Woody Harrelson may have built a career playing characters who make immoral decisions—and are either drunk or stoned while doing so—but before his acting days the Three Billboards star was actually studying to become a minister.
Harrelson went to Hanover College, a private Presbyterian university in Indiana, where he studied theology before falling in love with acting, graduating with a degree in theater and English. One of Harrelson’s peers at the time was none other than our super-religious, pro-life, conversion therapy–loving Vice President, Mike Pence.
Pence was no stranger to Harrelson, serving as his admissions counselor from 1981 to 1983, according to the Daily Beast. On Tuesday night, Jimmy Kimmel asked the actor about attending the tiny liberal arts school with Pence back in the day. “I knew him, yeah. We were both very religious,” Harrelson said. “It was a Presbyterian college at the time, and I was there on a Presbyterian scholarship, and he was involved with the church activities.”
“I was actually considering being a minister and then I just kind of went a different way,” he continued, when asked about how he earned a Presbyterian scholarship.
Harrelson's memories of young Mike Pence are actually pretty positive, but the actor admits he doesn't think the two would get along these days. “I actually quite liked him. I thought he was a pretty good guy,” he said. “He’s, you know, very religious. Very committed. Seeing as how I’m not quite in that ballpark now, I don’t know how we’d get along, ’cause I think he’s still quite religious and just a whole different brand of religious. That kind of fervor that you really don’t want.”
