"You have such a cool job"

"Now I can tell people I heard James Woods in my kitchen." -- Amy

At least I can impress my wife. The great thing about working with Rounder is the chance to chat with some "famous" people, however you might interpret the term. Jerry Yang called me the other day to tell me about some tournaments at Lake Elsinore in California that are going to be called the Jerry Yang invitational. (Lake Elsinore Hotel and Casino paid his travel expenses at the WSOP last year.) And this weekend I chatted with James Woods as he drove cross country, back to Los Angeles presumably to begin filming new episodes of "Shark." We had some cellphone difficulties as he drove through Ohio so the conversation took place during three calls over two days. I must say it was surreal to talk to James Woods on the same day as the Oscars. The 60-year-old actor has been twice nominated in his career, for Ghosts of Mississippi, and, I think, Salvador.

We're profiling Woods, who I must say is a very nice guy, in our next issue. I share here with you a transcript of part of the interview I will not be using in my article, in which Woods talks about aspirations. We were discussing tournaments and he talked about how you must decide whether you are in it just to cash or you really are willing to play to win. He then began relating that to acting. Here in his words:

“People say you know what I want in life? I say you don’t have to tell me. I know what you want. They go, what do you mean? How do you know that? I say, what you got that’s what you want. If you wanted something else you’d f---ing do it. But, you know, you’re settling with what you’ve got.

I’m not talking about being an astronaut or wanting to be the President of the United States. But by and large, if they say I want to be an actor...get out there and get a f---ing job, you know?

If you want to be an actor go work at a dinner theatre and get a job and work your way up. Oh, I don’t want to do that. So you want to be rich and famous. That’s a different issue. You said you wanted to be an actor, but what you really wanted is to be rich and famous. So say what you mean."