Woody Harrelson on “Prairie Home Companion:” “It’s a whole different way of doing a movie, which I thought was really interesting. It was fun, got to play a singing cowboy, me and John C. Reilly. And Garrison Keillor I think is a fascinating guy and really entertaining.”
On What Makes “Prairie Home Companion” Different: “Well, because he wouldn’t decide ahead of time. He was going to shoot this scene and he’d shoot it almost like he was a painter who had a bunch of paint and you’d be like the color yellow. I’m yellow. He’s like, ‘Well, yeah, you know, we’ll put a little yellow in here right now.’ Decide very spontaneously. So it was interesting to be on that pallet. But I think it’s going to turn out good.
I got to see the very beginning of the film, which is with Kevin Kline coming out of his diner and talking, Guy Noir is talking about…it’s hard to explain but the point is it’s just one of those long, great shots that he does, Robert does. This long tracking shot. At least the beginning looked amazing and I get the feeling that it’s going to turn out really good.”
On Working with Lindsay Lohan in “Prairie Home Companion:” “She’s cool. I look at her almost like a little sister who she’s just got a lot on her plate right now. She’s trying to deal with it all and she’s doing pretty good. I like her and I think she’s very talented. And so did Robert Altman. He thought she was very talented.
I do remember one thing, kind of a funny thing that happened one day. We were in the makeup trailer, this is when we were just getting to know each other. She said, ‘You know, everybody told me that you were going to give me lectures about my diet.’ I said, ‘I don’t believe in lectures anymore. It doesn’t seem to be very effective. In fact, it usually puts people off so I’m done with that. People’ll do what they want to do.’
She walks out and I turn to Kimberly Green, my makeup girl for so long, and I said, ‘Now let me talk to you about dairy.’ I ran into a 20 minute tirade about dairy at the end of which she quit dairy. I got her to quit for one week just to see the difference. After one week, after two days, the difference was amazing. And incidentally, she couldn’t believe after the first meal, or during the first meal how hard it was to not [eat dairy products]. Everything had dairy in it. She didn’t realize until she tried to consciously. Anyway, after the first week, she said, ‘I’m going to keep it going.’ And she’s still now off dairy. So that was a funny little adjunct and I have to thank Lindsay now for Kimberly being off dairy.”
