A candid conversation with the free-spirited actor about the good life in Hawaii, fighting sexual temptations and why he's not the poster boy for pot (as he smokes a joint).

Who would have predicted that Woody Harrelson would emerge as the biggest personality to come out of Cheers? Yes, Kelsey Grammer is probably richer from Frasier, Ted Danson hangs with Hillary Clinton, and Kirstie Alley has graced more tabloid covers. But nobody from that classic sitcom, which wrapped in 1993 after 11 years on NBC, has tackled challenging movie roles or lived a free-spirited existence the way Harrelson has.

Fit as a Texas fiddle at the age of 48, the actor, whose movies include Natural Born Killers, The People vs. Larry Flynt and No Country for Old Men, is married with three kids, but that makes him sound conventional. He lives with his family on Maui, where he owns a scrappy up-country farmhouse that runs on solar power. Renowned for backing patchouli-scented causes like veganism, biodiesel technology and world peace, he’s also an outspoken advocate of a popular Maui plant called cannabis, for reasons both practical (see his extensive wardrobe of hemp clothing) and recreational (in 1996 he was arrested for marijuana possession).

Harrelson ended a five-year work hiatus around 2001 and picked up with the same gusto he gives his hard-core yoga practice. This year he has five new films, most notably The Messenger, opening this month, in which he plays a soldier charged with notifying Army families about casualties of war, and 2012, a Roland Emmerich sci-fi disaster flick about the end of the planet. It opens November 13.

Woodrow Tracy Harrelson was born in Midland, Texas in 1961 but grew up in Lebanon, Ohio after his parents divorced. His mother, Diane, was a devout Presbyterian who taught young Woody to fear God and preach the Word. His father, Charles, was a professional gambler who spent most of his adult life in jail. In 1982 he was sentenced to two life terms in federal prison for his role in the assassination of U.S. District Judge John H. Wood Jr. The actor lobbied for years to have his father’s case retried, claiming that his dad did not commit the murder, but Charles died in the Colorado Supermax prison in 2007 at the age of 69.

Harrelson began acting onstage, serving as an understudy in 1985 in Broadway’s Biloxi Blues, only to end up marrying (briefly) the playwright Neil Simon’s daughter. That same year he landed the role of the dopey but lovable bartender Woody Boyd on Cheers, a show that earned Harrelson international fame and big-screen parts in such films as White Men Can’t Jump and The Thin Red Line. With success came a reputation as a wild and crazy partyer with a hot temper. In 2002 Harrelson was arrested for vandalizing a London taxi, and this past April he got into a brawl with a TMZ paparazzo, later explaining he mistook the photographer for a zombie.

Playboy dispatched Contributing Editor David Hochman to Hawaii for a meeting of the minds. Says Hochman, whose last interview was with Shia LaBeouf, “This was an old-fashioned interview of the Almost Famous variety. Woody opened his world—and his mind—for days of uninhibited conversation and fun. We swam together, played Ping-Pong, ate raw foods, hung with the family, drove around in his biodiesel VW Bug and spent time with his island pal Willie Nelson. And yes, there was quite a bit of inhaling.”

PLAYBOY: It’s unusual for a celebrity to smoke marijuana during an interview. Are you trying to make a statement of some kind?

HARRELSON: Not especially. I don’t know that it’s a helpful thing as an actor to be the poster boy for the marijuana movement. Certainly the media uses it a lot to marginalize. It also does a disservice to those who are actually on the front lines for the legalization cause. I’ve seen it printed that I’m a marijuana activist, and I understand that, but it’s really just something I enjoy.

PLAYBOY: What do you like about it?

HARRELSON: Oh you know, some folks may have a drink. I think it’s okay to have your alternatives. People may want to pop a pill before going to a party—that’s not for me. Cocaine freaks me out. That’s a drug with some crazy PR behind it. I don’t know how it became so popular. It just makes you rant and rave. But I like the mellow vibe of herb, its uninhibiting effect. For me, it’s a better drug than any of the others, and since we’re all drug addicts, I don’t think it’s a bad choice.

PLAYBOY: We’re all drug addicts?

HARRELSON: I believe that, yes. Whether your drug is sugar, coffee, sex, exercise or religion—everybody has something. The biggest drug problem we face is pharmaceuticals— prescription pills for everything. It’s weird how fast you can get a bottle of pills these days. “Doctor, I’m depressed.” “Doctor, my kid can’t concentrate.” In many schools if a kid is unruly a couple days in a row, the teachers can demand that parents put him on prescription drugs. Man, that pisses me off! Same with antidepressants. You lose your mind on that stuff. You lose touch with who you are, with your emotional state. I was two years on Ritalin; my brother was eight years on it. If you didn’t have a drug addict before, you had one after. You have someone who’s forever chasing the dream.

PLAYBOY: Looking at your life in Maui, one would think you’ve found the dream.

HARRELSON: I do love Maui, that’s for sure. I was determined that once Cheers was off the air and it wasn’t a matter of necessity, I would move out of L.A. and find the spot. I mean, we went everywhere. We lived a while in Costa Rica until I realized some things in the jungle—snakes and frogs—can kill a child. Then we went to New Zealand, Australia, Ireland. But after Willie Nelson, who has a house here, introduced me to the wonders of Maui, I’ve been here ever since.