Posted on 10/22/2018 8:53:24 AM PDT by Liberty7732
One of the many fatalities of Hollywood’s war on conservatism is the career of James Woods, the feisty author of countless conservative tweets and a towering steeple among conservatives on Twitter. His commentary and retorts are biting, witty, and when they need to be, merciless. But of course, his open display of his political positions has cast a stigma on his career as an actor. And Woods has said as much.
In a tweet from February, Woods said he was blacklisted because he refused to back Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton. Then came word from Woods that The Gersh Agency, which represented him for a great part of his career, would not continue representing him because of his political views.
And Twitter has not been accommodating to Woods, either. Despite having 1.79 million followers, Twitter banned him from his account after he tweeted a meme of three men enthusiastically proclaiming that they were going to make women’s votes more powerful this election cycle by staying home on election day.
Twitter refused Woods access to his account unless he took down the meme. He refused. And he got his account back.
But if his Twitter presence has been remarkable, his acting career has been even more so. Woods, known for his intensity on the screen and his ability to deliver expressions of sheer unbridled anger is one of the giants of modern film productions.
Who can forget the Porsche scene in Against All Odds and the events surrounding it? And if you haven’t seen The Specialist where Woods’s character, Ned Trent, loses it while building a bomb in front of a trailer full of Miami police officers daring them to have him blow it up, then you’ve missed one of the greatest displays of controlled anger on film.
Then there was his portrayal of the Machiavellian politician in Contact, who kept saying, “Continue,” as he intently listened to the report of the missing 8-hours of data from a presumably failed, seconds-long, space mission in a vehicle that was the product of alien blueprint instructions. The missing time sequence was the exact amount that Jodie Foster’s character, the astronaut that actually traveled in the craft, described as she toured the galaxy with an apparent alien. Woods’s silent attention was followed by a single, sinister, controlled utterance from him, “That is interesting.”
But by far, my favorite Woods movie is True Believer where Woods plays a beat up, longhaired, has-been lawyer opposite Robert Downey, Jr. The movie opens with Downey entering the courtroom to meet Woods’s character, Eddie Dodd, for the first time. Woods, his back to the camera, is seated at the defense table when Downey instinctively introduces himself to the shorthaired, well-manicured defendant seated next to him. When Woods actually responds, the audience is duped and falls victim to one of the great displays of irony and double-fakery in film. Few actors other than Woods would have been able to pull off this inherent contradiction in a character.
But, as has become too frequent a case, Woods’ career has been effectively silenced as his conservatism has become public. You would think that there would be someone so iconic, so magnificent, so great, that political bias would be insufficient to ostracize.
Well, you’d be wrong.
Yet Hollywood’s coercion was unable to silence him, merely to control the only thing it can about him: his career. But over the past week, there has been talk about a sitcom featuring him and another discarded semi-conservative actor, Roseanne Barr — talk that Woods himself ginned up.
Needless to say, I’d love to tune in to that sitcom. Not because of Barr who, although iconic in her own rate, is at best a mediocre actress. But because of Woods, a true giant amongst thespians!
And the fact that Woods and Barr would almost assuredly be able to put together a hit because of their talents, their huge following who feels starved for something not bashing Trump and Republicans, and of course the controversy. But for it to really happen, someone in Hollywood would have to have the fortitude and professionalism to do it.
Unlikely. Woods’ feisty, take-no-prisoners verbal fisticuffs on Twitter does not translate into persuading even otherwise willing Hollywood execs to take the risk. The anti-all-things-not-left in Hollywood is just too strong and too nasty, frequently beating out even the profit motive.
However, if someone with a distribution channel took it, about every conservative out there would give it a watch. I’m ready to. I’ll even go fire up the popcorn!
Woods is at an age in which his career would naturally have stalled, regardless of his political views.
I would also note that in the movie “Casino”, Woods out-acted DiNiro all day long. Diniro just played the exact same character he played in “Goodfellas”.
Oh ... “Casino”. We talking about Woods’ acting in that all the time. He was amazing. For a Mensa guy, he sure can play the ultimate sleazeball lizard.
He’d make a great spokesperson for the White House if Sarah needs a break.
Run for office.
Jimmy is a great actor and great conservative. Kind of ironic that he played a campus Commie in “The Way We Were.” Of course, it’s acting.
If I know Mr. Woods, he would not only refuse to support Hillary, but would likely go into an explicit explanation of why he was refusing.
Salvador
Once Upon a Time in America
Great acting in those movies.
I remember him as the sleaze-ball would-be criminal mastermind cop-killer in The Onion Field.
He is a good actor and sooner or later a role will come along that fits him perfectly and TPTB will relent as it will make them money.
By the way really liked him as the vampire hunter in John Carpenter's Vampires. Strada Chocolada LOL.
America’s mainstream, Hollywood entertainment-industrial complex is an absolute political monoculture.
Woods won’t have a chance there.
We need a new media in the USA.
After the Gosnell movie I’m afraid Dean Cain will be joining him on the sidelines.
I love James Woods. True Believer is my favorite movie.
I like James Woods in the Hard Way!
Agreed. Also liked him in "The Boost".
So so true!!!
Why doesn’t FNC give him some airtime or how about the Republican Convention in a few years. Clint Eastwood, James Woods, Dean Cain....any others? Would love to see them all on stage and making speeches.
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