This age-old battle between actors Robert De Niro and James Woods has now come to its head in the time-honored Hollywood tradition: one side talking itself up into a rage, the other delivering the more efficient punchline.
It all began with De Niro, who has never met a public statement opportunity he did not try to preach from, deciding to get himself into an interview and take shots at James Woods. The veteran of Hollywood film sets used his well-known political grievances to state that “James Woods has lost all credibility by being ignorant and never getting any respect in Hollywood.”
Nowadays, this is how De Niro talks, no questions asked – with great confidence about his moral superiority. Woods, known for his ability to deliver hard-hitting retorts, took the bait with another classic reply.
“At least I never had to sell my soul for flop movies.”
Short and sweet. No rambling. No effort to match De Niro in his attempts to out-volume the critic. Just a simple reminder that credibility in the film industry has always meant having done great work and having produced great films.
As expected, Hollywood has found a new conversation piece. Robert De Niro has been using every opportunity in the last several years to make public announcements where he sounds more like a politician than an actor. Now, with his status as the unchallenged heavyweight of the American film industry in question, he is even less concerned with acting than with scolding the audience. His choice of projects reflects that – films with the obvious political message that do not have enough audience outside of the people who agree with him.
For Woods, this is all too familiar territory. Woods does not play to the audience – he has always been brutally honest, sometimes harsh, but never in search of anyone’s approval. This attitude has often gotten him into trouble – as far as his choice of projects goes. It has also made him a rare thing in modern Hollywood – an outspoken artist free from the pressure of conforming to the public opinion.
“Never got any respect,” said De Niro about Woods. This is a rich comment coming from a man who based most of his acting career on sharp, intense performances which did not go unnoticed. Though he may never have been a box-office draw, De Niro was not a person who was ever overlooked. As an artist, he has certainly seen the results of some of his later works fall flat, the type of failure which can be disguised by stories told during the awards season and selectively chosen interviews.
What is more ironic is hard to say. The industry that lauded the commitment of De Niro to the characters he took on is now watching him vanish into the role of a critic-in-residence. All that Woods did was point to the price of this commitment. Sacrificing your artistic freedoms for the applause of people who agree with you is still a deal.
It is unlikely that this bargain will put an end to the battle being waged between these two men. De Niro will continue speaking his mind and Woods will keep giving the answers. But, for once, the old, forgotten truth rang true: respect in Hollywood is not voted on by committees. It has to be earned by the actors on screen.