James Woods got roasted for unbelievable hypocrisy after trying to bash a critically acclaimed gay film. He’d claimed that it, or Hollywood, or whoever, was “chipping away at decency.”
He was then immediately on the receiving end of what we can only describe as some brutal and well-deserved clapback. Multiple women came forward with stories of James Woods hitting on them when they were teenagers.
Amber Tamblyn, whose tweet was the first of many accusations, took the opportunity and penned an open letter to James Woods.
First, a quick refresher.
James Woods has done some incredible voicework over the years, which makes it all the more painful for many of his fans that he’s turned out to be so aggressively offensive.
It’s not just that he tweets support for Donald Trump or that he holds conservative viewpoints.
James Woods seems to actively court controversy to a point that would make Lena Dunham blush.
Earlier this summer, James Woods posted a photo of a gender creative child and his supportive parents at Pride, suggesting that the kid would grow up to be a deranged serial killer.
That was disgusting and transphobic, obviously.
James Woods defended himself by saying that he has gay friends, and couldn’t possibly be homophobic.
One, some people aren’t homophobic but are transphobic. There’s a lot of types of gross bigots in the world.
Two, isn’t that the “how can I be racist when I have black friends?” defense? Amazing that bigots are still trying to pull that in 2017.
Well, now he bashed a gay romance film because the ages are different.
Set in Italy where, like the vast majority of the Western world, a 17-year-old is considered adult enough to consent to sex, the film Call Me By Your Name details a relationship between a 17-year-old young man and a 24-year-old man.
We won’t get into the whole age-of-consent politics, but suffice to say that the characters break no laws and that the older man isn’t, like, the younger man’s teacher or priest or any other sort of authority figure.
But James Woods apparently figured that it was a great opportunity to dredge up old anti-gay arguments that deliberately conflate gay men with pedophiles.
He tweeted: “As they quietly chip away the last barriers of decency. #NAMBLA”
James Woods’ tweet, which name-dropped an infamous pedophilia organization from the ’90s that hasn’t existed for more than a decade, earned him some serious callouts.
First, Armie Hammer tweeted a reminder to him that he had once dated a 19-year-old when he was 60.
Then Amber Tamblyn tweeted, accusing James Woods of trying to pick her and her friend up and take them to Vegas when they were just 16.
She says that when they informed James Woods of their ages, he replied: “Even better.”
Since then, other women have taken to Twitter to share their alleged experiences with James Woods hitting on them when they were young.
One person tweeted a question at James Woods:
“What makes a 24yo/17yo gay relationship inherently indecent but skeevy old guys trying to pick up a pair of 16 year old girls is okay?”
James Woods replied that the first is illegal (again … that’s not universally true, and certainly not true in Italy). He claims that the second, the accusation that Amber Tamblyn made against him, is a lie.
Amber Tamblyn penned an open letter to James Woods, published in Teen Vogue.
“What you are experiencing is called a teachable moment. … The hope being that through this experience, you can change. You can redefine the man who will come after this moment and this man who came before.”
We won’t hold our breath, though.
“Since you’ve now called me a liar, I will now call you a silencer. I see your gaslight and now will raise you a scorched earth.”
“Upon leaving the restaurant we were stopped by you and your friend, who both seemed very nice. At one point you suggested we should all go to Las Vegas together. ‘It’s such a great place, have you ever been?’ You tried to make it sound innocent.”
It sounds like Amber has encountered other predatory men during her life.
“This is something predatory men like to do, I’ve noticed. Make it sound innocent. Just a dollop of insinuation. Just a hair of persuasion. Just a pinch of suggestion. ‘It will be so much fun, I promise you. Nothing has to happen, we will just have a good time together."”
But she was 16.
“I told you my age, kindly and with no judgment or aggression. I told you my age because I thought you would be immediately horrified and take back your offer. You laughed and said, ‘Even better. We’ll have so much fun, I promise."”
See, a normal person would have apologized. Not a teen and maybe not a 20-year-old, but a grown-ass adult would have. And old man certainly should have.
“At that time I was not a public persona. I had done a couple years on a soap opera as an actress, but you wouldn’t know me from Adam. I’m sure you’ve racked your brain trying to remember how you could’ve possibly hit on the actress Amber Tamblyn at a diner almost two decades ago.”
We wonder if her letter — if he reads it — will jog his memory.
“You think, it’s not possible, there’s no way I would’ve been so stupid as to hit on a 16-year-old known actress. But I wasn’t known then, James. I was just a girl.”
Clearly, Amber saw some of those tweets from other women who say that they had similar teenage encounters with James Woods.
“And I’m going to wager that there have been many girls who were just girls or women who were just women who you’ve done this to because you can get away with it.”
That’s heavy stuff.
She finishes by imploring James Woods to consider what sort of man he is and to face the truth.
Amber clearly hopes that he can change.
We doubt that he will. So many of his political opinions seem to be based upon a total lack of self-examination.
James Woods has characterized these accusations as personal attacks, as the last resort of his political opponents.
Controversies aside, we don’t think that he’s enough of a political figure to warrant some contrived character assassination.
It looks like Amber just saw his controversial, deeply offensive tweet and figured that he needed a reminder that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.