Woody Harrelson Recalls Drinking Cobra Blood in Thailand with Michael J. Fox: 'Mike Promptly Vomited'

Woody Harrelson and Michael J. Fox got more than they bargained for while drinking in Thailand.

At the 13th annual Governors Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday, Harrelson, 61, introduced the Back to the Future star as he was presented with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Harrelson, who said Fox, 61, recommended him for a role in 1991's Doc Hollywood that helped launch his movie career, recounted a hilarious story from when he visited Fox on the Thailand set of the 1989 film Casualties of War.

The Triangle of Sadness star recalled a trip through the jungle with Fox during which Fox handed someone "like thousands of [Thai] baht, which probably amounted to about $16" and the pair were taken to a fight between a cobra and a mongoose.

"I didn't believe it," Harrelson said during his speech. "I look in there and Mike is sitting next to this kid with dozens of cobras all around them ready to strike and — 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," continued Harrelson to lots of laughter from the audience. "You guys know I'm kidding."

"And the mongoose won, they took the snake, yep, tied it by its tail, run the blood out, half-filled four glasses with cobra blood and half with Thai whiskey," Harrelson explained, telling the audience that "drinking the cobra blood is called 'becoming brother to the snake.' "

The pair's journey toward "becoming brother to the snake" did not go so well for Fox, Harrelson recalled.

"Mike and I drink lots of things together and he can hold his own — can I say, he's Canadian," Harrelson joked. "But Mike promptly vomited his snake cocktail, never could hold his cobra blood."

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As Fox himself took the stage to accept the honorary Oscar on Saturday, the actor thanked Harrelson for his introduction, which also touched on Fox's activism around Parkinson's disease.

"I love you. We did some damage," Fox said, addressing Harrelson. "We did some damage in the '80s."

Fox himself reflected on his harrowing journey with Parkinson's disease in his speech, saying that his diagnosis "truly has been a gift" as he accepted the award.

"It was a gift, as my friend George Stephanopoulos pointed out in a film," he said in his acceptance speech of the short tribute prior. "I refer to Parkinson's as the gift that keeps on taking. But it truly has been a gift.

"Once I became engaged in learning about the disease, every interaction, every new piece of information I gathered, every researcher or NIH official I talked to, all confirmed, the science was ahead of the money," Fox added. "The answers could be unlocked with the right investments."