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Friday, Jul 10, 2009
Actor James Woods says he hates to talk about politics -- yet can't seem to help himself. In a let-it-rip interview, he defends Bush, calls Clinton a "liar," and sounds off on everything from his sex life to the war with Iraq.
Jul 31, 2003 | James Woods has frequently played manic characters, men with so much information clicking around their synapses it sometimes seems to blast from their mouths in fast, staccato streaks.
Woods the man doesn't seem altogether different. During an interview with Salon, to talk about his new movie "Northfork," Woods discussed his admiration for George Bush and his intense dislike for the president's critics, as well as Bill Clinton and the particularly dumb breed of Hollywood liberal he seems to run into a lot.
Woods insists he'd prefer not to talk about politics -- "Do you think I want to be the one lone voice against the Hollywood liberal establishment? It's not going to do me any good" -- and that he's much happier discussing his work. But for nearly an hour and a half he gamely talked politics with us over the phone on a recent afternoon, in hopes, he said, of getting "Northfork" a little more attention -- even though he was certain it would lead him to "be humiliated and degraded" in what could only turn out to be another "slash piece." Did it?
What attracted you to "Northfork"?
I thought it was a very bold subject, this whole idea of the transition from life to death or how to make life more meaningful while you're living it in the face of death. Secondly, I thought it would be exquisitely presented. I spent a lot of time with the boys [the Polish brothers, makers of the film]. We talked about using the gray scale in color. I thought that was really going to be powerful, to make essentially a black-and-white movie but on color stock. Everything was painted gray, the ketchup bottle, the flag, everything. I love the humor in it. And I just thought that they are real artists.
You know, my business is now basically run by the marketing department. And most of these kids running the marketing department have their MBAs from somewhere and the extent of their film knowledge goes back to "The Matrix." I mean, you mention Billy Wilder and they think you're talking about a place where you're going into a rave or something.
You were also credited as an executive producer on the film. Was that just a matter of putting up money or was there more to your involvement than that?
Actually, it wasn't a matter of money. A lot of it had to do with the creation of the film. I was able to lean on people for favors and things to help out because their budget was so low. It was half of what John Travolta's perk package is on a film. Our whole budget was half of what his staff makes on a film.
Was that frustrating? I imagine you're used to working with more resources.
No, everybody was so utterly dedicated to the film. Because you have to remember, we work in an environment where your options are to do, you know, "Batman 10," so when you get to do a movie that's a really great film like this, people really step up to the plate and enjoy it.
You've had a long career in indie movies.
Starting with "Onion Fields" and "Salvador" [which earned him an Oscar nomination] and movies like that, I've been doing this for 20 years. And the lifeblood of my career has been independent film. I mean, I got one Oscar nomination for a studio film, "The Ghosts of Mississippi," but, you know, its heart was in the right place. It was dealing with a socially important issue.
I've never really done many blockbusters, actually. I wouldn't know how to do them. I couldn't hop around in "Spider-Man" in, like, a little Spandex outfit. I mean, I enjoy going to those movies. I'm really glad they're making them, because it makes it possible to make other movies and it makes this business healthy. But I don't know how good I'd be in them.
... If you're the more mature, accomplished, middle-aged, white, heterosexual male in that equation, you're usually going to be the villain because that's how those things are set up. And to hop around in a little mask and tights, I can just find better things to do with my time.
Liz Smith recently reported that you'd been with the same woman for five years, Dawn Denoon, co-executive producer of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." You used to have a reputation as sort of a lady killer.
I don't know where I got that reputation. I probably date less than anybody in history, but for some reason people think that. It's so impossible to check people's perceptions of you. I'm a pretty quiet guy, but if people want to think of me as a lady killer, I guess that's good.
And yet that rumor persisted. What was your favorite rogue rumor about you in the press?
Back in the old Sean Young days, there was a whole thing that she glued my dick to my leg with Krazy Glue, and I said, as a joke, "Well, actually, it was to my ankle," and for some reason it got out. So I thought, well, maybe I won't dispel that rumor.
