How one tissue got Woody Harrelson cast on Cheers
It’s amazing how one tiny action you take can change the path of your life forever. Something as small as a tissue showed that, playing a big part in the way Woody Harrelson landed his iconic role on Cheers.
According to an interview Harrelson gave to Cinema Blend, he had very little interest in becoming a television actor after he graduated from college in 1983. On a whim, he decided to attend an audition for Cheers, knowing that the casting director had already found someone they liked for the role. He had planned to audition (presumably for some experience) before moving back to New York. But, well:
“I was really carefree because I knew I was going back to New York, and they'd pretty much decided on this one guy, but they were just doing a few more auditions, so I went in and I could tell right away — she was like, 'Aha! Hang on.' She says, 'I want you to come in and do this for the boys,' right?" Harrelson says. "Well, it turned out she was taking me in to meet the writers. I didn't know this. I'm following behind her, and I needed to blow my nose. I'm going down the hallway, through a door, into where everybody is, and I just happened to be blowing my nose, and then everybody laughed before I said a word. And as Jimmy Burrows said, 'You had the part right then.’”
Harrelson went on to score five Emmy nominations and a win for his work on Cheers, and has had a long career on screens large and small. And if he hadn’t needed to blow his nose when he did, it might not have happened at all.
Tell us about a time when something seemingly insignificant led to big things for you or someone you know.