Woody Harrelson Slams COVID Set Protocols as ‘Nonsense,’ Urges Hollywood to ‘Stop’ Forcing ‘Vaccination’: That’s ‘Not a Free Country’ - Zack Sharf

Woody Harrelson railed against COVID protocols on film sets during a new interview with The New York Times. The actor is making the press rounds in support of his new movie “Champions,” an indie sports dramedy from director Bobby Farrelly that’s backed by Focus Features. Harrelson expressed uncertainty about the future of indie movies given “all the COVID protocols” in place, calling such protocols “absurd.”

“What’s absurd about the Covid protocols?” The New York Times asked Harrelson
"The fact that they’re still going on!” the actor responded. “I don’t think that anybody should have the right to demand that you’re forced to do the testing, forced to wear the mask and forced to get vaccinated three years on. I’m just like, let’s be done with this nonsense. It’s not fair to the crews. I don’t have to wear the mask. Why should they? Why should they have to be vaccinated? How’s that not up to the individual? I shouldn’t be talking about this [expletive].”
“It makes me angry for the crew,” Harrelson continued. “The anarchist part of me, I don’t feel that we should have forced testing, forced masking and forced vaccination. That’s not a free country. Really I’m talking about the crew. Because I can get out of wearing a mask. I can test less. I’m not in the same position they’re in, but it’s wrong. It’s three years. Stop.

“As an anarchist, I don’t do well with mandates,” he concluded.

Harrelson’s New York Times interview published shortly before his stint hosting “Saturday Night Live” on Feb. 25. The actor generated controversy for his opening monologue, which built to a polarizing COVID conspiracy joke. Harrelson spent the majority of his monologue touting the “craziest script” he ever read.
So the movie goes like this,” Harrelson explained at the monologue’s climax. “The biggest drug cartels in the world get together and buy up all the media and all the politicians and force all the people in the world to stay locked in their homes. And people can only come out if they take the cartel’s drugs and keep taking them over and over.”

“I threw the script away,” Harrelson added. “I mean, who was going to believe that crazy idea? Being forced to do drugs? I do that voluntarily all day.”
It’s not hard to see Harrelson was making a comment on COVID vaccine mandates, which he more directly railed against in his New York Times interview. The actor’s latest movie, “Champions,” opens in theaters on March 10.