Actor James Woods, an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump, hit back at “horrible things” that were said about actor and director Rob Reiner following his death.
Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michele Reiner, 68, were found dead in their Los Angeles home on Sunday. Police said the Reiners were fatally stabbed in their bedroom, according to the New York Times. Rob Reiner’s son, Nick Reiner, was charged with murder in connection with his parent’s death. The 32-year-old son of Reiner appeared in court on Wednesday but did not enter a plea, the New York Times reports.
Following Reiner’s death, Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, and suggested Reiner’s criticism towards him led to his death.
“A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented, movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday morning.
In a Fox News interview on Monday, an emotional Woods criticized people saying “horrible things” about Reiner, without naming anyone in particular.
“When people say horrible things about Rob right now, I find it, quite frankly, infuriating and distasteful,” Woods said to Fox personality Jesse Watters.
Woods praised Reiner during the interview saying he was “a great patriot.”
In 1996, Woods starred in a film directed by Reiner, “Ghosts of Mississippi” and was nominated for best supporting actor for his portrayal of Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith.
“At a very, very down point in my career, Rob literally saved my career and really put me back on track in a way that was so important and rewarding in my life,” Woods said. “He really fought for me when a studio didn’t want me in a movie … I went from really being basically out of a job to getting an Academy Award nomination, and I give all the credit to Rob.”
In addition to his career as an actor and director, Reiner was an outspoken liberal activist. During a 2017 interview with Variety, he called Trump “the single most unqualified human being to ever assume the presidency of the United States.”
Woods said that despite their opposing views, both he and Reiner “loved each other.”
“Did I agree with his politics? I did not,” Woods said. “Did I love him as a friend, as an artist, as an icon of Hollywood and as a patriot? I most certainly did and I am just absolutely devastated by this terrible event.”
