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James Woods said he was advised to withhold Oppenheimer’s executive producer credit due to concerns that a pro-Donald Trump Twitter account could harm the film’s release.
The 77-year-old voice actor of Hercules became an executive producer on Christopher Nolan’s film about the biography of American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer after buying the rights to “American Prometheus,” the non-fiction book by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin on which the screenplay was based.
Oppenheimer won seven awards at the 96th Academy Awards ceremony, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing and Best Original Score, and became the third highest-grossing film of 2023.
Speaking to Megyn Kelly on her SiriusXM show about Oppenheimer’s silent involvement, Woods said, “When Oppenheimer came out, there was a discussion about my Twitter and I was gently encouraged to basically keep a low profile. That was tough.”
The actor claimed he was concerned about the reputational risks of being publicly associated with Oppenheimer ahead of the film’s release and subsequent awards season campaign, given his long-standing online support of Donald Trump.
The actor has largely stayed out of the spotlight, having been released by his agent over his political views and last appearing in two episodes of the Andrew Dice Clay sitcom “Dice” in 2017.
“On the one hand, I’m a practical person, so I thought a lot of people were invested in this,” Woods added.
Cillian Murphy wins Oscar for ‘Oppenheimer’ (AP)
“So I’m just going to be an invisible pariah, because I don’t want to take away the financial reward from the people who vote for the Oscars, because it creates a historical record that will last forever and is so important to film.”
Woods said he didn’t want the Oppenheimer team to be in a situation where they had to deal with “knaves” lying about him and his right-wing views.
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“I’ve been told that a million times and they’re all lies,” he said.
“I didn’t want that to happen and for some clickbait story to be written: ‘We’re not going to see that movie because James Woods is an executive producer!’ So I took a step back and basically made a sacrifice for my team.”
“I wasn’t even invited to the Producers Guild of America Awards. I’m a producer.”