we just tried it together, was to bring that to fruition and make sure that it had a beginning, middle and an end, in a way.
What do you think is the importance of struggle?
Harrelson: I don’t know anybody who’s a fan of struggle, but we all struggle in our way. All of us have our quirky little struggles. For a movie, it’s the drama in it that makes the comedy. If it wasn’t dramatic, it wouldn’t be comedic. All the shit that happens with us in this movie, and there’s some terrible stuff, physical violence and all these things go down, it’s struggle, but it’s funny. I’m fascinated by how the whole Buddhist thing where spiritual adepts who are able to take struggle and just flow with it and move through it and don’t even let it wound them emotionally.
Wilson can be considered a man-child. What do you think it means to be a grown-up? Aren’t we always learning?
Dern: I hope that is the case … anyone who wants to feel [their inner child] at 90. I was, thank God, raised by two people [actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd], who vowed to me to be children and said, “Hey, you’re going to teach us how to grow up, like we’re going to try to teach you, but we don’t have all the answers.”
So I feel very lucky to be raised by actors. People are always asking me about being raised by actors, and now we’re actors raising people, who are asking the same questions about us. I think part of it in their honesty and directness is that there is no pretending at a role of being the adult in the house or the adult in the relationship or whatever it is. May we all be all our fierce, child-like selves, to not ever look down on anyone else, as if we’ve figured anything out, but take this struggle and flow through it.
That’s the other thing I love about Wilson and Pippi. Daniel Clowes has created a world that’s not drugged. We go, “These people are impossible,” because they’re not medicated to be apathetic or medicated to be socially appropriate. But the world tells us, “You’re in struggle? You’ve gone through grief, loss, divorce? You know what? You need an antidepressant.” But if everyone is going through this, aren’t we supposed to be moving through this somehow? So I think the more we can allow our filter-less self to find some balance, we’re hopefully going to be a better civilization.
Can you talk about the physical comedy in “Wilson”?
Harrelson: I loved the slugfest that [Laura Dern and Cheryl Hines] had. I loved also that juxtaposed with me and [Isabella Amara] talking about the frog, just having that sweet talk.
Dern: We had so much fun in the mall, too, “beating” on those teenagers! We shot for a while. It was …
Harrelson: Very cathartic.
What can you say about any improvisation that you did for “Wilson”? Is it easier to improvise in a comedy like this one?
Harrelson: I always believe in some improv. It depends on the director. Some of them are not really into it. Even then, we try to, in a subtle way, insist on it. I do feel like there’s sometimes when you catch stuff from an improv—it’s not always right—but it’s more real, more honest. That moment just improved because of that. But [I’m] definitely embracing and getting back to my roots, which is comedy. I just got a little distracted by the drama. It’s so satisfying too because when we went to Sundance, just to hear that whole audience laughing, what a great feeling. You don’t always get that. A lot of movies, I’ve never seen with an audience. It’s a good feeling when you get that.
Dern: And when you capture a moment or a line, and it taps into the zeitgeist. I told Woody that one of my favorite things was my son and a few of his friends [quoting a line from “Wilson”].
How do you think “Wilson” reflects what’s happening in society now?
Dern: It is an incredible time to be playing these characters. It’s really interesting to consider people’s discomfort with the truth and people’s discomfort with a character who will get in their face and want to connect. And yet, there is comfort with con men. That’s really troubling. We’re culturally more comfortable with a lie that somehow we can hang our hope on, rather than the reality of where we are and what we need to do as a community to affect change. “There is no global warming” or “If we all make this an emergency and are in it together, we might actually do something.” Those are two different ways.
Somebody like Wilson would be in our face about it. Even if I have to be shamed, like if I’m at Disneyland throwing away my kids’ plastic drink, I want a Wilson to be like, “What the fuck are you doing? Put that in the recycling bin!” I like that. I don’t want a person to be like, “Ah, don’t worry about it. The more consumerism, the better.” So it’s how you want to live your life, but I think the more Wilsons we get, the better off we may be.
Harrelson: Wilson for President!
Do you think we need more people like Wilson in the world?
Harrelson: I think in politics, it would be nice, because you do get lied to quite a lot, and there does seem to be a certain degree of comfort with this lie. Most people don’t know that in Vietnam, we killed 2 million people—mostly civilians. In Korea, it was 4 million people. Where is our apology for that? Or for the millions of Native Americans when we first conquested this land. Or what we did, in terms of slavery. We built this country on the backs and the blood and the bones of so many dispossessed people. And we’re comfortable with the lie of this beautiful nation.
Well, let’s look at what the underbelly is. Let’s look at how it really formed. I do think we get comfortable with con men. Let’s face it: Politicians are businessmen working for bigger businessmen. And if you don’t have a lot of money, you’re not being represented. So the fact that there are all these people who think our president is representing the common man? I mean, come on!
