When writing and directing your first feature film that you’re also starring in, most people would try and tackle something easy. A movie without too many locations, maybe, or a story with just a few characters. Something stress-free that still allows you to demonstrate you know how to make a movie and can be trusted with a bigger budget for your next project.

Clearly Woody Harrelson didn’t get that memo when he decided to make Lost in London, which premiered earlier this year and was based on real-life events in Harrelson’s life.

Rather than make something safe and easy for his first time writing and helming a feature film, Harrelson decided to make the most ambitious project imaginable for his debut movie, which consisted of filming in real time and in a single take with 300 crew and 500 extras. As I watched the movie, I was blown away at the technical achievement and couldn’t believe how the story kept adding characters and locations all over London. Trust me, this is an amazing accomplishment and one that’s absolutely worth checking out.

lost-in-london-woody-harrelson
Image via Vertical Entertainment

With the film now available on Digital and VOD, I recently landed an exclusive interview with Woody Harelson. He talked about where the idea came from, all the various challenges he had to deal with, the casting process, the vomiting scene, and the rehearsal process. Plus, he tells a story about how right before they were going to film, an unexploded ordinance from World War II was discovered at a key location. In addition, he talked about how he ended up in director Ruben Fleischer’s Venom movie with Tom Hardy, and so much more.

Check out what Woody Harrelson had to say below, and I definitely recommend checking out Lost in London if you have the chance.

WOODY HARRELSON: How are you, man?

Collider: It's been a long 18 hours since I last spoke to you.

HARRELSON: Yeah. That's wild. Thandie’s wild, man.

Yeah, absolutely. It was a very good pairing. She has a lot of energy.

HARRELSON: Yeah.

Yeah, like I said yesterday, man, thought Solo was great. I actually saw it again last night in IMAX, it's just a fun film.

han-solo-movie-images-woody-harrelson
Image via Lucasfilm, Disney

HARRELSON: Well, thanks, man.

But jumping in to why I get to talk-

HARRELSON: I'm just saying it's an amazing accomplishment from Ron, you know? I can't believe he pulled that off.

I could keep talking to you about that, but I do want to talk to you about your film. So I watched Lost in London yesterday and I can not believe you pulled this off.

HARRELSON: Oh, thanks, man.

Seriously, it's beyond ambitious for even a seasoned filmmaker, let alone a first time filmmaker to try to tell this story. So, when did you know you wanted to do this?

HARRELSON: Well, it was a couple years after the incident. The incident happened 2002, I couldn't get it out of my head as it happens when you have one of the worst nights of your life, and I kept thinking about it, but then I started shifting my thoughts and thinking, "You know, you look at this from another perspective, it's kind of funny." You know? And then I thought, "Man, I could make this into a comedy." Then I later started thinking, "Geez, you know, if I could just deal with that little gap where I finally fall asleep and I could make that work, I could actually shoot this in real time." That's how it all developed.

You wrote and directed this. Obviously you worked with producers and a ton of talented people to pull this off. What did you end up having to possibly change as a result of just what you were trying to do? Meaning everything in real time.

HARRELSON: Well, that's where I had to put in that kind of ... the dream sequence, you know? In the jail cell.

Sure.

HARRELSON: With Mr. Nelson. Yeah, I had to do that, otherwise that wouldn't have worked. That didn't actually happen, but a lot of it happened as it is. There is a lot of lines that were actually from the night. So when I was ... when the guy said, "Put your hands under your head." I was like, "If I take my hands off my knees, I'm gonna fall down." You know? I'm so tired.

Completely.

fruit-loops-woody-harrelson
Image via Fox Searchlight

HARRELSON: So, yeah, things like that really happened, and also on that same sequence, just as an example, he was like, "You know what would have happened to you in the States if you'd have run like that?" You know all those, there were things like that that were actually from the night. Obviously, it wasn't a funny night, so I had to come up with some humor.

One of the sequences that I couldn't believe was you in the bathroom with the throw up. What I'm curious about though, is how do you actually pull that off to film ... because you're doing it all in real time, so as it happened I couldn't believe that you had had it ready.

HARRELSON: Yeah. If you watch it again, you'll see there's a little telltale thing there that kind of gives it away, but you'd have to watch it close.

I thought you pulled it off great. I didn't see it coming.

HARRELSON: Well, that's good.

It's also a very funny sequence.

HARRELSON: Oh, thank you. I love that too. That girl is really, really talented, Zrinka [Cvitesic].

Absolutely. Jumping into the rehearsals, obviously this does not come together and look as good as it does without rehearsals. Talk a little bit about putting it together, and in terms of the rehearsals and how long was that process?

HARRELSON: Well, I had to come out in ... I guess it was October, so this is October, what would be a year and a half ago, whatever. I had to go over and work on the casting, and then I left. I was working on ... I forget what it was. And then I came back, and then ... That was what enabled me, that trip over in October and then I was completing casting, but I was also starting a rehearsal, so that I got to get into rehearsal sooner than I would have, and really terrific actors. Shaheen [Baig], who is the casting person, just really good. She's the lady who does Peaky Blinders and knew she'd be good, but she was great. She brought in a lot of super talented actors.

Were you nervous about having the kids doing ... 'Cause you have young kids playing in the film, and obviously you've filmed this very late at night. Talk a little bit about that.

woody-harrelson-lost-in-london

HARRELSON: Well, that was a big issue, because they'll let you do that one night, but they won't let you do it two nights. It's kind of like a very local thing where they vote on it, and they voted against allowing it…it was supposed to be three nights running. We were gonna do three ... A total of three times we would film it, but they weren't allowed the three nights. They did allow the two nights, which that was a struggle to get that to happen, and so the one night we literally filmed it twice. That was the night before the actual thing, and the actual night. Actually, the first time was, I think, pretty good. But the second time was at a ... people just too exhausted. That started by five in the morning.

Yeah, I can't imagine doing it once, let alone twice.

HARRELSON: Yeah.

Did you have to get permission to be able to use the Cheers them?

HARRELSON: Yeah, I had to get permission on that, of course. It was no problem. Yeah, there was a lot of things like that I really hadn't thought about that you had to get permission for, so ... Luckily, those things were ... lawyers took care of that stuff, but some of it I thought they were a little overzealous. Like whether I could say so-and-so's name, or whatever. A lot of wild shit happened that were kind of big obstacles. The sound was the biggest obstacle, number one. Just didn't come together. And then also, just before we shot it in one of our last run-throughs, we couldn't run it all the way through 'cause I didn't have access to the theater, so I couldn't iron that stuff out the way I wanted to, and there's the kid. You know, like the special kid who's the good cop's son.

Yeah.

the-hunger-games-mockingjay-part-1-woody-harrelson
Image via Lionsgate

HARRELSON: He was supposed to be in the van when I left the police station, you know? When we went towards the bridge, and then that kid is just saying, "Camera!" Pointing at the camera, and it was so ... we had to figure out how to ... so we had to bring him in on the bridge, because it was so dangerous to ... we didn't know what he would do, and then the night that it happened, the World War II bomb unexploded ordinance was found right next to the bridge, Waterloo bridge, key location. We might not be able to use the bridge, they closed it down. I'm having to scramble and figure out where could we do this on the street or something? There was a lot of things that were really uncertain before we finally shot it.

That's crazy.

HARRELSON:  Yeah.

Yeah, and on top of that, you're also trying to deliver a great performance, dealing with adversity as a director.

HARRELSON: That's one of the things I really wish had turned out better. I think of all of that, all the logistics I was so concerned with, I wish I'd have delivered a better performance.

No, I'm gonna respectfully disagree. You did a great job in it.

HARRELSON: Oh, thanks man.

I was beyond impressed with the ... with how ambitious you chose to go with this film, because moving locations, all those different actors, it's daunting what you did. I cannot believe how well it was pulled off.

HARRELSON: Well, thanks so much.

I actually have one more thing before you gotta run over to the Solo junket. I'm a huge comic book fan, and really looking forward to Venom. And I'm just curious, what was it like being a part of that project? And what made you say, "I want to be in this."

HARRELSON: Well, you know, Ruben Fleischer did Zombieland, directed it, so that was a big part of it. And also, Tom Hardy, I really respect and think he's one of the great actors. So that, coupled with what is a really wonderful script, I felt like I kind of should, you know?

Completely.

woody-harrelson-now-you-see-me
Image via Lionsgate

HARRELSON: Roll of the dice, because I'm just ... I'm in a little fraction of this movie, but I'll be in the next one, you know? So I haven't read that script, but anyways, just rolled the dice.

Are you allowed to say who you play in the movie, or is that under wraps?

HARRELSON: I thought it was under wraps that I'm even in the movie.

It's out there that you're in the movie. I just don't know who you play in the film. I don't want to get you in trouble, you know what I mean?

HARRELSON: Oh, in that case, we better hold off.

Okay. I'll leave it there. We could talk about a million other things, like Highwaymen or more about Solo, but that's another time. I mean it sincerely, congrats on the film.

HARRELSON: Thanks so much, Steve. 'Cause I appreciate your perspective on films, and that means a lot to me. Thank you, dude.

Completely. I am really impressed, sincerely.

HARRELSON: Well, right on.

Cool.

HARRELSON: I hope I'll see you around sometime.

I'm sure you will. Have a fantastic day at the junket.