Robert De Niro went after James Woods this week. It didn’t go the way he probably hoped. During one of his now-familiar political rants, the “Meet the Fockers” star singled out Woods by name, calling him “ignorant and uneducated” and claiming that Hollywood never respected him anyway. The comments came as De Niro was criticizing actors who have spoken in support of Donald Trump.
Woods didn’t hold back.
“I’m pretty sure I walked away from Hollywood on my own,” Woods said. “Bobby forgot it was the wokeness that made the place so unappealing.”
The line spread quickly, and plenty of people were quick to point out the irony in De Niro’s attack. Woods is one of the better-educated men in show business. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before turning to acting, and he has often been described as having a genius-level IQ.
“De Niro could have called him a lot of things,” one commentator wrote online. “Uneducated was not the smart pick.”
The two actors share a long history. They appeared together in “Once Upon a Time in America,” the 1984 crime epic directed by Sergio Leone, and spent years moving in the same circles. But in recent years their politics have pushed them far apart.
De Niro has turned into one of Trump’s fiercest critics, using speeches, interviews, and even award show stages to blast the president. Woods has gone the other way, becoming one of the most recognizable conservative voices in Hollywood and building a huge following online.
Woods has said many times that he chose to step back from the industry because the culture changed around him. In his view, the town stopped caring about the work and started caring about whether you said the right things. He has never been shy about calling that out.
His fans rallied around him almost immediately. Many said De Niro’s comments were the latest example of Hollywood looking down on anyone who doesn’t fall in line politically. Others praised Woods for answering with humor instead of anger.
De Niro’s camp had a different take. Some defenders said he was just speaking passionately and that his frustration with the political scene is understandable. Others admitted the “uneducated” line was probably not his best.
For his part, Woods seemed ready to move on. In a short follow-up, he said he had nothing but respect for De Niro’s classic films, but suggested that his old co-star “should stick to scripts written by somebody else.”
It’s not the first time someone in Hollywood has taken a swing at Woods, and it almost certainly won’t be the last. Each time, though, the result tends to look the same.
When will they learn to stop messing with James Woods?
