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Should we talk about James Woods?

ItWasMeantToBe19

ItWasMeantToBe19

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
20,440
James Woods is the voice actor for Disney and Kingdom Hearts' Hades.

James Woods is also an impossibly terrible person.



This is Woods' smearing a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust (who was 14 when the war ended) as a Nazi because he wasn't killed in the Holocaust with the possible implication that if you weren't killed in the Holocaust and were a Jew, you probably were a Nazi.

I was thinking about this tweet today because George Soros received a letter bomb yesterday and I wonder if tweets like this were part of incitement to this possible assassination attempt.

Should Square and Disney be pressured harder about Woods' inclusion in Kingdom Hearts?
 
Silky

Silky

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,522
Georgia
Disney doesn't care and Square Enix JP definitely doesn't care as frustrating as that is to admit. Think SE went on the record to say they tried to get all original CVs to reprise their roles for thi.
 
Rotobit

Rotobit

Editor at Nintendo Wire
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
10,196
If I remember rightly from when he was brought up in a previous thread, Disney has/had a contract clause where they're mandated to let their voice talent know if their character will be returning and offer them the job.

I really wish they could back out of it but legally they may be obligated to keep him in, thanks to a contract from the early '90s
 
Apollo

Apollo

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
8,087
Rotobit said:
If I remember rightly from when he was brought up in a previous thread, Disney has/had a contract clause where they're mandated to let their voice talent know if their character will be returning and offer them the job.

I really wish they could back out of it but legally they may be obligated to keep him in, thanks to a contract from the early '90s
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I have no idea about whether it's mandated or not but they definitely offer the original VAs right of first refusal for KH. And unfortunately for us James Woods loves Hades.
 
1000% H

1000% H

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,639
The story I've always heard was that there's something in Disney VA contracts that gives the original actor first dibs on playing a character and that Woods really likes playing Hades. I don't like KH so I've never looked into this, though.
 
Dylan

Dylan

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,260
I've never been interested in Kingdom Hearts, but it strikes me that gamers are notoriously good complainers, and thus, it would behoove fans of this game to complain as much as they possibly can to get Woods removed before release.
 
Dylan

Dylan

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,260
Rotobit said:
If I remember rightly from when he was brought up in a previous thread, Disney has/had a contract clause where they're mandated to let their voice talent know if their character will be returning and offer them the job.

I really wish they could back out of it but legally they may be obligated to keep him in, thanks to a contract from the early '90s
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But they aren't legally obligated to keep the character in the game, or give him dialogue, right?
 
Rotobit

Rotobit

Editor at Nintendo Wire
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
10,196
Dylan said:
But they aren't legally obligated to keep the character in the game, or give him dialogue, right?
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True, but Kingdom Hearts 3 has been in development since 2015 and Olympus Coliseum is the first world you visit in the game (maybe even the opening). I dunno when Woods started showing his true colors but that might have been too late for them to re-do all that work.

I think they should just scrap him, there are already like 5 different Hercules bosses from the looks of things, but yeah
 
Gold Arsene

Gold Arsene

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
30,757
Rotobit said:
If I remember rightly from when he was brought up in a previous thread, Disney has/had a contract clause where they're mandated to let their voice talent know if their character will be returning and offer them the job.

I really wish they could back out of it but legally they may be obligated to keep him in, thanks to a contract from the early '90s
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Even if they didn't have a contract James Woods fucking loves playing Hades. He's voiced him in almost everything since the movie.

This is one of those instances where I'm conflicted. As I love his portrayal of the character but it's unfortunate to find out the actor is an asshole.

As for trying to push him out I have no idea. You'd think after what happened with James Gunn stuff like this would be more then enough to get him fired but I guess not.
 
ReyVGM

ReyVGM

Author - NES Endings Compendium
Verified
Oct 26, 2017
5,432
James Woods has been expressing his terrible views on Twitter ever since Trump won.
 
calloumiii

calloumiii

Member
Sep 14, 2018
188
James Woods is, without a doubt, an awful guy. I'm always super conflicted when it comes to this issue because I love his voicework as Hades, but I struggle to reconcile his talent with his terrible views.

I'm not gonna boycott KH3 because of him, but I'm definitely uncomfortable knowing that my purchase is potentially supporting him. I'm hoping that the eventual next few KH games remove Hercules as a recurring world so we can avoid this entire situation.
 
SolidSnakex

SolidSnakex

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,325
Dylan said:
I've never been interested in Kingdom Hearts, but it strikes me that gamers are notoriously good complainers, and thus, it would behoove fans of this game to complain as much as they possibly can to get Woods removed before release.
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The game will probably be going gold in a month or so. There's really no way they can remove and replace his voice without delaying it at this point.
 
Cryoteck

Cryoteck

Member
Nov 2, 2017
1,028
Woods is in that weird position of being just enough of a nobody that he can get away with saying the awful things he does.
 

Syril

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,895
Crazy Izanagi said:
As for trying to push him out I have no idea. You'd think after what happened with James Gunn stuff like this would be more then enough to get him fired but I guess not.
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Yeah that whole incident sort of cemented that Disney is more concerned about the appearance of impropriety than anything else.
 
Madison

Madison

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,388
Lima, Peru
Yeah...i wish he wasnt in KH3 but the whole right to refusal thing means thay we are all fucked. At least he's a good voice actor.....? Wish he was also a good person tho
 
CortexVortex

CortexVortex

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
4,074
Great actor, shitty person.
But it would be really weird to have a different voice actor after all this time of him being Hades.
 
Zomba13

Zomba13

#1 Waluigi Fan! Current Status: Crying
Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,901
Crazy Izanagi said:
Even if they didn't have a contract James Woods fucking loves playing Hades. He's voiced him in almost everything since the movie.

This is one of those instances where I'm conflicted. As I love his portrayal of the character but it's unfortunate to find out the actor is an asshole.

As for trying to push him out I have no idea. You'd think after what happened with James Gunn stuff like this would be more then enough to get him fired but I guess not.
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It only works if you're a liberal or something. If you're an alt-right scumbag you get to keep your job because the fragile snowflakes won't complain because it's someone from their team.
 
MulderYuffie

MulderYuffie

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,228
Dylan said:
But they aren't legally obligated to keep the character in the game, or give him dialogue, right?
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That would pretty much mean them axing Olympus do you really think they'll do that? For the final entry in this long 17 year old saga? No they won't. Why should they? Over some guy who voices a character in the video game? Someone who at most is going to have like 3% of the overall dialogue (even though the Olympus world he'll be way more prominent)? One guys snarky comments should butcher an entire project? If that's the way we should do things nothing would ever come out there are way worse people with way worse opinions that just hide that stuff and they are involved in your favorite media. I guess boycott the game if you want lol.
 
Sgt. Demblant

Sgt. Demblant

Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,030
France
Yeah I was thinking about that the last time I saw a Kingdom Hearts trailer.
I'm sure his lines were recorded a while ago and that most people over at Square Japan have no idea about his views but that such a fuckbag can still be associated with a Disney product after the James Gunn thing is crazy. There's no doubt that he's a good actor, but still.
 
Dylan

Dylan

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,260
MulderYuffie said:
That would pretty much mean them axing Olympus do you really think they'll do that? For the final entry in this long 17 year old saga? No they won't. Why should they? Over some guy who voices a character in the video game? Someone who at most is going to have like 3% of the overall dialogue (even though the Olympus world he'll be way more prominent)? One guys snarky comments should butcher an entire project? If that's the way we should do things nothing would ever come out there are way worse people with way worse opinions that just hide that stuff and they are involved in your favorite media. I guess boycott the game if you want lol.
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I don't know anything about Kingdom Hearts. If he's that integral to the game then I guess fans are stuck with him. I was never going to buy it anyway because I think it's an artistically soulless product.
 
FakePlasticTree

FakePlasticTree

Member
Jul 24, 2018
10,210
James Woods has always been impossible to work with which is why he hasn't gotten any big parts in 20 years. He's also held some political opinions to which I wasn't that down with. But never something that has made me stop liking his film and voice acting stuff. This, is something else though, like that time when Clint Eastwood forgot his meds when speaking to a chair.
 

Deleted member 41931

User requested account closure
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Apr 10, 2018
3,744
Unless something new comes out that causes a big uproar like him being a pedophile, I don't think anything will change unfortunately.
 
Poised Turtoise

Poised Turtoise

Banned
Aug 29, 2018
1,089
There are a lot of terrible people in the world, and a lot of people work on big budget games so some will probably always be terrible. Sure you can talk about it but I guess I personally don't really care. Given that it is Disney they fired James Gunn over much less but James was becoming a figure head for the company. People can try though and I'd grin if you guys succeed certainly
 
Just_a_Mouse

Just_a_Mouse

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,030
Ugh, I forgot this scumbag voiced Hades. That's really unfortunate. I hope there's a japanese audio option for those parts.
 
Trigonometrize

Trigonometrize

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,143
I feel like time is kind of up on Kingdom Hearts III. The game has been announced for more than five years and it's coming out in two months. Woods should not be in Kingdom Hearts games, but a campaign to remove him at this point should be focused on future games IMO if people want to see action.
 
Rotobit

Rotobit

Editor at Nintendo Wire
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
10,196
Just_a_Mouse said:
Ugh, I forgot this scumbag voiced Hades. That's really unfortunate. I hope there's a japanese audio option for those parts.
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The Japanese Hades voice that was in some of the earlier KH3 trailers was honestly really good, they should just put it into the English version with subtitles as a "mistake". Or say the Gummi Ship translator circuit is malfunctioning. But just with Hades.
 

Deleted member 3208

Oct 25, 2017
11,934
By now it is clear Disney supports the alt-right. They can't fire him yet they caved in and fired James Gunn after those fuckers started their smear campaign against him.

People should start boycotting them, although we know that will never happen.
 
NinjaScooter

NinjaScooter

Member
Oct 25, 2017
54,100
I have a hard time believing that a company as big as Disney and their considerable legal force can't figure a way out of this contract if they really wanted to, they just don't care, because they know a vast majority of their consumers don't, either willfully or because they aren't aware of how much of a shit heel Woods is.
 

Deleted member 14377

User requested account closure
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Oct 27, 2017
13,520
Square wont do anything, here was their official statement on Sugiyama (DQ XI composer)

The views of an individual do not reflect the views nor efforts of the company. SQUARE ENIX employs a global multicultural staff of various beliefs, sexual orientations and gender identities. As a matter of policy we do not condone discrimination or harassment of any kind and we respect the diversity of sexuality and gender identity of everyone around the world.
 

Pog

Banned
May 19, 2018
248
I mean it sounds like he is the perfect person to really get into the role of a super evil scummy dude like Hades.
 
Dale Copper

Dale Copper

Member
Apr 12, 2018
22,022
Frecklestein said:
Square wont do anything, here was their official statement on Sugiyama (DQ XI composer)

The views of an individual do not reflect the views nor efforts of the company. SQUARE ENIX employs a global multicultural staff of various beliefs, sexual orientations and gender identities. As a matter of policy we do not condone discrimination or harassment of any kind and we respect the diversity of sexuality and gender identity of everyone around the world.
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It's very different with him, since Sugiyama is more apart of DQ identity then James Wood is to KH.
 
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