James Woods recently told Megyn Kelly on her SiriusXM radio show that he was “gently” asked not to promote Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” in which he served as executive producer after buying rights to the non-fiction book (“American Prometheus”) which Nolan based his screenplay on.
I was wondering why Woods was completely absent in the promotion of this film. He nary even mentioned it on his X/Twitter account. It turns out, unsurprisingly, that he was told to stay out of the campaigning and to not even mention the film. It worked.
“When ‘Oppenheimer’ came out, there was a discussion about my Twitter, and it was gently suggested that I basically remain invisible, which was painful,” Woods said, adding that his support for Donald Trump turned him into a major “risk” for the film’s release and awards strategy.
“On the other hand, I’m a pragmatic person and I thought, a lot of people put their effort into this,” Woods continued. “So I’m just going to be an invisible pariah because the people who are going to be voting for Oscars, which is very important to films because it helps with the financial reward and historical archive in which it rests forever, I don’t want to deprive those people.”
“I don’t want that to happen and have the clickbait story be, ‘James Woods is the executive producer, we’re not going to watch that movie!’” Woods said. “So I stepped back and basically took one for the team. I was not even invited to the Producers Guild of America awards. And I’m a producer.”
“Oppenheimer” ended up triumphing at the Oscars. The film won Best Picture. Nolan won Best Director. Cillian Murphy was awarded Best Actor. Robert Downey Jr. was bestowed the Best Supporting Actor trophy.
Woods has, more or less, quit acting in Hollywood after he was dropped by his agent a few years ago due to his support of Trump. He last appeared in two 2013 films, “Jobs” and “White House Down.” Too bad, he’s a great actor who delivered formidable performances in Oliver Stone’s “Salvador,” Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon A Time in America” and Martin Scorsese’s “Casino,” among many others.