James Woods praises ‘patriot’ Rob Reiner, slams insults of slain director as ‘infuriating’
Actor and noted Hollywood conservative James Woods fought back tears in paying tribute to Rob Reiner on Monday night, calling out the “infuriating and distasteful” insults being hurled at the slain director.
While Woods didn’t name anyone in particular, his comments on Fox News Channel came hours after President Donald Trump mocked and belittled Reiner, who was found dead inside his Los Angeles home on Sunday.
Trump first went to social media to blame Reiner, a progressive activist and prominent supporter of the Democratic Party, for his own slaying. Then hours later, Trump told a reporter that Reiner was “a deranged person” who “was very bad for our country.”
“When people say horrible things about Rob right now, I find it, quite frankly, infuriating and distasteful,” an emotional Woods, 78, told Fox personality Jesse Watters.
“Did I agree with his politics? I did not. 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, especially for his family.”
Woods was nominated for best supporting actor in the 1996 movie “Ghosts of Mississippi,” directed by Reiner and also starring Alec Baldwin and Whoopi Goldberg.
“I knew Rob Reiner because 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 the studio didn’t want me in a movie.”
Woods played notorious KKK member Byron De La Beckwith, who murdered civil rights leader Medger Evers in 1963 but wasn’t convicted of that crime until 1994.
Alec Baldwin and James Woods listen to director Rob Reiner in between scenes from the film “Ghosts of Mississippi” in 1996.Columbia Pictures / Getty Images file
Beckworth, an avowed racist, was 80 when he died in prison in 2001.
Woods was 49 when “Ghosts” hit movie theaters in 1996. Beckwith was 42 when he murdered Evers and 73 when a jury finally convicted him.
“I was 32 years too young for the part, but he really believed that I was right and could do it,” Woods said of Reiner. “It was something that virtually nobody agreed with except one of his partners, Martin Shafer, who was the head of (Reiner’s production company) Castle Rock,” he added.
“We did ‘Ghosts of Mississippi’ together, and I went from really being basically out of a job to getting an Academy Award nomination.”
Woods said he never hesitated to stick up for Reiner among conservatives.
“But when people would say to me, ‘What do you think of his politics?’ I would say, I think Rob Reiner is a great patriot,” Woods said. “Do I agree with some of or many of his ideas on how that patriotism should be enacted to celebrate the America that we both love? No. But he doesn’t agree with me either, but he also respects my patriotism.”
Woods added: “We had a different path to the same destination, which was a country we both loved. And when people would say terrible things to me on social media about him, I said, ‘You got it all wrong.’ ”
Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found fatally stabbed inside their home in the upscale Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon, a source close to the family told NBC News.
Nick Reiner, the Reiners’ younger son, was arrested and booked on suspicion of murder in the deaths of his parents.
Woods is not the only prominent conservative to denounce disparaging remarks about the Reiners in the wake of their slayings. Several Republican lawmakers specifically slammed Trump’s attacks.
Conservative firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ky., commented on X: “Rob Reiner and his wife were tragically killed at the hands of their own son, who reportedly had drug addiction and other issues, and their remaining children are left in serious mourning and heartbreak.”
“This is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies,” Greene wrote above Trump’s comments. “Many families deal with a family member with drug addiction and mental health issues. It’s incredibly difficult and should be met with empathy especially when it ends in murder.”
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., wrote on X: “This statement is wrong. Regardless of one’s political views, no one should be subjected to violence, let alone at the hands of their own son. It’s a horrible tragedy that should engender sympathy and compassion from everyone in our country, period.”
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said on X: “Regardless of how you felt about Rob Reiner, this is inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered. I guess my elected GOP colleagues, the VP, and White House staff will just ignore it because they’re afraid? I challenge anyone to defend it.”
