James Woods
~~ The Voice of Hades ~~
"Hey, come on. We'll kiss, we'll dance, we'll schmooze,
we'll carry on. Whaddya say?"
*
(Info on this guy's upcoming features will be found at the BOTTOM
of this webpage. So if you've already read the rest, feel free to skip ahead. )
James Woods. This guy is
responsible for everybody's favorite Disney villain (well, at least, if you're
at this page, he's probably your favorite, right? C'mon). He supplied much,
much more for Hades than simply his voice (though he did that too): he gave our
Flamehead his personality.
The story goes that the actors
trying out for the part of Hades that day were all giving the Lord of the Dead
a dark, menacing character. James Woods had other ideas, however:
"When
I first came in for the part of Hades, I was feeling kind of silly that day, so
I did him like a big Hollywood agent selling some guy on
a bus-and-truck tour of some cheesy play. And for some reason, it stuck. And
the more we did this kind of insane, loopy 'from-the-hip' stuff, the funnier it
became to us. It's a great group effort and the Disney team is a great family
to be a part of."
"I
never realized how much the actors get to create their roles. We get to create
and ad-lib and come up with crazy lines. Everybody knows it's working if we're
laughing. And if we're not laughing, then we think of something better."
That's James Woods by the music stand, one knee on the stool - the women with the water bottle is Susan Egan, the voice of Megara. The other two, at an educated guess, are most likely Ron Clements and John Musker, the directors of Disney's "Hercules" - not to mention "The Little Mermaid," "Aladdin," and "The Great Mouse Detective"- but don't quote me on it being the directors, Babe, I'm just not sure . . .
Along
with animator Nik Ranieri, James Woods worked on characterizing Hades. A lot of
the dialogue was re-written for the part, making it sound more, well, Hadean --
but Woods ad-libbed a lot of the material himself.
"Hades
is the Lord of the Underworld and he sounds like a cross between a slick used
car salesman and a Hollywood agent--a really slick schmuck. And what's funny about it is he's down there in Hell with five million dead stiffs, and there's not much to do. It's kind of boring. So we gave him great stuff to do, like eating worms and smoking a cigar."
"We
gradually created this sort of strange, bizarre, slick, very funny,
fast-talking villain. And it was an experience to create a character with my
voice. It was difficult because I'm not a really 'voicey' person. I always
think of my acting as more emotional and intellectual. I'm just not one of
those actors that can do a million things with my voice. For some reason I kind
of pulled it off, and it was an incredible challenge to do it."
I
first became a James Woods fan when I became a Hades fan, no surprises there.
But I really fell in love with the guy while I was watching "The Hard Way,"
a film from the early 90's in which he starred with Michael J. Fox, another of
my favorite actors. There is a great scene about halfway through when his
character, Detective John Moss, is staring down a cornered criminal. You look
at this guy, and the expressions and emotions he can convey with his eyes alone
is astonishing. I remember thinking, "Wow. This guy can act." In a day and age of computer-animated characters and so many special effects you sometimes miss the actors' faces entirely -- to see such raw power and feeling being brought to a role is astonishing.
And it isn't just "The Hard Way;" it's every movie James Woods is in. Or show, or performance. (Give "True Believer" a try sometime; I
guarantee it'll get to ya.) This man can act. No denying that. But the intensity and sheer passion he gives to each role, the energy, is something that never fails to amaze me. Even as Hades, when he has only his voice to go on, the enjoyment he has for what he's doing is clear in how well he's doing it. That's the other thing -- no matter the role, James Woods is obviously having fun. He likes what he does.
Doing
what you love. What better career could you ask for?
"I'd rather work for a
third of my salary and make Reservoir Dogs. But I didn't get to do Reservoir Dogs, didn't get to know Quentin, so I didn't get to do True Romance or Pulp Fiction. All because somebody else decided money was more important. They were treating me like I was an idiot. I told my new agents,
'Never treat me like a child.' Now I'm getting 20 scripts a week, and the day
before yesterday, I finished my fourth film in a row, and I've signed on to do
two more. I made less money this year doing six movies than I made when I was
at CAA doing two movies. And I couldn't be happier."
I've
seen a handful movies now for the sole purpose of catching the guy in them (and
I am just getting started, believe me), and he amazes me every time. It's
simple -- he gets into his role. And it makes him fascinating to watch, because
you're not watching an actor, you're watching the Character. This is probably
one of the reasons why his public image became twisted with the characters he's
played: he did them that well.
I
was watching "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" some time ago (James
Woods provided the voice of General Hein), and as I listened to his character,
I found myself thinking, "He plays an excellent bad guy. Why? What is it he
does?" Granted, he plays an excellent good guy, too -- he's good at it all -- but what is it about his
villains that are so ... so on the mark?
It's
because of how he plays them. His bad guys are bad, through their own decisions. The character in "FF:TSW,"
for instance, has a reason to be bitter: he's lost his family, and he's
fighting to get rid of the powers that killed them. But still, James Woods didn't
make the heavier scenes with this character any less ruthless. This character
has a horrible past, and so the audience can sympathize with his problems, and
why he's making the choices he is; but he still makes these horrible decisions,
and not apologizing for any of them. Woods plays the character straight, "bad"
or "good," and it always makes for an amazing performance.
Hades
included. Hades is Hades -- "Hey, am I that bad of a guy? C'mon!" -- no apologizing. It's great.
"You
know, I don't think there are any more bad guys - I'm tempted to make so many
jokes about this issue. You know, these days you don't know how to define the
bad guy. I mean, you look at the people who get acquitted these days and people
who don't get indicted at all. I don't know how you can accuse anybody of being
a bad guy."
"If
you have to be typed for anything, better for the bad guy than for anything
else. Because you get to do it forever, and they're more intriguing parts."
"What
psycho-sociopathic territory? How do you get there? Turn left at schizophrenia
and carry on past serial killer?"
"What
do you think, I sit around the house shooting people? I'm an actor, for crying
out loud!"
I will probably not be great
at this whole bio thing, but I'll try to figure out the interesting, important
stuff . . .
James
Howard Woods was born on April 18 -- which also happens to be my birthday,
something that thrills me to no end -- in 1947, in Vernal, Utah.
His father was in the military, which meant the family moved around quite a
bit. When James Woods was twelve, his father died unexpectedly. This left him
with a younger brother and mother. He credits his mother which being a strong
woman -- able to fill a double-roll as mother and father for her two children.
From
his mother: "He's never been a bit
of trouble. At sixteen, some of his friends got in trouble and went to jail. I
asked why he wasn't with them. He said, 'You think I'm gonna have all those
fathers at the police station and my mother?'"
Rumored
to have only missed ONE question on the SATs (am I jealous? Yes) and an IQ of
180 (GEEZ), he was accepted at MIT and went for a degree in political science,
something his father had always wanted him to do. In the last semester, he
unexpectedly left to pursue, in New York,
what had become his true dream.
"It was a very wrenching
and painful decision for me--in my senior year at MIT, on high dean's list and
full scholarships--to decide that maybe I wanted to be an artist. I think it is
actually something that my father would understand. Whether I'm making 30 grand
a day or union scale, I have found something that I truly love, and that is
something he would have admired."
His career began in theater --
his first Broadway play was "Borstal Boy," in 1970. He moved on to
play small parts in television, but his first film break came with "The
Onion Fields," ahead of its time for its dark overtones. It was based on a
book written by Joseph Wambaugh (an intriguing, if rather frightening book; I
recommend it), and tells the true story of two cop-killers who use the
technicalities of the legal system to escape justice. It earned Woods an Oscar
nomination, and the attention of Hollywood.
"They always want me to
play these edgy, intense characters. I know it sounds terrible, but it's the
thing that I'm least good at doing."
This followed in numerous film
and TV appearances (for a complete list, check out his Filmography at IMDB). Some of the most notable include a struggling alcoholic
in the TV movie "My Name is Bill W.," a sarcastic New
York cop in "The Hard Way," a disillusioned
lawyer in "True Believer," and his role as Dr. Turner in "John
Q." Although these roles all have him as a leading man (or something close to it), the majority of
his roles are much more edgy – he's the antagonist, more often than not.
"I play the edgy
characters, and I think that keeps people on their toes. Which is good, because
I'm not like that at all, but better that they should think I am and approach
gingerly."
His personal life? He's been
married several times, although he has no children; he spends a lot of time
with his nieces and nephew, who he says gave him the motivation for continuing
as Hades in the television series.
"I get my motivation for
doing the part of Hades in the Hercules television series primarily because I
have two nieces and a nephew who said if I didn't do it, I would never be
welcome at Thanksgiving dinner again. They said, 'Uncle Jimmy, you are so cool
in Hercules. You're going to do the series, right?' I said, 'Well, you know,
the series is 65 episodes and it takes all this time and I did put two years
into the film, and there are other things I've got to do...' And they said,
'Uncle Jimmy, we told all of our friends at school -- you are doing the
series!' You know, my nephew is eight years old. There's no negotiating with
him."
(Do I understand _that_ . . .
)
His reputation has been ripped
to shreds by the press several times, giving him a harsh public character -- in
no way helped by the fact that his unconventional rugged appearance (I,
personally, find the guy a knockout, but apparently most prefer the Leonardo
DiCaprio types -- ugh) and screen roles as psychopaths and bad guys leave
people to mistake him as the parts he plays. Notwithstanding his weekly church
attendance, devotion to his mother, and extreme intelligence -- not to mention
sense of humor -- the media was sure to catch rumors during his arguments with
various figures in Hollywood and his
brutal divorces. Personally, I find most of the negative details about him to
be totally bunk … I mean, come ON people, don't believe everything you read.
"Do I look like some
crazy person? I'm a guy who plays golf, reads books, and does movies. I've never
been arrested, I don't drink, I don't do drugs ... I'm living in one of the
most beautiful houses you'll ever see in your life - and by the way, you'll
notice that instead of being one of those 20.000-square-foot pimp houses you
see in Beverly Hills with two feet of Lawn, it's a two-bedroom house. I go to
the Good Shepherd every Sunday for Mass.
What's the problem? Wake up and look at the facts. Facts are friendly."
Since Rudy(the
miniseries) on USA, Woods has appeared in the indie film "This Girl's
Life," and can be seen in the soon-to-be released film "Pretty Persuasion,"
which has been compared to a much darker twist on a movie like "Mean Girls."
He also had a role in "Be Cool" with John Travolta, and is still doing
voice work (though unfortunately, nothing involving Hades). He's currently
involved in the shooting of two films, "Night Train" (the story of
boxer Sonny Liston) and "End Game" (an intriguing-looking political
film).
*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
If you're looking to see the
guy in a fun role, I have to recommend digging up a copy of "The Hard Way"
(try your local rental store or eBay); it's hilarious. Not to mention a really
neat movie. Or give "True Believer" a try -- redemption stories have
long been favorites of mine. Woods is absolutely amazing as jaded lawyer Eddie
Dodd in this role; and looks rather sexy in the long hair, let me tell ya.
*grins*
These were my first two "James
Woods" movies after my Hades obsession began, and I found them both
fantastic.
James Woods recording the voice of Hades . . .
In addition to the movies, TV,
theater, and vocal work as Hades and other, he's also done audio books. And if
there is any pleasure greater than hearing Hades read me a story on the daily
commute to school, I don't know what it is. Check 'em out:
Two Past
By: Stephen King
(excellent; my fav of the three he's done. Recommended even if
you've seen the Johnny Depp movie; the book ending is quite different)
Koko
By: Peter Straub
Mystery
By: Peter Straub
James Woods. One of my
favorite actors. A great guy, intelligent, with a fantastic sense of humor, not
to mention the rather rugged handsomeness . . . What's not to love?
And hey, Mr. Woods, if you
ever wander over onto this page -- great job as Hades. Thanks.
"I like doing the
dishes. When you're done, you've achieved something. And it gives you time to
ruminate."
"I asked a brilliant
friend of mine, a psychoanalyst, 'How do you know when you can trust somebody?'
He said, 'You can trust someone if you've been able to trust him for 30 years.'
"
"My publicist said, 'They're
going to trash you in this interview,' and I said, 'So what? It'll be fun.'"
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