Woody Harrelson recalls tale of drinking cobra blood cocktail in Thai jungle with Michael J Fox

Award-winning actor Woody Harrelson hailed fellow thespian Michael J Fox as he presented his friend with an honorary Oscar at the 13th Annual Governors Awards and recalled a night when the pair drank a cobra blood cocktail together in Thailand.

Harrelson captivated the Oscar audience in Los Angeles revealing how he visited Fox in 1989 while the Back to the Future star was filming Casualties of War.

The 61 year old actor said he was visiting Fox on set somewhere in Kanchanaburi adding that they went into the jungle where Fox handed someone “like thousands of baht, which probably amounted to about US$16.”

The two actors were then taken to a venue to watch a fight between a cobra and a mongoose.

“I couldn’t believe it. I look in there and Mike is sitting next to this kid with dozens of cobras all around them ready to strike, no jest. And the kid was toying with these cobras.

“He taunted a bunch of these cobras and then he found the orneriest cobra, grabbed it by the neck, threw it in a cage with mongoose, where I saw the craziest fight I’ve ever seen between any animals, other than studio executives.

“The mongoose won, they took the snake, tied it by its tail, ran the blood out, half-filled four glasses with cobra blood and half with Thai whiskey.

“Drinking the cobra blood is called ‘becoming brother to the snake.”‘

Both actors looked at each other and then downed the potent cocktail.

Moments later Fox vomited the bloody drink.

“Mike never could hold his cobra blood. Mike and I drink lots of things together and he can hold his own, what can I say, he’s Canadian.”

The Texas-born actor’s tale brought down the house.

When Fox got on stage to accept his award he addressed Harrelson’s story by saying, “I love you.”

“We did some damage. We did some damage in the 80s.”

Fox was presented with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, for his Parkinson’s disease work, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which has raised over US$1 billion to find a cure for the disease.

Harrelson hailed Fox, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 1991, for turning “a chilling diagnosis into a courageous mission.”

Harrelson added…

“He never asked for the role of Parkinson’s advocate, but it is his best performance. Michael J Fox sets the ultimate example of how to fight and how to live.”