--- title: Woody Harrelson is Lyndon Johnson in Rob Reiner's 'LBJ' description: Woody Harrelson jumps into the presidential fray in 'LBJ,' a new movie directed by Rob Reiner which premieres at the Toronto Film Festival. canonical: https://time.com/4494921/woody-harrelson-lbj-movie-clip-rob-reiner/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-15T13:36:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T00:37:16.888Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Here's a First Look at Woody Harrelson as Lyndon Johnson og:description: The movie 'LBJ' premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival og:url: https://time.com/4494921/woody-harrelson-lbj-movie-clip-rob-reiner/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf92f3b258c260c12/6988a634656a3f3038bcd1dc/woody-harrelson.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Woody Harrelson at the "Now You See Me 2" press conference on May 23, 2016 in New York City. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's a First Look at Woody Harrelson as Lyndon Johnson twitter:description: The movie 'LBJ' premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf92f3b258c260c12/6988a634656a3f3038bcd1dc/woody-harrelson.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's a First Look at Woody Harrelson as Lyndon Johnson in _LBJ_ by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Sep 15, 2016 1:36 PM UTC  Woody Harrelson at the "Now You See Me 2" press conference on May 23, 2016 in New York City. Woody Harrelson at the "Now You See Me 2" press conference on May 23, 2016 in New York City.Vera Anderson--WireImage/Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Sep 15, 2016 1:36 PM UTC [Lyndon B. Johnson](http://time.com/3658593/selma-lbj-history/) is having quite the streak on screen these days. Every year for the last few years, he’s been depicted by one esteemed actor after another—Liev Schreiber in _The Butler_, Tom Wilkinson in _Selma_, [Bryan Cranston](http://time.com/4324755/bryan-cranston-walter-white/) in the HBO film _All the Way_. Now, [Woody Harrelson](http://time.com/3581101/woody-harrelson-hunger-games-saturday-night-live-promo/) jumps into the presidential fray in the aptly titled _LBJ_, a new movie directed by [Rob Reiner](http://time.com/2976152/meg-ryan-rob-reiner-when-harry-met-sally/) which premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival Thursday night but does not yet have a theatrical release date. The film follows Johnson from the time he loses the Democratic presidential nomination to John F. Kennedy in 1960 and agrees to be the Massachusetts’ senator’s running mate, through his frustration at being sidelined as second fiddle and sudden transition into the Oval Office following Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, and ultimately to his own legacy-building efforts to push the Civil Rights Act into law. Reiner has [said](http://deadline.com/2016/09/lbj-tiff-toronto-1201818644/) that it was the insecurity that loomed behind Johnson’s larger-than-life persona that most interested him in pursuing the project. In this first look at the latest portrayal of the 36th president, Harrelson—sporting painted-on liver spots and a prosthetic chin—relays a story from his childhood which taught him to complete the saying “When life gives you lemons” in a rather more colorful fashion. Not present in the footage are costars Jennifer Jason Leigh, who plays Lady Bird Johnson, and Jeffrey Donovan, who plays Kennedy. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4494921/woody-harrelson-lbj-movie-clip-rob-reiner/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4494921/woody-harrelson-lbj-movie-clip-rob-reiner/"},"headline":"Here's a First Look at Woody Harrelson as Lyndon Johnson in LBJ","datePublished":"2016-09-15T13:36:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:37:16.888Z","description":"The movie premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival","url":"https://time.com/4494921/woody-harrelson-lbj-movie-clip-rob-reiner/","keywords":["movies","lbj","lyndon johnson"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf92f3b258c260c12/6988a634656a3f3038bcd1dc/woody-harrelson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf92f3b258c260c12/6988a634656a3f3038bcd1dc/woody-harrelson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Woody Harrelson at the \"Now You See Me 2\" press conference on May 23, 2016 in New York City.","caption":"Woody Harrelson at the \"Now You See Me 2\" press conference on May 23, 2016 in New York City.","creditText":"Vera Anderson--WireImage/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4494921/woody-harrelson-lbj-movie-clip-rob-reiner/","name":"Here's a First Look at Woody Harrelson as Lyndon Johnson in LBJ"}}]}] ```