WTF Happened to James Woods?

just one month before the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001 A man was on a flight and noticed something suspicious this man who witnessed this event on this plane that might have been a dry rehearsal for the attack has been interviewed by the FBI several times and this man was even able to identify some of the 911 hijackers it's a very strange very interesting story which is connected to a very tragic very historic event and what's even stranger is that this man just so happens to be one of the most reliable character actors of all time it was James Woods yeah that James Woods WTF right in addition to working with the FBI on this case this man has also worked with some of the greatest filmmakers of all time pumping out performances that are so raw and real that you question if the dude is really acting but in recent years his star has fallen significantly and apparently he couldn't care less is it because his political beliefs have conflicted with that of the Hollywood Elite or is it his unfiltered Politically Incorrect don't give a fuckiness on social media or is it because his films quite simply just stopped making money join us as we ask that ever important question what the [ __ ] happened to James Woods foreign but to truly understand what the [ __ ] happened to James Woods we must begin at the beginning the beginning began when he was born on his birthday 1947 Utah USA he would grow up in Rhode Island before attending MIT with the intent of becoming an eye surgeon but he dropped out in his final year of MIT to pursue acting because that theater bug well it bit him hard during college he was done with that silly eye surgeon stuff trading it all in for trying to pay the bills through acting which is always a guaranteed road to success but it worked for him until it didn't he started to make a name for himself on the stage appearing in many well-respected theatrical Productions and James Woods would make his transition to films as a reliable character actor first appearing in the film The Visitors in 1972 directed by Master filmmaker Elia Kazan then he worked with another great director said Sydney Pollock in the way we were the 1970s is where James Woods really got his education in the art of acting and Cinema he would slowly build his resume with smaller roles in such films as The Gambler Night Moves Alex and the Gypsy and the choir boys while appearing in scene stealing guest spots on TV series such as Kojak The Rockford Files Welcome Back Cotter he was also in the Streets of San Francisco and Barnaby Jones before actually Making Waves by receiving strong reviews opposite Meryl Streep in the 1978 mini-series Holocaust it's about the Holocaust and he finished that decade of the 1970s off with several best supporting actor nominations including one Golden Globe back when people cared about the Golden Globes for his transformative performance in the onion revealed truly magnificent Mr Woods truly but if the 1970s was James Woods film education it was the 1980s that was his full-blown arrival onto the cinema scene as he would steal some more scenes and films like eyewitness fast walking and Split Image then came Master filmmaker David cronenberg's video drone in 1983 it's a disturbing piece of social commentary that exposes the Dark Side of technology and humans Woods demented yet frightening yet curious performance elevates the film to more sick and twisted levels I believe this is his first leading role I think technically and he handles it well this was followed by a film called Against All Odds in 1984 and that same year he worked with yet another master filmmaker Sergio Leone by joining the wonderful ensemble cast of Once Upon a Time in America where he steals scenes from the likes of a young Robert De Niro in his prime and the old age makeup in this movie it looks really good because that's what these actors kind of look like now now that they're old [Music] James Woods would also appear in the first story segment of the mega self-indulgent Stephen King Anthology flick cat's eye James Wood's character literally watches Another Stephen King movie while he's in this Stephen King movie but the film that would truly show us the power of James Woods fast talking slightly arrogant yet brilliant ways would be when he joined forces with yet another Master filmmaker Oliver Stone in 1986's Salvador playing an American photojournalist covering the Civil War in El Salvador like video drone this performance shows us that he can lead a feature and do it quite well his role was unlike anything we had ever seen before it's a gritty Brash Fish Out of Water story with a performance that blurs the lines of acting and reality and of course I'm not the only one to appreciate this performance James Woods would receive accolades across the board including an Academy Award nomination for best actor in a leading role but he didn't win the Oscar but he don't give a [ __ ] foreign nominated actor and his career kinda got a boost and by that I mean he would star in a series of financially underachieving well done respected films such as bestseller where he was nominated for best actor at the film independent Spirit Awards in the year 1988 he was in cop and the Boost where he would again receive a nomination for best actor at the film independent Spirit Awards in the year 1989 there was the film True Believer and immediate family and while he was doing all this Mr Woods was also killing it on the small screen back when TVs were small with Emmy winning roles in the miniseries promise and my name is Bill W and then James Woods fired his agents after they turned down Reservoir Dogs without even showing him the script I'm not sure which doll he was gonna be but Woods would have been an interesting addition to this already Perfect cast I believe the 1990s were right around the corner and with it came the rise of the types of films that Woods really shined in he would kick off the 90s by appearing opposite Michael J fox in the 1991 buddy cop action comedy the hard way critics took note of the chemistry Fox and woods had on screen and audiences showed up to a tune of 65 million dollars [Music] after veering into the romantic comedy territory in 1992's Straight Talk Woods would continue his string of playing lovable shyster characters in films such as diggstown where he plays a shyster con man and chaplain where he plays a shyster lawyer and the getaway where he plays a shyster mob boss and a specialist where he plays a shyster Colonel while also showing us some range as a character actor in projects such as the Sam Shepard adaptation curse of the starving class in 1994 and the Jason Alexander directed get Costanza for better or worse he was in killer a journal of murder which was executive produced by Oliver Stone and the TV movie indictment the McMartin trial which he would be nominated for an Emmy and for his most daring role yet James Woods would take over the Quickie Mart in an episode of The Simpsons yeah like yeah okay great okay let's just try that again okay come on hey come on hey hey hey get over here and yeah apparently James Woods likes playing himself as a cartoon because he appeared as himself eight times on Family Guy throughout the years even the high school on the show is named after Mr Woods James Woods vocal performance in Family Guy is the perfect way to handle cartoon celebrity appearances he understood the joke he lived and breathed the joke because he is the joke but he doesn't give a [ __ ] about the joke and that's the joke it's probably the funniest joke Family Guy ever told at least top 100. hey and guess what I discovered a new element but it was really the year 1995 that would bring us Peak James Woods first he would play the sleazy pimp drug dealer Lester diamond in Martin scorsese's Casino yet again working with another Master filmmaker and in Casino you can really see that Woods is giving it his grimiest best beautiful you hate the character but you love the performance which sums up a lot of the roles that James Woods has brought to life he would next be seen in Oliver Stone's three hour and 12 minute biopic about Nixon called Nixon James Woods would next earn rave reviews as his second and last to date Oscar nomination for best supporting actor for playing another horrible deplorable character in master filmmaker Rob Reiner's ghosts of Mississippi again this is another one of those roles where you realize just how good James is his head being bad the character he plays is a real life racist murderer who in the hands of a lesser performer would have been played out without any death but Woods has a way of playing these types of characters that Lich should dig down deep into the character and experience the character and the performance from several angles you understand that these characters are evil pieces of shite but you also understand that they're humans evil humans right which just makes you know the drama better I'm not sure I got that would you uh mine repeat that please after appearing in the comedy kicked in the head in 1997 James Woods would tackle the role that he says to this day is still his absolute favorite voicing Hades in the Disney animated Hercules he even tweeted recently that he will do every job he is asked to that involves the voice of Hades and he's lived up to that quote returning to the role several times over the years most notably the 30 episodes of the TV spin-off series that I completely forgot existed until now where he would win a Daytime Emmy for his voice work and yet once I was asked what was my favorite Disney voice performance and I thought about it long and hard and then I realized ain't nobody compares to James Woods as Hades except for Robin Williams and maybe Eddie Murphy okay he's like yeah he's one of the greatest top top five foreign Woods would finish out the 1990s by continuing to do what he does best Elevate every film he is in whether it's playing the National Security advisor alongside Jody Foster in a master filmmaker Robert zemett kisses contact or leading one of the most interesting and best vampire movies of the last 25 years in master filmmaker John Carpenter's vampires where he gets to play another kinda shyster dude but like he's killing vampires so it's the cool vampire killing type of shyster dude and yeah he's really really trying to be like really really cool in this and you know what it works with every line and every move and every look he makes in this movie vampires he's just saying like yeah I'm in a vampire movie and I'm having a good time and I don't give a [ __ ] what you think because it's vampires yeah John Carpenter what up that's what it feels like man I kind of like it other people don't but I do and I'm right the people at the Saturn Awards would agree with me because they gave him best actor James Woods would follow that up by appearing and producing the one million dollar grossing Another Day in Paradise followed by Master filmmaker Clint Eastwood's box office bomb True Crime but then came 1999 one of the best years for films ever in one of those reasons why 1999 is one of the best years for films ever is because of the Virgin Suicides and one of the reasons why the Virgin Suicides from Master filmmaker Sophia Coppola is so good is James Woods Performance I know we all think of the girls and yeah they're they're wonderful but it's really James Woods who is the soul of this movie he is the heart and the pain the heart that breaks in this movie is his and because of his amazing acting we feel it and he doesn't go over the top it's so subtle that it it's unlike anything I've ever seen maybe this was followed by yet another flawed character as Colonel Bob Moore in the 150 million dollar grossing the General's daughter critics called the film over the top but Woods delivers a calculated cool calm and even heartbreaking performance again then again James Woods would reunite with Oliver Stone again to play another shyster character again this time he's a shyster football Doctor Who uses questionable tactics on the players in the film that the NFL doesn't want you to see Any Given Sunday it's one of the best football movies ever made but man this character right here is quintessential James Woods because you absolutely hate the character yet again love the performance and Oliver Stone boy howdy does he know how to use the talents and the skills of of this man who is named James Woods next he appeared in the TV movie dirty pictures in the year 2000 where he would receive a Golden Globe and a sag nomination for best actor in a mini-series and he would take over a role that was originally given to Marlon Brando and then Mr Brando fell very ill so James Woods stepped right in and played father mcfeely in Scary Movie 2. but it was his unmistakable voice that would endear him to a new generation of fans you know like Simpsons and Family Guy people but also people who watched Final Fantasy Spirits within and people who watch recess schools out and people who watch clerks the animated series and if you're one of those people that play Grand Theft Auto San Andreas you can hear the smoothing sounds of James Woods as you click on those buttons and you kill those people or whatever whatever you do in that game then James Woods would Star as Rudy in Rudy no not that Rudy this Rudy the Rudy Giuliani story where he played the mayor of New York City who was mayor during the time of the 9 11 attacks which James Woods has a very strange connection to James Woods would receive an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of the mayor Rudy Giuliani a dude who he would kind of team up with later to expose whatever the [ __ ] is or isn't going on at Twitter so that's kind of weird that he's working with a character he played I don't know I always find it interesting when life and Cinema Blend together and you throw in some politics because [ __ ] it you know Democrats always talked about things getting better Republicans did whatever they could to make them better his TV career was going fairly strong popping up in shows such as odd job Jack ER and Entourage before committing full time to network television in 2006 with the CBS legal drama shark where he plays a shark I think I don't know I haven't seen it but it ran for two seasons and other people seem to like it people who have actually watched it people who aren't me so that's good and while he was doing awesome things on that show shark not Jumping the Shark I am assuming he was also not Jumping the Shark in movie theaters because he would continue to appear in some really decent movies such as Riding in Cars with Boys John Q North Fork This Girl's Life pretty persuasion and the Get Shorty sequel be cool but it would seem that James Woods was having more fun on TV than in movies as his output started to slow down on the big screen after that but on TV he was still impressing us all whether it was with his Emmy and sag award-nominated performances in the excellent HBO film too big to fail or his six episodes of the Showtime series Ray Donovan it would seem that since 2010 James Woods output slowed down quite a bit he would pop up in such films as Straw Dogs yeah they remade Straw Dogs for some reason he was also an officer down and that movie jobs which just so happened to be overshadowed by the far superior Steve Jobs and he was in that movie White House Down which also just so happened to be overshadowed by the much more serious Olympus Has Fallen all of those films that I just mentioned really did not make an impression at the box office or with critics so of course declining box office could be the reason why we have seen Les James Woods these days but also there's Twitter we all love the performances that many talented people give and we enjoy seeing their cookie cutter appearances on talk shows every now and then but with the rise of social media where your every thought can be put out into the world as soon as it enters your puny little mind without any filter well James Woods has emerged as one of those people who really likes to tweet For Better or Worse a lot of his tweets and comments may be considered by many people to be homophobic and or racist maybe some sexism in there too maybe I probably let's just say that actor James Woods ain't exactly what the cool kids call woke and you know what uh he doesn't seem to give a flying tweeting but does this man take it too far is it possible to separate the politics from the artist do we even need to separate the politics from the artist do we care doesn't matter do I give a f if trolling was an art form James Woods would be considered a master whether you like it or not for better or worse or worse or better it was in 2015 when he did the unthinkable in Hollywood he would change his political affiliations to [Music] Republican James Woods said that his transition to being a conservative led to him being blacklisted in Hollywood and you know what I don't actually care which side of the political aisle you're on because this is a show about movies but sometimes the worlds of movies and politics blend together and it cannot be stopped he was even dropped by his agents for his political outbursts there was actually a really funny James Woods moment at the 2017 Writers Guild Awards when Woods ran onto the stage to joke around with Patton Oswald and remember this was a pre-will Smith Chris Rock time so yeah woods and patton well obviously they're political opposites but they joked around with each other and that right there this moment right here is probably the last time that all political sides in Hollywood laughed together and as recently as December 2022 like not that long ago at all James Woods announced his intentions to sue the Democratic National Committee and Twitter for censoring him and that's kind of where we're at with James Woods four decades it was his acting that got us all talking about him but now it's his Politically Incorrect controversial rebellious I don't give a [ __ ] beliefs that come to mind when anyone hears the name James Woods that and maybe Family Guy he was once one of the biggest most respected performers in Hollywood when James Woods was in your movie you knew you had something special like the specialist but many of those characters that he excelled in were well kinda a-holes actually I think they all were the characters that James Woods brought to life on screen were trolls before social media existed and maybe that's why he's so gosh darn good at making those types of characters come to life just saying there is a difference between bona fide racism and just speaking the truth which is what I'm doing here you understand that right a big difference is it possible that his political views made him Persona non-grata in Hollywood yeah the life and career of James Woods can be looked at as a lesson about how the power of social media and the power of celebrity and politics well they don't really mix so you never really know what you're gonna get and that's exactly what James Woods does like with every character you never really know what you're gonna get but you know it's gonna be brutally honest and harsh like James Woods himself and it seems like he's enjoying every second of every controversial tweet and comment so James Woods well he's just gonna James Woods and that's why nobody should give a [ __ ] about what the [ __ ] happened to James Woods because he's doing just fine I guess but as for me I'm off to battle aliens on a far away planet that sounds like a good movie yes yes a movie yes foreign

Channel: JoBlo Originals

Views: 83,287

Keywords: joblo videos, joblo, wtf happened to, wtf happened to this celebrity, wtf happened to this movie, wtf, the best movie you never saw, awfully good movies, joblo originals, movie review, review, james woods, james woods twitter, james woods interview, james woods blacklisted, james woods hades, james woods family guy, james woods scary movie scene, james woods simpsons, james woods movies, james woods casino, james woods any given sunday, james woods hercules

Id: 0vNGZB1UXX8

Length: 26min 6sec (1566 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 06 2023