{"id":573058,"date":"2026-08-18T20:28:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T20:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/573058\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T20:28:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T20:28:17","slug":"woody-harrelson-on-reuniting-with-matthew-mcconaughey-in-brothers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/573058\/","title":{"rendered":"Woody Harrelson on Reuniting With Matthew McConaughey in ‘Brothers’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe applause thundering within the Sarajevo National Theater could be heard from a mile away on Tuesday afternoon. The reason? Woody Harrelson<\/a>. The actor, who is at the festival as the recipient of an honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award, delighted passionate fans in a 90-minute career talk bookended by two comedy shows: his breakout, \u201cCheers,\u201d and his upcoming Apple TV series \u201cBrothers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBrothers\u201d sees Harrelson reunite with \u201cTrue Detective\u201d co-star Matthew McConaughey<\/a> to play fictionalized versions of themselves. In the show, created by \u201cThe Office\u201d producer Lee Eisenberg, their friendship is put to the test once they uncover a decades-old secret: they might actually be brothers. The story is inspired by real-life events, coming to the screen a few years after Harrelson went public with the fact that his father met McConaughey\u2019s mother just around the time the \u201cDallas Buyers Club\u201d actor was conceived.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf you like \u2018True Detective\u2019 and you want more of that, it\u2019s not this,\u201d Harrelson quipped with the audience while taking a sip of Irish whiskey. \u201cI started ruminating on this and thought it would make a pretty cool show,\u201d he added of the idea for the two-hander. \u201cWe are playing ourselves but fictional, like \u2018Curb Your Enthusiasm.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHarrelson, who is a known activist and has previously been arrested for challenging state drug laws back in 1996, mostly avoided politics. The one comment he made about the current political state of his home country came when an audience member asked him if he felt the world of Suzanne Collins\u2019 fictional dystopia \u201cThe Hunger Games\u201d resembled reality today. The actor, who played Haymitch Abernathy on the screen adaptation, said a resounding \u201cFuck yes,\u201d before adding he loved the latest book of the series and stating: \u201cI think what\u2019s going on in the world and the American government\u2019s participation in that is shameful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Sarajevo Film Festival<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tThe Oscar-nominated performer also briefly touched upon his admiration for Jesse Eisenberg<\/a>, his most recurrent screen partner. The two have starred in five films together, including Ruben Fleischer\u2019s \u201cZombieland\u201d and Louis Leterrier\u2019s\u00a0 \u201cNow You See Me.\u201d Harrelson said that he has been delighted to be met with \u201cyoung talent coming up\u201d throughout his career before gushing about Eisenberg\u2019s upcoming film, \u201cThe Debut.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cIt is phenomenal,\u201d he said of the Julianne Moore-starring dramedy, which he managed to see in advance of its festival run later this year.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn top of receiving the Heart of Sarajevo Award, Harrelson is also at the Bosnian festival for a special screening of Michael Winterbottom\u2019s \u201cWelcome to Sarajevo.\u201d The film, an adaptation of Michael Nicholson\u2019s book \u201cNatasha\u2019s Story,\u201d played at the festival in 1997. The story follows a group of journalists in Bosnia during the war, examining the role of journalism at times of great conflict. Asked about being back in Sarajevo three decades later, Harrelson said he has seen \u201cquite a lot of changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s grown a lot,\u201d he added. \u201cBack then we had a curfew, and it was very sparse comparatively. Now you can barely walk down the street; there are so many people. It\u2019s alive and bustling. It\u2019s incredible the metamorphosis from back then.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRecalling his time shooting the film, the actor said what struck him the most was how \u201cwarm and kind\u201d people were. \u201cAnd genuinely funny, which you wouldn\u2019t think after everything that had happened. Humor was something that kept everybody going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHarrelson also briefly mentioned another one of his upcoming projects: Jason Bateman\u2019s \u201cThe Cackling of the Dodos,\u201d which reunites him with \u201cThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri\u201d star Sam Rockwell. Prodded about playing \u201cover the top characters\u201d during his career, the actor recalled how Bateman said he could smell Harrelson\u2019s \u201cSAG card burning\u201d because he was \u201cso over the top\u201d on a key scene. \u201cBut you don\u2019t have to do that,\u201d he jokingly told budding actors in the audience. To yet more thunderous applause, naturally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The applause thundering within the Sarajevo National Theater could be heard from a mile away on Tuesday afternoon.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,41299,6808,111,139,69,280136,41301],"class_list":["post-573058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-jesse-eisenberg","tag-matthew-mcconaughey","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sarajevo-film-festival","tag-woody-harrelson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}