We're sure many people have fallen foul of some strange bets before, but few can claim that a silly wager could lead to losing a part in a Hollywood movie.

Well, not all of us are Woody Harrelson either. He's been talking to Shortlist about all sorts of matters, and one of them was how he lost a part in iconic comedy flick Dumb and Dumber.

"It was shot by one of my best buddies – my one-time roommate, in fact – Peter Farrelly, along with his brother Bobby. They'd had no success at that time, but really wanted me to do the movie," he said.

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"Pete's a good pool player, so I challenged him to a game and said, 'If I lose this game, I'll do your movie – if I win, I'm not gonna do it'."

Apparently it was a pretty close game, leading to just the final ball left on the table, with Woody having the chance to take the shot that would decide his cinematic fate.

"The game came down to the eight ball – and I've never been so disappointed to sink an eight ball in my life. Although, I dunno if I could've played that part as well as Jeff Daniels did anyway," he explained gracefully. The full interview appears in this week's issue of ShortList.

From: Digital Spy