Q 13

PLAYBOY: Then how did acting come to you, if you were going to go off and become a corporation man?

James Woods: It came out of the clear blue. A friend of mine asked me to help out in a high school play for a drama competition and, in fact, I won an award for my work in that piece. Later, at MIT, I went to the Dramashop a lot. I liked acting. Besides, the Dramashop was the only place at MIT where there was any pussy. MIT had very few women and all of them made Golda Meir look like Marilyn Monroe. The Dramashop was the one little oasis in the middle of a completely cock-ridden desert.

Q 14

PLAYBOY: Why did you quit MIT in your senior year?

James Woods: I was majoring in political science during the war in Vietnam. Many of my professors had research and consulting contracts with the Defense Department. Around school, you'd hear a lot of talk about "war being an extension of diplomacy." I was high on the dean's list, but everything bothered me. I didn't want to graduate and go to work for the fucking State Department or the CIA to do graphics on how to promote more megadeaths in Vietnam. So I talked with a friend, Tom Cole, and I said to him, "My father always wanted me to graduate from MIT, but I think I want to quit." And he said, "If I could be your surrogate father for a moment, I would tell you, for him, that it's all right. I'm sure he'd be happy if you did what you really want to do with your life." Then I called my mother and asked her, "Does this break your heart?" She said, "I think you should do what you want to do and I'll help you in any way I can." Ten years later, she told me that she almost died inside, but she never let me know.

Q 15

PLAYBOY: Who are your heroes?

James Woods: : Joe Wambaugh. He has real integrity. Also, I admired John Lennon. I don't think that man ever did anything he really didn't want to do, and that impresses me. I read his Playboy Interview and a lot of it was not my cup of tea, but I loved that he didn't apologize for anything. He seemed like a man who had a lot of hard times and no regrets.

My mother is one of the most heroic people I know. She grew up on welfare. But she started a private school for children in Providence. The school could have made a profit, but instead, she gave away 20 percent of the places to poor kids, black kids. Once, her accountant asked her why she did it, and she said: "Because one day, I saw a bus go by and it said, PROJECT HEAD START, and I thought. Why should those kids be stigmatized like that? So I followed that bus to where the kids lived and when they got off, I asked their parents, 'Would you like to send your children to a private school?'" My mother remembered what it was like to be the poorest kid in town and to feel bad because of it.

Q 16

PLAYBOY: What do you like most about women?

James Woods: Well, I used to be accused by my old girlfriend of hating women. But, then, she hated me. I hate what women let society make them become. I hate people who think honor is a kid's game--and I think a lot of women have been taught, "All's fair in love and war." I love strong women. I love women who don't take shit. My wife is like that. Me, I'm a great manipulator, but I didn't realize it until I met her and she pointed it out. She just won't let me manipulate her.

Q 17

PLAYBOY: Is your marriage monogamous?

James Woods: Yeah. And it's no problem. Nobody excites me as much as Katherine does. No one ever will. A lot of guys think that when they have a problem with their marriage, the answer is to go out and fuck some bimbo. When Kathy and I have a fight about something, I'll call up one of my male friends and maybe we'll fly to Vegas for a day of gambling. Sticking my dick into some random woman is not going to solve whatever problem I'm having with Kathy. We've put mechanical sex high up on the altar of 20th Century America and it isn't very interesting.

Q 18

PLAYBOY: Now that you've hit it big in movies, do lots of women come on to you?

James Woods: Actually, nobody hits on me since I've gotten married. A friend of mine said that's because ever since I met Kathy, I haven't been giving off the scent. And I'm not catching it, either. Which is fine with me. I wasn't all that happy with what was called the sexual revolution. When I was single and living out in Malibu, I went through a phase when fucking different women all the time seemed like a good way of getting a quick fix on feeling intimate and not alone. One day, I woke up and wanted more in life. When Kathy and I first got serious, we'd walk up the streets of Beverly Hills and we'd see all these chippies lacquered up for the kill. Being with someone I truly loved and was committed to, I thought, Man, I wasn't trying to get them. They were trying to get me. And I let them have me too easily.

Q 19

PLAYBOY: When you were single, did you have an easy time with women?

James Woods: Nothing was easy. Nothing. But I was smart enough to know that if a girl didn't look at me twice before my last picture came out and three weeks later she had a lip lock on my zipper, this had nothing to do with me as a person.

Q 20

PLAYBOY: You grew up Catholic. What effect did that have on you?

James Woods: I wasn't forced to go to church or anything, but I did go. And I learned a lot from it. Nothing ever made sex as good as the Catholic Church did. When you're Catholic, it's literally a sin to think about eating a little pussy or something like that. So you might as well go out and eat it if you're going to go to hell for thinking about it. You think, Well, I can't help thinking about it, so fuck it. I'm going straight to hell and I might as well go out there and lick that chick and call it a day.