Woody Harrelson likely won’t be responding to any texts or calls in a timely fashion.
The Oscar-nominated actor revealed on a recent episode of the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast that he hasn’t regularly carried a cell phone with him in years because he found himself addicted to the device at one point.
“Let me explain something about Woody: He doesn’t have a phone,” his podcast co-host and Cheers co-star Ted Danson said. “He’s one of those bullies in life that make other people carry his phone for him. ‘Hey, we need to know something immediately, call Woody.’ And I just kinda laugh at whoever says that to me.”
“Well, that’s not exactly true,” Harrelson responded. “I just don’t like to have to be readily available to any human being at any time. And plus, that’s not the reason. I like to be in touch with people, in a way, but I don’t like the appendage on my appendage.”
The True Detective actor explained that he gave up using a cell phone three and a half years ago because he was spending too much time on it.
“I made a thing where I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna set a two-hour limit on my phone,’” he said. “It’s like 9:30. I’ve already hit my limit at 9:30. So I woke up and I’ve been on it two hours already, because you know how it can just keep going and going.”
Harrelson said he even caught himself getting distracted by the phone when he was at dinner with someone and there was a “lull in the conversation.” He also noted that he wasn’t typically using apps or taking calls, but rather answering a lot of text messages.
“I never used it as a phone, ever,” the White House Plumbers recalled. “Texting.”
While Harrelson now lives a life undistracted by technology, Danson admitted, “I admire what you do with phones, by the way, Woody. I need to emulate that.”