James Woods claims he wasn’t allowed to promote ‘Oppenheimer’ due to his political views
James Woods, who executively produced Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, has claimed he was politely asked not to promote his involvement with the movie due to his right-wing political views.
Woods is a decorated actor who has won a Golden Globe and two Emmy Awards and has also been nominated for two Academy Awards during his career. However, Woods, who hasn’t appeared in a project since the crime series, Ray Donovan, in 2013, has become increasingly outspoken and controversial on X in recent years, spouting controversial views, including his prominent support for Donald Trump.
Although he’s now persona-non-grata in Hollywood, Woods owned the rights to the book, American Prometheus, by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin, which Nolan used as the basis of his Oppenheimer screenplay. Therefore, he was credited as an executive producer for the Oscar-winning movie.
During a new interview with Megyn Kelly on Sirius XM, the actor explained why he refrained from promoting Oppenheimer, and admitted that his affiliation would have created an unnecessary distraction for the team that had worked hard on the project.
“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 told the radio presenter.
While he admitted it was a “painful” conversation, Woods understood that it would have been more hassle than it was worth and likely created an avoidable problem, adding, “On the other hand, I’m a pragmatic person, and I thought, a lot of people put their effort into this.”
The Night Moves star elaborated: “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.”
Ultimately, keeping Woods’ involvement in Oppenheimer quiet helped the movie almost take home $1 billion at the box office. Although it would still likely have been a huge success even if he had promoted the film, the executive producer has many critics who feasibly wouldn’t have gone to see the film if they knew it may line his pockets.
Furthermore, Woods stayed away during awards season to avoid potential negative headlines, explaining, “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!’ 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.”
Earlier this year, Oppenheimer won major Academy Awards including ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’, ‘Best Actor’ and ‘Best Supporting Actor’. In a four-and-a-half-star review, Far Out wrote: “In Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy portrays the reluctant ‘father of the atomic bomb’, J. Robert Oppenheimer, finally being given the lead role-nod in a Nolan film, having starred in five of his previous efforts. Unsurprisingly, given his undoubted talent as an actor, Murphy delivers a performance of dedication, nuance and, most importantly, believability”.
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