- 2 weeks ago
Behind the scenes of the Woody Harrelson cover of The Hollywood Reporter.
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00:00Hey there I'm Jennifer Lasky from The Hollywood Reporter and we are doing our
00:04show Decisive Moment where we talk about this week's cover shoot and it's Woody
00:08Harrelson and somehow we managed to get the photographer, world's busiest
00:13photographer, in my office and it's Austin Hargrave. Hello. So I wanted to start off
00:20first of all you're like color-coded with him today. This is great but I think
00:24this is kind of how this is kind of always your color scheme. That's what I
00:28should do. You're in your, you've been in your blue period for a while. A while, yeah.
00:32I might be coming out of it. Yeah. Really? Maybe. No, I don't know. Don't do that. I love his
00:36blue period. That's how we became friends. So first question for you about the
00:43cover shoot is where did you guys shoot it? We shot in London which was exciting. Is
00:49that why we sent you there? We know a British photographer. He speaks English.
00:55He speaks the Queen's English. Okay, so why was Woody in England? He's shooting
01:01like five movies there I believe. Star Wars, Clan of the Apes, I think he shot
01:07there and he shot this really interesting movie which I believe he shot live so he
01:12shot a movie live and broadcasted it on YouTube at the same time. Oh wow. Which is
01:17crazy and it's about a lost night in London. Oh. Did you see? It's called Lost in London. Did you
01:22watch it? I did, yeah. Is it good? It's amazing. It's amazing. Oh.
01:25So Owen Wilson's in it and he shoot kind of walking around London and it was shot live and it's
01:31over like two
01:32mile square, two mile square London and they rigged it all with live broadcast
01:36equipment to shoot it. Oh, I want to watch that. It's really cool. It's really cool. I think they're going
01:40to release it as a real movie later this year. Okay. But it's really interesting. Cool.
01:46And then this location that Carrie Smith produced the photoshoot with you and this
01:52location was what? What is this place exactly? This was an old garage like mechanics
01:58garage in North London. It was beautiful. Really beautiful. What are these things? Are these like? These are just like
02:05prop beer bottles. Okay. So part of the movie Lost in London is about night. I think it's based on
02:11a real night he had
02:12where he got really drunk and bizarre things happened. So that's why we had
02:17those beer bottles for that. But there's an old mechanics garage. It's now been used for
02:22photo shoots. So it had lots of really interesting kind of... And was it in London or?
02:27North London. It's about two miles north of central London. Okay. It was really cool.
02:31And you're not from London? I'm not. I'm from Manchester originally. Okay. Okay.
02:36So you're familiar with London? Yeah. I mean, I've been here now 12, 13 years. So going back to London
02:44it feels very different. And it's always exciting to shoot there. Yeah.
02:48Because I've been here for so long, everything seems so fresh and new to me.
02:51Everything seems so quirky and British. It really is exciting to go there and shoot.
02:56Okay. And I wanted to... I know we had insurance on the shoot, so... I don't think it would cover
03:02that though.
03:03I don't know if it covers him falling off this building. But... So what... How did this come about?
03:09So this was... We actually did a shot here of him stood. Okay. Here. And it was all, you know,
03:15pretty sensible.
03:16What you don't know is that this is a ledge and it's two stories down. And we were just gonna
03:20have him stood here.
03:21And he goes, oh, what do you want me to do? I said, well, ideally, I want you to stand
03:24on there. He went, okay, yeah, yeah, I'd do that.
03:25So he jumped up there. And we're like, hold on to something tight because it's literally just a sheer drop.
03:30And he's in the middle of filming Star Wars at the moment. So like this could, this could end badly.
03:34But, um, he just stood here and he goes, I tell you what, get ready. And he kind of swung
03:38across here and started climbing across.
03:40And he came very close to putting his foot through this, this window. But it was a great picture.
03:45Oh my gosh. And he said, hold up, look this way. And he's just, he's just like the most likeable
03:50guy you could shoot.
03:51Okay. Well, I just have a feeling our legal team is not watching this. So everything's fine. He's fine.
03:59I, I, I know he's. He loved it. Yeah. He wanted to go higher and we were like, no, no,
04:02no, no, no.
04:04Like, look at these bricks. These bricks aren't gonna take your way, would he?
04:07You know, what's funny is when, um, when this came out, I was in Italy on vacation.
04:12Yeah. And he, um, his daughter, her middle name is Ravello.
04:17Really? And Ravello is the town in the hills from Amalfi because she was born there.
04:20And so when I, someone said, oh, Woody Harrelson's was here and his wife is having lunch here.
04:28And I said, oh, that's so weird. He's on our cover next week.
04:30And then they said, you know, his, his daughter was born in Ravello and her middle name is Ravello.
04:35Wow. And I was like, oh, I didn't know. But anyway, it was just so like weird, like at the
04:39exact same time
04:40that the issue came out that I was in Italy.
04:42I think he's got two daughters.
04:44Yeah. So it says, I think she's maybe seven or something. I didn't actually look it up.
04:48But anyway, um, and they said he was going back to London to continue filming his 45 movies
04:54that he's filming. Um, and I know he has The Glass Castle coming out soon, which is like
04:58one of my favorite books by Jeanette Walls. Have you read it?
05:01I have not.
05:01Oh my God, that's so good. Um, with Brie Larson, he plays the dad.
05:05Yeah. Yeah. I've seen the trailers, I think, for that coming around.
05:08Oh my gosh. The movie, you have to read the book though. And it's a true story.
05:11What's it about?
05:11It's about this, um, this woman, she's actually, Jeanette Walls is actually a journalist living
05:17in New York City, like someone you would know. And, and her parents are homeless. And then
05:23it goes back to kind of the, her crazy childhood. And Woody Harrelson plays this crazy father who's
05:29like, we're going to build a glass castle one day, but like they're poor and they have no means
05:34to build a glass castle, but like living in this kind of fantasy, fantasy land. So I mean,
05:41I love Woody Harrelson. I love the book, so I'm sure it's, and I love Brie Larson. So I'm sure
05:45it's
05:45going to be great. And then recently I was on a plane as we are a lot and I saw
05:52Edge of 17 with
05:53Haley Steinfeld. I've not seen that one. Okay. And he's in it. He has a, I don't think a small
05:58role,
05:58but like not a large role, but he plays a teacher and it's like, I didn't even know he was
06:03in it.
06:03Yeah. And it was just like, I knew we were shooting him. I knew, you know, I knew this
06:08was coming up. Everyone's like, should we shoot Woody Harrelson? I was like, yes. Like, like love him
06:13from Sundance. Yeah. When we shot him at Sundance, I just thought he was so charming and quirky. And
06:18then he was on my flight on the way home. And who Woody was? Woody was on my flight on
06:22the way home.
06:23Like physically on the plane. Physically on the plane. Yeah. Like behind me. But, um,
06:27then I saw Edge of 17 and it just, I was just remembering how much I like him. Yeah. And
06:32how, how complex and diverse his roles are from white men can't jump to true detective. I mean,
06:43he's just so incredible. I know. And then an edge of 17 just plays his teacher. He's like a smart
06:48ass and he's very dry and he's like the foil to help Haley Steinfeld's like rebellious teenager.
06:54And so anyway, I'm just like, I love this, like resurgence of Woody Harrelson and that you shot
07:00him in the pictures. He was delighted. He was really awesome to work with. Tell me, tell me a Woody
07:05Harrelson story besides the climbing of the... He's been in London a while. So he was getting used to
07:11speak in the London lingo, which he loved. Was he playing a British character in any of the films?
07:16No, not in know of. He was just picking up the... I think he's just, I think he's been in
07:20London
07:20for a good year or so. So he was enjoying London life. So we enjoyed talking about London times.
07:27Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny because like, I think people know him a lot for comedy or they say things
07:33like everyone always, you know, says, Oh, he smokes a lot of weed or whatever that is. But it's like,
07:38like, like in True Detective, like he's so scary and serious and like, not really a good guy,
07:44but not just like, you don't just like him, but he's not a good guy. And, and then I see
07:50these like
07:50intense moments. And like when this, when this intensity is happening, like what, what do you
07:55think is happening? Or are you directing him? Is this coming out of him? A little bit. I can, he
07:59went,
08:00um, he kind of give you a lot of options, really, when we're shooting him. He'd give you a lot
08:05of goofy
08:05stuff, a lot of fun stuff. He would like try a lot of different things. Some of it was kind
08:09of hard
08:09to kind of like, keep him in frame, because he would kind of go see something and kind of dart
08:13over it. He'd be like, where are we going, Woody? Where are we going? And we'd try and work around
08:17him. Um, and then over time, he would say, we should do against this war, something more quiet,
08:21kind of inward, inward looking, and he kind of, he would give you that. And it was kind of beautiful.
08:25But then five seconds later, he would like be sticking his tongue out and doing something,
08:28telling you a silly joke. Um, he was just like lovely to work with. Kind of everything you
08:33imagined Woody's house and to be, he was. There was this whole sequence it did make
08:40in the magazine. There were so many great pictures. Yeah. Sometimes you do a photo shoot
08:43and there's like three great pictures or there's six, but like on this, on this edit,
08:49when Kerry sent me the photos, I think I had like 25 photos that I liked. Yeah, there was a
08:55nice sequence.
08:56There was a sequence of him with a hat. And he was doing it. Tell the hat story.
09:00So he was wearing a hat and he was just like playing with it, tossing it around. And he was
09:04like doing the classic kind of throwing it up and trying to catch it on his head. And he was,
09:08he really enjoyed that. He thought it was the best thing. So it was a nice set of pictures,
09:11because he's like goofing around in it. But, um, and it was lit very softly. We were just like,
09:16it was so dark in London. I can't believe how much light they don't have.
09:21It was like a cloudy Monday morning. Especially for someone who's been living in Los Angeles,
09:25been spoiled by Los Angeles shooting in Los Angeles for us all the time. Yeah. It was, it was,
09:30just like, it seemed even darker. You know what I mean? The normal. It was beautiful. Like the
09:34light was incredible. I'm just like, what can we just like up this a bit more? Um,
09:39but he was just tossing this, uh, hat up in the, in the, in the, in this beautiful kind of
09:44attic,
09:45which is this soft window light. And he was laying on the ground. He was laying around.
09:49Yeah. He would just, he would just go with the flow. It was really cool to work with. Okay.
09:54Is it possible that Woody Harrelson is in your top 10 or top five people you've ever photographed?
10:00Yeah. Top five or top 10? Top seven? I mean, I've never even thought that through,
10:06but I did, I did really enjoy spending time with him and working with him. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when
10:12you,
10:12when you get me to like 25 pictures, it means like I wasn't there. Yeah. So it means
10:20some magic happened because sometimes you're struggling for one. It's like Woody Harrelson.
10:25You can't go wrong, can you? But you never know because sometimes the persona,
10:29that persona, that like person who's jovial and friendly and whatever on screen isn't always,
10:36it's not there. It's not, it's not that person. That person's just like super serious. You know,
10:42like a lot of comedians are very serious and you're like, I did not expect that. Yeah. You know?
10:46Yeah. Um, so I love that he's kind of this person who we expected it to be. And that was
10:50just brilliant
10:51because like you say, you're not, you don't know what he's going to be like, especially something like
10:54Woody Harrelson who you, on screen, on TV. He's not, his personal life isn't really out there. Yeah. You're like,
11:00what's this going to be like? But he was like, it was everything you hoped he would be. He was
11:03really
11:04delight. And he gave me, he has some like swag from his movie and he kind of gave us some
11:08of the
11:09crew his swag, just like off his own bag. He goes, no, you can have this and kind of gave
11:13it to the
11:13crew. It's just really a top guy. And did you have a stylist on the shoot? I don't recall. We
11:18did.
11:18David Nolan. Okay. Okay. Who I love. Because I love the like simplicity of everything. He did,
11:24it looks like his clothes. Like, yeah, I love when people look like they're in their own clothes,
11:28but it still looks like effortless, but like chic and kind of fits everything. Yeah. He did the
11:33Ricky Gervais shoot as well. Okay. Okay. He's a really, he's going back. No, no, not that far.
11:41Somewhere. Somewhere in there. Anyway, we're pointing off, pointing off screen. That's really
11:44annoying. Sorry. That's a no, no. Um, every cover of the Hollywood Reporter that I've ever worked on,
11:50or that we've done in the last seven years is on the wall behind us. So that's why we often
11:54have
11:54conversations where we then point, because we know it's up there. Um, and you shot Ricky Gervais in
12:01London too. Yeah. There we go. There we go. There we go. I don't know if you can see it,
12:05but it's right there. Um, yeah, again, no light. No light. No light in London. Well,
12:11you live in LA, so you get plenty of light mostly. So it's a, it's a challenge. It's a challenge.
12:16It's
12:16a good challenge. Um, so I know you love games, so we're going to play a little game called
12:22Fishing for Answers. Some of the biggest stars in the world have reached into this bowl. Is that the
12:28very same bowl? Uh, it's broken a few times, so I mean, maybe, but like Justin Timberlake and Emma
12:36Stone and several other people have played Fishing for Answers. Although Ryan Seacrest
12:40said it should be called Fishing for Questions, because aren't you fishing for a question?
12:44That Ryan Seacrest. But the point of it is for an answer.
12:49I fish for a question to get an answer. Let's call it that. Fishing for a question to get an
12:54answer.
12:54That's super catchy. Okay. What is your favorite place that you have traveled for a photo shoot?
13:02This should be an easy one. Um,
13:09Australia was fun for The Rock. The Rock. That was in New Zealand?
13:13No, it was Australia, Melbourne. Um, we also went to Aspen to do Lindsey Vonn.
13:19Oh yeah, I remember that. That was beautiful. Aspen is nice, not too far, but it's beautiful.
13:24Beautiful, different. And you're on a hill. I just like different,
13:27different, like, could we shoot so much in LA? It's nice to shoot.
13:30I know what you like. Tell me. Chicago. I love that. Chicago. Is that a song?
13:37Chicago is the song. It is now. Chicago
13:42Chicago. Gun story. Yeah. Gun violence. For billboard magazine. For billboard. Yeah.
13:46I really enjoyed that story. But I remember you were telling me all about it and what amazing.
13:50Yeah. You met some amazing people and they were so excited to meet you and it was a serious topic.
13:56It was cool. Yeah. And you went into the inner city and that's like. It's kind of like photojournalism,
14:00which I started in. I really kind of enjoyed kind of touching back to that. Because like,
14:04I've always read over the years, you know, being in the photo business for many years, that like,
14:10one way to get into a room can be with a camera. Because why else would Austin, a Brit,
14:17be walking into the inner city where he's the only white person? And he's like, oh,
14:23I'm doing photography. I'm capturing. It's a privilege. You get to see stuff you'd normally
14:28get to be part of. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. But anyway, I love shooting. I like everywhere
14:34that's exciting. But new locations are fun. Something different. Just traveling. Just being
14:39able to travel and explore new places. Yeah. I'm trying to think of what is my favorite place
14:44that you have to travel for a photo shoot. I'm trying to look around your room and I can't pick.
14:48Nashville. I love going to Nashville. I like Nashville. Nashville has production. Yeah.
14:52It's so humid. Oh my God. I don't know. I went to Uruguay once and we, we, we spent a
15:00week doing
15:00a travel story. So we were finding locations and meeting people and finding situations and met a
15:05bunch of people. And there was no shot list. So we just were finding these expensive hotels or these
15:11little pusadas or these people on the beach. And this person would introduce us to that person and say,
15:18you have to go to this restaurant or that bar. And that was like a week of, of Uruguay. So
15:23that
15:23was really cool. Um, very cool actually. All right. I'm going to do a couple more of these before we
15:29let you go. We've already answered that. It's about weather in London. It's always raining in London,
15:36by the way. And in Paris too. It's not as dark and the light in Paris is beautiful.
15:41Oh, favorite moment from the Woody Harrelson shoot. Hmm. Um, so probably my initial meeting
15:49and realizing he was lovely. Sometimes that initial, you can't really walk into the room and
15:55you're like, who is this person? What are they about? And you could just see instantly the people
15:59around him were just like fun, nice people. You can tell when the publicist is relaxed,
16:03that the person's going to have a publicist there. You can tell when the celebrity doesn't bring a
16:08publicist that the person is easy and chill. Yeah. Um, so that was probably my favorite part because
16:13I was like, oh, this is going to be great. Yeah. This is going to be great. That is a
16:17good answer.
16:20If a subject is tired or has low energy, how do you keep the energy up to get a good
16:25photo?
16:26Beyonce. Beyonce. Music. Music. Music.
16:31What was the question again? How would you? If the subject is tired or has low energy,
16:35how do you keep the energy? Sometimes you need energy up. Sometimes low energy people are good
16:39for photos too. True. Yeah. It depends what you're trying to get. True. But you guys are always really
16:44good at like getting a playlist or maybe researching what kind of music they like or asking them when
16:49they get there or asking the publicist what music they like. And then all of a sudden they'll be like,
16:54oh, I love this song. And you're like, yeah, I did my research. But I choose the 50% playlist.
16:59Oh my God. We're going to end on a crazy question. Are you ready for this? Yeah. This is going
17:05to be
17:05really, really hard. Okay. Favorite cover you have shot with THR?
17:14That's a tough one, guys. How many covers have you shot for me? One of my photographers had
17:19counted his. You counted yours? No. Were you going to count? No, I wasn't. You're supposed to be like,
17:24I don't know. Um, I like the Ricky Gervais one. Wait, the first one. The first one, but I also
17:29like
17:29the second one. I like the first one. Brian Cranston was good. That's a good one. You don't
17:36have a favorite. I don't have a favorite. What about Woody? Not Woody? I like Woody, yeah. Also,
17:41what do you, what do you like about, you like this image? I like, do you know what I like
17:44about this
17:45is you said, um, Cool Hand Luke was the inspiration for the shoot. I did? Uh, yeah.
17:54I've done 50 shoots since this one, and I went on vacation in Italy, but yes, Cool Hand Luke. And
18:00I hadn't seen the movie, so I watched the movie. Isn't it the best movie ever? If you haven't seen
18:04Cool Hand Luke, please go see Cool Hand Luke with Paul Newman. It's really one of the best movies.
18:10Yeah, and then some people commented and said he looks like Paul Newman, so I'm like, oh,
18:13that kind of worked. And do you know what else this reminds me of? And I hope this is okay,
18:17but it reminds me of old Peggy Sirota. Oh my God. I know, but not that you want to be
18:22like,
18:22I thought of that or whatever, but reminds me of old Peggy Sirota. Yeah. Where people would always
18:27make faces or blow a bubble or it was very like late 90s, early 2000s. Yeah. People always had to
18:33be
18:33doing like a thing on the cover, um, or like Rolling Stone covers. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So this is,
18:40this is one of my favorite covers of Austin's. I think it's special and unique and it, and like I
18:45said,
18:46there were like 27 images and our creative director Shanti mocked them all up. I was like,
18:50can I just see all of them as a cover? No, I was, I was on vacation. I was like,
18:55they're all great, but like this one's the one. This was the one for me. Yeah. Yeah. And actually,
19:01there was one where he's eye contact. Black and white one. No, it's this with eye contact or something
19:06and Carrie like this one. And then I said, can I sit on this for a couple of days? And
19:11then I went back
19:12and said, she's right. It's, this is the one. But I also love- We don't normally do covers like
19:17that.
19:17So it was nice. Cause we're, we can, we can kind of do whatever we want. We're not focus grouped
19:22and we're not, we just kind of do what we want. We don't have to do eye contact. Do what's
19:25good.
19:26But I love your first Ricky Gervais where we shot Ricky Gervais in New York and he, we wanted to
19:32do like
19:33Fat Cat Billionaire after a party. So we had all this stuff that he just play with.
19:38And so he, he thought of, we had all this props, props for him, but he thought of lighting a
19:45cigar
19:45with a $50 bill. And that's the cover. And he posts it all the time. And he loves it. He
19:51said,
19:51he told us it's one of his favorite shoots of all time. I mean, he reposted it again. That's sweet.
19:55But wait, you didn't say your favorite. You said a bunch of favorites. I don't have a favorite.
19:59I don't know. It's like all your children. Yeah. There's so many good, there's so many good Hollywood
20:06reporter covers. There's so many good covers though, aren't there? It's tough. I can like this one.
20:11I didn't even take that one, but I like that one. That's cool. Wait, you didn't shoot that. No,
20:15but I like it. Oh, you like other people's covers too. I like other people's. I don't like my own
20:18picture. That's the problem. So it's hard. Well, um, I think these are good problems to have.
20:24We have a lot of amazing, we get to meet a lot of amazing people, amazing places, amazing photographers.
20:32And, um, so I wanted to say thank you for watching decisive moment and, um, for hearing all about
20:38Woody Harrelson. Check out the pictures online because there are a lot of them and the video
20:43because he's super fun and funny interview. Yeah. Funny interview, obviously, and super smart.
20:49Um, so thanks for watching. This is Austin Hargrave. I'm Jennifer Lasky. Thanks for watching
20:53Decisive Moment. Bye.
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