465: James Woods—Act Two
The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe
The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe
4.8 • 39.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2026
⏱️ 120 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Acclaimed actor James Woods joins TWIHI for a candid conversation that goes far beyond his iconic film roles. Woods addresses his cancellation from Hollywood and how it inspired his life's second act, making music. He also recounts a shocking, nearly fatal accident involving a walk through a glass door, and he doesn't pull any punches when it comes to letting us know what he thinks about how Gavin Newsom has handled the aftermath of the Palisades Fire.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, Chuck. |
| 0:05.0 | Hello, Mike. |
| 0:08.1 | Well, you were right. |
| 0:10.4 | Why do you say that? |
| 0:12.0 | It's not that I thought James Woods wouldn't be a great guest. |
| 0:16.5 | I've been interested in his career for as long as I've been watching movies. |
| 0:21.4 | Terrific actor. |
| 0:22.4 | He's really, really good. |
| 0:23.8 | Really, really good. |
| 0:24.9 | And I'm somewhat sympathetic to the fact that his political views, which he is not terribly shy about, have burned him in Hollywood and in our industry. |
| 0:37.2 | To a degree, I think that really no reasonable person |
| 0:40.7 | could argue with. Yeah, I think that's the case, is that he was blacklisted. He tells the story |
| 0:47.0 | of how he was released from his agency unceremoniously and kind of dickishly, if I may use that as a... |
| 0:55.0 | Yes. Look, I mean, if you're keeping a list of reasons why agents are sometimes spoken of on this podcast |
| 1:00.9 | without the absolute utmost level of respect, this will confirm all of that. That's not to say |
| 1:06.4 | there aren't many wonderful representatives out there in the 10% century. It's just that it's just that when the chips were really down and you have a |
| 1:17.1 | client as gifted is Jim. Yeah. And you have a tumultuous time in the country, as we've |
| 1:24.7 | clearly been experiencing now for over a decade. |
| 1:27.7 | Yeah. |
| 1:30.6 | You know, you ought to have some loyalty. There ought to be some loyalty baked in to the professionalism of that kind of relationship. |
| 1:38.3 | And there wasn't. |
| 1:40.1 | Yeah. |
... |
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