James Woods has been a great actor for more than two decades. Go rent The Onion Field, Once Upon a Time in America, Salvador or last year's The General's Daughter if his screen prowess is what you want to concentrate on. If you'd rather hear what Woods has to say about crazy actresses, Viagra, breast implants, Heather Graham, penis size, strippers and Gwyneth Paltrow, read on.
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James Woods has given so many impressive performances opposite so many interesting costars for so many first-rare directors that he could probably tell on-the-set war stories from here to eternity--and he's one of the few veterans of the Hollywood trenches who wouldn't put you to sleep while he did it. But that's not what we're up to today. A scintillating raconteur and also a very good sport, Woods has agreed to spend the next few hours talking about one topic and one topic only: sex. If you think the man's credentials are impeccable in the acting arena, well, let's just say he boasts a formidable offscreen reputation, too. This is the guy who weathered a headline-making entanglement with Sean Young in the late '80s. The guy whose second wife accused him of being addicted to porn videos and phone sex lines. The guy whose physical endowments are as legendary as his appetite for young beauties like Headier Graham.
At this moment, I'm hanging out with Woods in the spacious, welcoming kitchen of the Beverly Hills manse he just put on the market. The room affords a panoramic view of Woods's back lawn on which a knockout, blonde, twentysomething model type is just now romping with Woods's high-spirited terrier. Woods has interrupted our chat to Field a phone call, allowing me to watch the backyard frolic and speculate about the status of the blonde and the exact breed of the terrier. In the middle of this reverie, Woods, still on the phone with someone who is obviously female, arches his brow and shoots me a wicked grin to get my attention so I can hear the shriek he's about to run through. "So, are you naked?" he growls teasingly. "Do you want to come over and fuck?" Yeah, it's rogue bad boy Woods, all right. At 52, crackling with smarts, complexity, zest and libido, this guy is definitely on his game.
STEPHEN REBELLO: So, as the song goes, let's talk about sex.
JAMES WOODS: Great, because that's the fundamental thing in life that never gets talked about. This is going to be fun. I love fucking women, let me tell ya. I repeat: I love fucking women. Love it.
Q: I got it. How did you first experience the full force of your own libido?
A: I always felt I wasn't a physically attractive guy. The first woman I fell for, really, was when I was 20. She was 24 and staggeringly beautiful. I never even thought she would look my way. I dropped her off at her house one night and we were just kissing in the car when she said, ''Either come in and fuck me or stop kissing me. I can't take any more of this." I remember thinking, "Really?" It seemed inconceivable to me that I was actually going to have her, but we were together every single night. For the next two or three years. So that thing about not being attractive, I let it go because it wasn't important to women. The mistake a lot of guys make is thinking that women think about men the way gay men think about men. The truth is, gay men think about men the way straight men think about women. But women think differently. It amazes me that people are always asking, "How do you get so many attractive women when you're 52 years old?" I answer, "Because I like them." Women appreciate men who really love women.
Q: So its about how you make women feel, not necessarily looking like Brad Pitt.
A: Precisely. And you know, you can't fake it, A guy might be able to get a woman in bed once with bullshit, but to have a rich sexual experience in a sustained way, you've got to be interested in that woman. Girls call the shots. A woman knows within the first five seconds whether she's going to sleep with a guy. So, all you ever have to do is sort of ride out the hit.
Q: Did any movies influence your idea of what sex should be?
A: I saw a movie in the '60s called Lilith that had Jean Seberg playing a very disturbed, beautiful woman and Warren Beatty as the guy involved with her. You know, that's quite a question you just asked, because I never realized until this moment that a lot of the women I've loved have been a little crazy. [Laughing] A little.
Q: What's your attraction to women who are--not to put too fine a point on it--nuts?
A: What's so provocative about insane women is that they're connected with their sexuality in such an unfettered way. For those moments they're with you, you're in heaven because they're literally borderline personalities in every sense of the word. They merge with you. Why be in bed with a librarian when you can be in bed with an animal?
Q: Hitchcock used to say that the ideal woman looked like an ice princess, but in a taxi would unzip your fly.
A: [Laughing] I prefer ones who don't even wait that long.
Q: You once compared sex to moviemaking, pointing out that neither is a "polite
enterprise" and that, "If someone isn't screaming, you're not doing your job."
A: Howling is more like it--howling in ancient tongues, at that. If sex isn't messy, you've missed the boat, it's love and war at the same time. You're drawn to these creatures, yet at the same time, you know you're sleeping with the enemy. Or an alien. You know: men are from Mars, women want a penis.
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.
Q: So you think when a couple's together off-screen it weakens their power on-screen?
A: There's nothing more boring than watching married couples act together. Every time Tom Cruise makes a movie, it makes billions of dollars except when he does it with Nicole Kidman, They're both terrific actors I love watching individually, bur for some reason when they're together, as wonderful as they are, as nice as they are--and I've been around them--it doesn't work. We want to see a battle of the sexes on-screen, a spark. Somehow, a happy marriage doesn't make for good drama. If Spencer Tracy had married Katharine Hepburn, they wouldn't be the greatest screen couple of the 20th century.
Q: What about Melanie Griffith, with whom you've also worked well several times on-screen? Why didn't you hook up with her in a more lasting way?
A: I've known her since she was 15 years old. You cannot even imagine what she looked like then. When she was 16, she said to me: "Oh, I have this boyfriend," and I asked, "Does your mom approve of it?" and she said, "She'd better. I've been fucking him since I was 14." I thought, "Here's a rather rare character." It was always sort of destined that we were going to be together somehow. But whenever we'd meet, well, the phone would ring or something, I always sort of caught her at the wrong time. So, we've had a destiny we've never fulfilled. She's deeply in love with Antonio so it's not even an issue now. We laugh about it, like, "How did we ever slip through each other's fingers?" Certain relationships just go beyond the point of no return. It's like with married people. They know each other's secrets so well, the mystery of sex is no longer an issue. It's the S.O.P. Syndrome--the same old pussy. People make huge mistakes with intimacy.
Q: Any examples you care to cite?
A: One of the worst things to ever happen to marriage is this insane practice or being right there with the camcorder while the kid is being born. Marriages die from it. You're seeing your wife as a mother, literally, and all those unconscious Freudian taboos come rising up. Feminists don't want to hear about this because they hate men anyway, but there are certain things primitive peoples were smarter about. There was a reason why among ancient peoples for thousands and thousands of years, men avoided childbirth up close and personal. There has to be romance, a sense of mystery. I mean, who wants to see TV commercials about yeast infections?
Q: With whom do you think you might have chemistry on-screen?
A: Winona Ryder is supernaturally beautiful. She has a poetic beauty. I don't know what the circumstances would be of my doing a scene with someone of her age or her look, though.
Q: There's a not-quite-ready-to-grow-up quality about her, almost childishness.
A: You say that as if it's a bad thing. [Laughing] I'm joking. I see what you're saving, but I think she's a charlotte russe--a chocolate éclair with a gooey center.
Q: What if someone paired you with Jennifer Lopez?
A: Maybe it's the roles they've concocted for her. I mean, she always has to play the strong woman, like an FBI agent. If I want to fuck an FBI agent, I'll turn gay. And that MTV video stuff of people half naked--a woman wiggling her pussy in your face isn't seductive to me, I like women with a sense of mystery, an aloofness, a promise of something much more seductive. I don't find strip clubs sexy. Watching someone gyrate around in a G-string for a fistful of $50s doesn't do it for me. I like women to be Everest, a great conquest.
Q: You did Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday, which Sean "Puffy" Combs was in briefly until he was replaced. Any encounters with Jennifer on the set?
A: I don't mean to say anything bad about her, because she's really a lovely person and a beautiful woman. But she was there during rehearsals, and she was kind of complaining, ''Oliver's pushing him too hard." Telling Oliver how he should direct Puffy. I was like, "Oh, please."
Q: How would Gwyneth Paltrow be for you, on-screen or otherwise?
A: The only problem I have with her is that I acted with her mother and I'd feel like I was robbing the cradle. Every time I see her, I think she's such a sweet girl, but it's a kind of Uncle Jim feeling I have about her. I see her like a niece. It's like, "Oh, the kid won an Oscar. How cute."
Q: How do you react to turning up on lists of the most well-endowed men in Hollywood?
A: It's so funny to me. I never even thought about it until some actress said it in a magazine and then somebody else said it.
Q: Sean Young was one of those somebodies. And to me, too.
A: She also said she glued it to my thigh with Crazy Glue. When somebody asked me whether that was true, I said, "Of course not." I should have said, "It's half true--actually, she glued it to my ankle."
Q: Sean said you should have been endowed with a tiny one so you could get on with your life.
A: I read some of these things and thought, "Now, why did she say that?" But since then I've also thought, "She's sort of got a point." I don't think penis size has anything to do with anything. Sexual attraction is all about confidence, and, as I said, women like men who really love them. I don't think I've ever been with a woman I didn't love when I was with her. I loved Sean. I thought she was great. There were a lot of misconceptions about what went on there, but I loved Sean. I still have a great fondness for her.
Q: Even when she was bashing you publicly?
A: Most of the bitching, whining and moaning chicks do, I don't really pay much attention to. It's their nature. It's like white noise. After I listen to it, I just smile and give them a big kiss and all of a sudden a big smile comes across their face. Or not.
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.