It’s Friday – and that means the wait is over and SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY is now playing in theaters everywhere!

I saw the film during the red carpet premiere and I’ve been counting the days (15!!!) until you can see for yourself that SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY is the perfect summer adventure film for the whole family that only STAR WARS can bring, telling the story of our favorite scoundrel in the galaxy: Han Solo!

During the Han Solo press trip event, I was also honored to interview most of the cast for SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY and Director Ron Howard!

I really loved being able to interview Three-time Academy Award® nominee Woody Harrelson, who plays Tobias Beckett, a career criminal, thief and smuggler. We’re about to have “enough scoundrels” in our life!

We all know and love Woody Harrelson! My dad has been visiting from the Dominican Republic and though he has no idea what Cheers or Frasier may be or who Woody Boyd is, and he certainly has not seen any Broadway plays (yet), he looked at my pictures from the event and pointing at Woody Harrelson, he said: I know him – He’s a great actor!

And he is. Woody Harrelson’s versatility is remarkable. He has a rare mix of intensity and charisma that consistently surprises and delights audiences and critics alike in both mainstream and independent projects. 

When Phil Lord and Chris Miller offered Woody Harrelson the part, he was in London directing, producing, and starring in an unprecedented live feature film “Lost in London,” which was broadcast live into theaters nationwide on January 19, 2017.

I felt like my family was tired of being told I’m definitely done after this… so I was scared. Then I met them, great guys, and then I did decide not to do it ironically. 

And the No wasn’t so much about being involved with this as much as “I really did say I was gonna take time off” which I am doing now, right after we finish the Press on this. I’m gonna take the rest of the year off.

Woody Harrelson had originally said no to playing Haymitch Abernathy in The Hunger Games and credits late Producer Ali Schermer with not taking No for an answer.

Star Wars fans will be glad Woody Harrelson eventually decide to take on Beckett’s role. He brings charm, a maverick spirit and danger to the role. Thankfully, he’s finally taking the rest of the year off.

Woody Harrelson says that Beckett is not that far distant from other roles he’s portrayed before:

I have played other scoundrels and thieves and criminals before, but none in Space. 

But of course, it’s Star Wars, and that’s a BIG DEAL, and a franchise that’s dear to his heart. Creating a new character in the Star Wars universe has been a thrill for Woody Harrelson.

You probably won’t believe this but I was alive in 1977 and… it was a huge thing at the time, like everybody was all about Star Wars. It became a sensation. And so I just remember going to see it and it’s so original, so different from anything else and all of it great.

And of course, it’s probably not a surprise that Woody Harrelson was delighted to work with Director Ron Howard.

He is a master of his craft. He knows exactly what he wants, and his enthusiasm is unbridled and infectious.

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard has nothing but praises about Woody Harrelson’s performance in SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY.

Woody always brings so much to every role because of his honesty. He has a great sense of humor and an exciting creative streak. He loves to find the nuances that will make a character interesting and entertaining. If there’s laughter to be found in a scene, he will find it.

I found Woody Harrelson to be just as Ron Howard described him. There was not a dull moment with Woody Harrelson during the SOLO premiere after party and during our interview. He’s always smiling!

When someone asked him about his legacy, he joked that it was a question he hated because it sounded like he was dead. Then someone asked him about his life hacks and he was saying he had no clue what a life hack was! But he is a very wise man and he definitely ended up giving us so much insight as to leaving a great legacy and some life hacks I definitely endorse.

Laughter.

I always heard the saying “laughter is medicine” so if we’re going around making people laugh, that makes us healers. How cool is that? Woody Harrelson would like to create a legacy of laughter:

It’s a smiling type of legacy instead of a frowning type. I do prefer Comedy and I’ve gotten into a little bit of a Drama bubble. I would like to kind of make people laugh and hopefully, they’ll think of me and laugh.

Gratitude.

Woody Harrelson says gratitude is the key to his happiness and the secret to his smile is a gratitude practice. I believe that gratitude is the birthplace of joy!

I do feel like a pretty genuinely happy person. And I think a big part of it is just gratitude. I’m very grateful for the life I have. I feel like all of us who do movies and probably all of you { who } write about movies, we’re breathing a bit of a rarefied air. And I feel really lucky because there was a point in which I kind of gave up and it was early on. I hadn’t even gotten a job yet and I just was like, I think I can’t do it. And I don’t know how to crack it. So yeah, gratitude. Life hack!

Plant-Based Diet.

I’m thinking you don’t have to wonder who asked him to tell the story about how he became vegan. Yup, that was me! It was a very funny moment because my blogger friends and I joke about my vegan lifestyle all the time.

I’m usually the only vegan in the room, but this time, almost half the cast was vegan and there were so many vegan options for us to eat at lunch that some of the girls were complaining they didn’t have “enough non-vegan options,” LOL.

I can tell Woody Harrelson loved my asking about it and someone mentioned I didn’t say I was vegan as well, but I told her, “hey, it’s not about me!” because I wasn’t trying to bond with him over it, just genuinely curious about his journey.

You know, it’s interesting. I was on a bus and I sat next to this gal. I don’t really remember much of the specifics of when I first sat down except that I probably was hoping we could talk. And I was 23 or so and she’s sitting there and she looks up at me rolling down the road toward Oklahoma City or somewhere.

She looks at me and I had a lot of acne. And I had a lot of mucus and I was blowing my nose… This is not the presentation you want from your dream guy but so she looks at me and she says not “Hello, how are you, my name is…,” just “You’re lactose intolerant.” I said: “What?” She says, “you need to stop dairy. If you stop dairy, within 3 days, all these symptoms like mucus and the acne are gonna go away.”

I said: “I’ve had this as long as I can remember and people ask, and then you’re telling me 3 days? And it’s gone?” And she says, “yeah, and” (I’ve tried to say this to people too) we’re all essentially lactose tolerant because we’re not calves. Even cows don’t consume milk. 

And it’s just like most people can’t really take it in and I think, part of it is just my presentation. But something about the way she communicated, I believed her. And you have to be very conscientious; within that 3 days, there were 700 times that I could have gotten dairy in one form or another.

And I didn’t have it 3 days and boom, everything cleared up. My skin cleared up. I stopped being constantly blowing my nose, and that was the beginning of a real evolution for me. And then I started thinking well if they’re telling you “milk does the body good” and it really doesn’t do a body good, what else is not true? Do you need meat for protein? Do you really need meat for protein? I mean, how do gorillas do it? How do horses do it?

So that started the ball rolling and then I started reading. 

I agree that the message doesn’t resonate with everyone but I can also attest to the power of a plant-based diet. My process was inspired by my then 7-year-old-daughter and I first quit meat, then quit dairy. When I quit dairy I experienced quite a transformation and I can say I have been so much healthier and happier, and my energy levels are always Energizer bunny high, no need for coffee or wine or special skincare.

Mentorship.

In SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY, Woody Harrelson’s character, Beckett is a mentor for young Han Solo.

I think Beckett does teach Han a thing or two about how to live, perhaps not the most positive things, like don’t trust anyone, but things that become codes he lives by.

In his life, he sees Jack Nicholson as his mentor.

He lives not far from where I have a place here in LA, even though I live in Maui but just the kids didn’t want to ever want to give it up. So I still have it and it’s not far from Jack’s and I would go over quite a bit to his place and sit and reason, and talk story, and he’s given a lot of cool advice.

It’s interesting that he told us that he’s tried to lecture Jack Nicholson about becoming vegan, with no success, but Jack Nicholson actually recommended the best books about veganism Woody Harrelson’s ever read: Mucusless Diet Healing System and Rational Fasting, both by Arnold Ehret.

Forget lecturing him about anything. But he would tell me, do you know who Arnold Ehret is? … Both of those books have so much great information. He has an unusual style of writing but I quite like it.

When asked whether he mentored Alden Ehrenreich, he humbly replied:

Like with my kids, I think I’m a great example of what not to do. Great example. So I think I’ve done well as that kind of model for him.

Maybe that’s why he is so great at playing Beckett, who is sort of a cautionary tale for young Han Solo.

Woody Harrelson spoke so highly of Alden Ehrenreich that we were all so absolutely impressed.

Love Alden, love him, awesome, awesome guy. We’d all have our little cubicles and then he was next to me and he’d be in there like taking piano lessons…reading novels. I’m over there playing Speed Chess online… I really admire his work ethic and I think just the way he cultivates himself as a human, he’s an extraordinary guy. He’s not just like a silly dopey party animal like some actors coming up or like I was coming up. 

Gentleness.

Woody Harrelson is very believable playing Tobias Beckett and looks great along with Val (Thandie Newton), he doesn’t think he’s like him in real life:

He’s kind of tough on Han. And I think it’s probably good if you’re gonna want to try to make someone into a very street smart Survivor in that Universe, maybe that’s how he had to be. But I wouldn’t be like that. I can’t even discipline my own child. I don’t know how to do it because I always say to myself, “Well I would do that. So how can I be telling her not to?”

Which of these life hacks from a STAR WARS scoundrel are you willing to try? Share below!

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY is NOW in theaters everywhere. Join Tobias Beckett, Lando Carlrissian, and Chewbacca for a fun and funny ride on the Millennium Falcon to a galaxy far far away!

You can follow the latest updates by visiting the official SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY site, following STAR WARS on Instagram, following STAR WARS on Twitter,  and liking STAR WARS on Facebook. Make sure you follow the conversation along with #HanSolo and #HanSoloEvent.

Elayna is a single mom of 4, award-winning Storyteller, Story Strategist, and Student of Pain. She’s a bestselling author, internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, and 4x TEDx speaker. Founder of the Positive MOM® and creator of the S.T.O.R.Y. System: a blueprint to craft and share powerful stories that will transform your results, so you can have the wealth, opportunities, and freedom you deserve. Connect with Elayna Fernández at thepositivemom.com/keynote-speaker and follow @thepositivemom. To receive a gift from Elayna, click HERE.

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