James Woods: The Man Who Loves Women

Q: I can hear the sounds of hackles being raised at what you just said.

A: Probably. Did you read that thing Brooke Shields said about what went wrong with her marriage? She was like, We had different interests. Andre wanted to go out, be with people, do things. I just wanted to come home and talk about my day, and he didn't get that. Now, would you rather go OUT to dinner with the person you love, or sit and listen to her bitch about what happened on the set of "Suddenly, Susan"? With all due respect.

Q: What do you make of these surveys that say many young people don't think oral sex is really sex?

A: How bizarre is that? I mean, these 18-year-old girls trying to make it in teen movies in Hollywood might rationalize that a blow job isn't sex because they know they might have to give one to get a job. But here's my rule about sex: it's anything you wouldn't do in front of your grandparents. All this stuff raised its head--pardon the pun-- during the Clinton thing.

Q: Speaking of Clinton, why were you so openly vitriolic about the Lewinsky affair?

A: I believe people do things on unconscious levels, things that tip their hand. What Clinton did was passive-aggressive. I don't like women who pout, I don't like men who sulk. Clinton is such a pussy-whipped mama's boy coming from this drunken, cheesy family that the way he controls women is to humiliate them. This guy isn't interested in sex, he's interested in degrading women.

Q: There are those who might accuse you of something similar.

A: I told you, I love fucking women. I don't love fucking women over. Clinton's big thing was getting a blow job while Hillary's out in the garden. You can get all the pussy you want it that's what you're interested in. God bless ya, you know? But the one thing you should never do is humiliate your spouse.

Q: What was going on when your second wife, Sarah Owen, claimed in print that, among other things, she caught you jacking off outside your cancer-ridden mother-in-law's bedroom?

A: She was a bullshit artist who was just frying to get money out of me in the divorce. There's never been a claim like that about me by anyone else hut her. She's the only woman I've ever been with that I didn't want to stay friends with because she behaved despicably. Because of my public frustration with feminism, people say, "You don't like women, do you?" They're so completely wrong. I don't like what some women have become, how some women have been led down the garden path of virulent, arch-feminist male-bashing. I like real women. By that I don't mean someone who just stays home and is a stand-by-your man type, though I think it would be nice if some of them tried that once in a while. I mean someone who's comfortable being a woman rather than someone who is uncomfortable because she wants to be a man.

Q: You're sounding like a retro Freudian again--you know, "Men are from Mars, women want a penis."

A: [Laughing] It's easy to make fun of the sort of penis envy theory of power, but as a metaphor, it's sound. Envy is the great cancer of the human race. Men envy the fact that women are the creators of life. Women envy men because of the power that they have. But women are the moral arbiters in matters of sex. If they say, "The dick stops here," that's where it stops. Short of rape, women call the shots.

Q: Given the number of ex-girlfriends you have, have things ever gotten testy when two or more of them have met?

A: My parties are always filled with my ex-girlfriends, with whom I've remained close friends. But in answer to your question, once I was seeing this woman and she came over and saw my ex-girlfriend's car parked here and decided to run her car into my six-day-old, $50,000 car, totally destroying it.

Q: Did you press charges?

A: No. I just ate it. The police said, "We're obligated to arrest her, but technically, this is domestic violence, stalking, a felony, malicious damage of property," If someone had done that to Farrah Fawcett, she'd be squawking to some dyke district attorney and the guy would spend the next 10 years in jail.

Q: Some women love bad boys, which is a big part of your rep.

A: They love it. It's catnip. But I have to tell women, "Listen, I don't want you to be disappointed, but I'm kind of, like, over it. I'll still tie you up and give you a little spanking if you want, but if you're looking for nothing but drama, I'm the wrong guy." I'm looking for something a little deeper.

Q: Have you ever had an encounter with another man?

A: Only once did a guy come on to me. He was a friend of mine, a famous gay playwright, and he was a little drunk. I said, 'Are you nuts?" He said, "I'm sorry" and I was like, "Please." I grew up in the theater, which is a very cool community, so I had a lot of friends who were gay. Maybe there was more social repression then, hut gay people--maybe I was naive and didn't realize it-- didn't come on to very obviously heterosexual people like me. I always find gay people very respectful of the fact that I'm so obviously heterosexual.

Q: You look especially vital these days. Any secrets?

A: About two years ago, I was going through this prolonged breakup from a 25-year-old girl I really loved. It was one of those passionate things where our temperaments drew us together but we could not get along. And my shrink told me I needed to understand something about love. He told me, "You need to get a dog." I'd only had dogs when I was with somebody, never alone. I got Angel, my cairn terrier, and I swear to God my whole life changed.

Q: From the look and sound of things, your mojo's working better at 52 than guys I know half your age.

A: I find, in a weird way, I'm more potent now than I ever was. It's a total myth that you lose your interest in sexuality as you get older. The problem is when people lose their interest in life. Sex is always the whipping boy for everybody's problems. My life is at its peak. I'm doing better work than ever. I live in a more beautiful home than I ever have before. My relationships are better. My state of mind is more fundamentally sound and at peace. And, what a surprise, I'm enjoying sex more than ever, and so is my partner. I'm 52 and I don't want to be 17. I did that. It's over. And I'm not fooled into thinking that because of what some Madison Avenue moron said that I'm not attractive because I don't have this or that. I'm attractive because I'm an alpha male. I'm a successful, strong, confident, pleasant man. I can't imagine why any reasonable woman wouldn't want to at least give it a shot. [Laughing] What?

Q: Jeez, I'm trying to imagine you on Viagra.

A: A friend of mine gave me a tablet of Viagra to try. I was with a girlfriend and we timed it. We had sex for six hours and 37 minutes, I'm surprised I didn't die of a heart attack. Viagra is a dangerous thing because you want to fuck all night. I'm in shape, but for these 60-, 70-year-old guys, it's like climbing K2 after having sat in a Lazy Boy watching football for 20 years.

Q: What's it like for you working again with Oliver Stone on Any Given Sunday, after having first done Salvador together when you were both younger?

A: He's a great filmmaker. The movie is fantastic. Now, there's a guy who could probably do with a little less Viagra in his life. I love him, though. He's one of a kind. He eats Viagra like candy corn, but one mans meat is another mans poison. He's one of those guys, like Jack Nicholson, who leads the high life and they're built like bulls. I don't know how they do it. People say Oliver and Jack are satyrs, but so what? That's a good thing. They're great guys. I think men are being celebrated as men again. Feminists want you to carry their fucking purses and be a wimp. I'll hold [he door for you, but carry your own fucking purse.

Q: You're coming up in the movie version of The Virgin Suicides for director Sofia Coppola, too.

A: People kept saying to me, "Why are you doing another independent movie--and an ensemble movie at that?" But I've got money now. I've got a career where I can do whatever I want. What teenage girls go through is such a mystery to me as a man, and to see these difficulties presented in such an honest, good-hearted way was something I just wanted to be part of. Sofia is a wonderful director.

Q: Does this "teen movie boom"--and The Virgin Suicides could be considered part of that--give you pause?

A: Sofia's movie is a rare exception to these stupid teen movies that always give the actress a "strong woman" moment where she drives the car or shoots the gun. It's all just a way to placate them, to get them to shake their tits around for the rest of the movie. The backlash of the feminist movement is that women are called "bitches" in videos and feel compelled to give blow jobs on first dates. There's just no sense of romance anymore. And romance is the frame that makes sex such a great picture.

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Stephen Rebello interviewed Anthony Minghella for the Dec./Jan. issue of Movieline.

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