James Woods: The Man Who Loves Women

Q: Are you the relentless hitter some people say you are?

A: People mink so, but I never come on to women. With me, it's, "Let's you and I hang our. Whatever happens, happens. When you're ready, you'll let me know."

Q: Do you actually have women friends with whom the relationship isn't sexual? For example, that beautiful creature hanging out in your yard right now...

A: Caroline is a friend. I've never slept with her and we've been friends for a year. We met when we were both breaking up with people we were involved with. It was nice to go out as two of the walking wounded. We could have had sex, but we both said, "If we do this, then we'll fall in love."

Q: Are you implying what I think you might be?

A: That if I get involved with someone now, I always seriously consider the possibility of marriage? Yes. At 52, I'm not interested in the idea of just fucking around. I'm always looking for the bigger picture or at least the possibility of that in someone.

Q: How does sex go so haywire in Hollywood?

A: It's worse in Hollywood, but, fundamentally, it goes haywire here in the same way it does everywhere else. What's wrong with sex is that very few people just enjoy it. It's usually got an agenda attached. People are trying to manipulate each other with sex, define power with it.

Q: But surely there are special breeds of sexual predators prowling this business?

A: Agreed. Women in Hollywood want sex and yet they're conflicted about it. Just the nature of the sex act. I mean, someone enters their body. For women, sex--in the purest, primal form--is a vulnerable act. Women are making a choice to let someone enter them, which is why, in Hollywood, most of them have to be on Ecstasy when they do it. It seems they have to numb themselves to actually do it.

Q: So, many times at clubs and parties you overhear women bragging about their scores the way men are accused of doing?

A: Oh, sure. Women in Hollywood are like gunslingers, making notches on their garter belts. Its insane, and the way I see it, they're pretty miserable with their fate. I was at my agent's and this 18-year-old-girl came in and I said, "My God, the figure on that girl." My agent said: "They're fake." I mean, here she is at 18 when she might still be growing, yet she's having blobs of rubber thrown into her body. A rule I have is to never date somebody who would mutilate their body in that way. I understand why people do it and I feel sorry for them when they do any kind of plastic surgery, I'm against it.

Q: Against it when men do it as well as women?

A: Do you think that anybody looks at Sylvester Stallone and says, "Gee, what is he--about 30?" People saw Rocky when they were two and they gotta be able to do the math. Every successful actor who went on for decades avoided all that nonsense. Anyway, somebody's got to play the 52-year-old guys and here I am.

Q: Your name has been linked with more than a few women in Hollywood. What was it like for you and Heather Graham, with whom you once said you were "wildly in love"?

A: Heather and I were together literally every day for almost a year. Now she has some sort of revisionist view of it--I read in the press she said something like, "I don't know what I was doing. I must have been looking for a father figure." Hey, all I remember is a wonderful time with a beautiful young woman who I thought would grow into a very successful actress, as she has. I always felt I was nice to her and it was a great experience. When we run into each other, it's always cordial.

Q: It lasted as long as it was supposed to, it sounds like.

A: Actresses are very conflicted about a lot of things, like being mothers, for instance. They keep thinking, is my body going to change? Am I going to lose my beauty? In Hollywood, the appeal lies in being a young hottie-- that's where the employment is. I had a conversation with Heather when she was, like, 21, and I asked, "Do you ever think about getting married?" And she's like, "Yeah, when I'm about 35. I'll meet somebody and have a kid when I'm about 40." Susan Sarandon ruined the world when she had a kid when she was, like, fucking 96 years old. Now, every actress wants to wait to have a kid at 90.I said to Heather, "How do you know you'll get the same attention from men when you're that age?" She was like, "Oh, you just like me for my blonde hair, my blue eyes and my big tits?" There was too long a pause before I answered, "Well..." and she just stormed out. That was the beginning of the end.

Q: So, relationships are tougher when not only the biological clock but also the career-agenda clock is ticking away?

A: Definitely. I asked a shrink friend of mine, "What happens to these Hollywood women who wait until they're 40 and their careers are over to have kids?" and he said, "They become Zsa Zsa Gabor."

Q: Ever speculated on why you and Sharon Stone, with whom you did The Specialist and Casino, never connected in real life?

A: She called me when I did Another Day in Paradise and said, "Hey, I would have done that movie with you,' and I said, "I'll call you from now on." We've always had that great chemistry, but we've always sensed that if we ever got together, we'd lose that on-screen.

Q: You're a couple of tough guys.

A: Except that she's got a bigger dick than I do. And I say chat with all due respect. She's tough and she's smart and she's also very feminine. She's got it all I'm the only other actor she invited to her wedding.

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