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Why is anyone discussing James Woods, of all people, in 2026?
The actor has made his social media profile private after being bombarded with allegations of attempting to pick up teen girls whom he knew to be underage.
Woods is infamous for multiple reasons, both political and personal.
As for why people are talking about him now, there’s actually a very good reason.
‘”I’m 16″ I said. “Even better” he said’
In the summer of 2017, Woods was posting what would be the precurser to the more recent “groomer” anti-LGBTQ+ smears. He was discussing an age gap among fictional characters.
“James Woods tried to pick me and my friend up at a restaurant once,” actress Amber Tamblyn wrote on what was then Twitter.
“He wanted to take us to Vegas. ‘I’m 16’ I said. ‘Even better’ he said,” she tweeted. Woods would go on to deny that the event ever took place.
This prompted Tamblyn to pen an open letter, which Teen Vogue published that September, recalling the incident as having happened just after she got her driver’s license.
“Upon leaving the restaurant we were stopped by you and your friend, who both seemed very nice,” Tamblyn described.
“At one point you suggested we should all go to Las Vegas together,” Tamblyn wrote. “‘It’s such a great place, have you ever been?” You tried to make it sound innocent.”
She observed: “This is something predatory men like to do, I’ve noticed. Make it sound innocent. Just a dollop of insinuation. Just a hair of persuasion. Just a pinch of suggestion.”
“‘It will be so much fun, I promise you. Nothing has to happen, we will just have a good time together,” Tamblyn recalled Woods telling them.
“I told you my age, kindly and with no judgment or aggression,” she continued. “I told you my age because I thought you would be immediately horrified and take back your offer.”
Tamblyn wrote: “You laughed and said, ‘Even better. We’ll have so much fun, I promise.’”
Why are people talking about James Woods now?
Most of us have lived with the knowledge that the actor, who has had a number of solid roles during his career, is a dreadfully awful person in a number of ways.
But why is this story from nearly 9 years ago making the rounds on social media?
For one thing, it’s because some people didn’t know. There are, to be blunt, so many horrible men on the internet that not everyone can keep track.
But it also has to do with a seemingly different and yet not-so-dissimilar man, Graham Platner.
The disgraced Senate candidate from Maine dropped out amidst sexual assault allegations following nearly a year of scandals, including his totenkopf tattoo, his use of the r-slur on social media, and more.
🚨 Republican actor James Woods is now facing child predator allegations after trying to take a 16-year-old on a private trip to Vegas.
When the young girl informed him of her age, he replied: “Even better.” pic.twitter.com/hIypz3qGEa
— GOP Ls (@GOP__Ls) July 9, 2026
On Wednesday night, Woods — like many Americans, including his own political adversaries — celebrated Platner ending his campaign.
“The Nazi is done,” he tweeted, according to The Providence Journal.
Woods is an avowed fan of Donald Trump. He has even declared that he is an Independent, believing that the GOP is not radically in Trump’s corner enough. So decrying his own political foes as a “Nazi,” true or not, seems hypocritical.
Similarly, a man accused of sexual misconduct (Tamblyn is not his only accuser; she is simply relevant to the topic that has seemingly driven Woods underground yet again) celebrating a politician stepping down after allegations of sexual assault seems … less than overly self-aware.
We’re sure that Woods believes that he and Trump are both entirely unlike Platner, and that these comparisons and this topic of discussion are all unfair. People seldom see themselves the way that the world perceives them.
