Brian Damage
11-26-2011, 10:05 PM
He’s been nominated twice for Academy Awards, for Best Actor in Salvador (1986) and for Best Supporting Actor in Ghosts of Mississippi (1996).
Yet, he readily admits that he’s probably best known today by the young generation for his ongoing role in Family Guy and that’s fine with him. He credits it with reinvigorating and reinventing his career.
Woods said he fell into Family Guy, created by animator-writer Seth MacFarlane, largely by accident, though he was well aware of the show. As it is set in Rhode Island, and he is from Rhode Island, the high school in the show is known as James Woods High School.
About six years ago, he was helping his friend Ben Stiller at a table reading for a comedy project he was trying to put together. One of the people at the reading was Danny Smith, an executive producer, writer and a voice from Family Guy. Smith, also a native of Rhode Island, mentioned he played golf at the same course as Woods, along with his friends from Family Guy.
“Family Guy!!” Woods recalled saying. “I should sue you guys.’ That was a joke, of course.”
He and Smith got to talking. Smith asked if he would like to be on an episode and Woods agreed. They later brought him a script for him to review, but he recalled waving them off and saying, “I’ll do it, Dude.”
That episode was “Peter’s Got Woods’ and featured Woods enmeshing himself in the Griffin family life and being tricked into a crate by Peter and Brian the dog by following a trail of candy. “Ooo, a piece of candy,” said Woods every second as he followed a lengthy trail of candy to the trap. The crate is disposed of in a huge government warehouse a la Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The relationship between Woods and the cartoon was sealed.
“I’ve been in it every since and I do it for virtually free,” joked Woods. “People have James Wood High School T-shirts and I’m thinking ‘Why am I not making any money from them?” Then, he adds with a further laugh, “Maybe I will sue these guys.”
http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/627511--james-woods-will-live-again-in-family-guy
Yet, he readily admits that he’s probably best known today by the young generation for his ongoing role in Family Guy and that’s fine with him. He credits it with reinvigorating and reinventing his career.
Woods said he fell into Family Guy, created by animator-writer Seth MacFarlane, largely by accident, though he was well aware of the show. As it is set in Rhode Island, and he is from Rhode Island, the high school in the show is known as James Woods High School.
About six years ago, he was helping his friend Ben Stiller at a table reading for a comedy project he was trying to put together. One of the people at the reading was Danny Smith, an executive producer, writer and a voice from Family Guy. Smith, also a native of Rhode Island, mentioned he played golf at the same course as Woods, along with his friends from Family Guy.
“Family Guy!!” Woods recalled saying. “I should sue you guys.’ That was a joke, of course.”
He and Smith got to talking. Smith asked if he would like to be on an episode and Woods agreed. They later brought him a script for him to review, but he recalled waving them off and saying, “I’ll do it, Dude.”
That episode was “Peter’s Got Woods’ and featured Woods enmeshing himself in the Griffin family life and being tricked into a crate by Peter and Brian the dog by following a trail of candy. “Ooo, a piece of candy,” said Woods every second as he followed a lengthy trail of candy to the trap. The crate is disposed of in a huge government warehouse a la Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The relationship between Woods and the cartoon was sealed.
“I’ve been in it every since and I do it for virtually free,” joked Woods. “People have James Wood High School T-shirts and I’m thinking ‘Why am I not making any money from them?” Then, he adds with a further laugh, “Maybe I will sue these guys.”
http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/627511--james-woods-will-live-again-in-family-guy