Ask Michael Douglas a man whos played cops, college professors, drug czars, tech entrepreneurs, ex-pat adventurers, superhero scientists, an American President, and Liberace if he has a favorite role, and you can see the gears whirling behind the 75-year-olds eyes. Well, the pricks are the best roles, he finally says. You know, my dad played a bunch of sensitive guys early in his career. Then he plays a prick, and he wins an Oscar!
You could say that hes followed in his famous fathers footsteps, given he also took home an Academy Award for playing a bad guy in Wall Street (his other Oscar to date came from producing One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest back in 1975). A lot of his best-known parts, from the adulterous husband in Fatal Attraction (1986) to the pot-smoking writer stuck in a rut in Wonder Boys (2000), are men who have more than their fair share of flaws. Theres a reason, however, that Douglas fanbase isnt just financial douche-bros who quote Gordon Gekko-isms back at him (more on those guys in a bit). For decades, hes been a constant on small and big screens, one of those performers who keeps blurring the line between actor and movie star regardless of who hes playing. Douglas is great at humanizing charming rogues and alpha-male jerks, but look at his long filmography, and youll find the funny, the tragic, the heartfelt, the sorrow and the pity. Theres a Michael Douglas for all seasons.
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And with The Kominsky Method, hes found a way to both poke fun at his screen persona and play the sort of comic lion-in-winter co-lead most performers would kill for. As Sandy Kominsky, an acting teacher dealing with aging, mortality and late-in-life romance, Douglas gets to trade quips with Alan Arkins cantankerous agent and indulge in finding the comedy [in] getting older, which can be depressing. Hes like a kinder, gentler version of the pricks Douglas gravitated to when he was in his thirties, which may be why he was nominated for an Emmy and won a Golden Globe after the Netflix shows first season. (The second season dropped on the streaming service in October.)
For Rolling Stones Last Word interview, Douglas talked about his no assholes rule on set, what he once told a gentleman who yelled Wall Street dialogue at him, how his recent health scare factored into Kominsky, what he learned from his dad about show business, and the moment he felt like he was a legitimate actor.
Whats the best advice youve ever been given?
Know that when you walk away from something, you gave it your best. And then: Fuck it. Just keep moving on and say, Fuck it.
Whats the most important rule you live by?
No dickheads. You see them a lot in our business, actually. You know, when youre Number One on a call sheet, you set a tone on the set. If youre late to the set, other people will be late. If youre an asshole, other people will be assholes. You work with talented people who are nice to work with. And then there are talented people who are dickheads. So as Ive gotten older, my rule now is: No dickheads. Dont need em. Dont have time for em.
Given that youve played both the personification of 1980s greed (Wall Street) and white male rage (Falling Down), do you feel like you have insight into whats going on in our country right now?
Interesting. I dont know if I have any insight, but I certainly recognize that part of the reason I wanted to do those movies in the first place was that they were articulating things Id been thinking about. Ive been a big news junkie since college, and those were both films where you read the script and you go, Oh, this is really good. Its about something going on right now. And its entertaining.
But you know, you never make movies because youre trying make a statement. Even something like The China Syndrome I just thought, this is a great contemporary horror movie. It was a worse-case scenario. People gave us a huge amount of shit: Oh, the Hollywood arrogance. I never anticipated that something like Three Mile Island would happen. It came out 10 days before the accident. Suddenly, the conversation went from, Who do these fucking hippie Hollywood royalty types think they are?! to, How did you predict this?
Is there a piece of music that moves you, no matter how many times you hear it?
Oh yeah! The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, East-West. Janis Joplins version of Summertime every time I hear it, it sounds like both the first time shed ever sang it, and that its the last time shell ever sing it. Im amazed at how Sixties, Seventies music has held upIve got a 19-year-old and a 16-year-old, and Im so impressed by how much they like the old music.
Oh, theres this French group, they always tour here, called Caravan Palace. And whats her nameBillie Eilish?
You like Billie Eilish?!
My 16-year-old daughter is a big fan of hers. Shes really impressive. Whats that one song? [Hums melody to Bad Guy] I like her. Great stuff.
Whats the most indulgent purchase youve ever made?
Probably, it was a few years ago: [a] time-share in a jet. It allowed the luxury to fly private. I stopped that. Just very expensive. But that was a great luxury, I must say. I enjoyed it.
What do you do to relax?
I watch a lot of sports. Movies: You always guess the ending. Sports: You never know how its going to end. Thats exciting. Ill watch anything, but I love football. Im a big Jets fan.
My condolences.
Yes. Thank you.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Cherish the moment. Were always rushing ambition, as its rushing ahead. My son is a sophomore in college now. He wants to be an actor. [He] asked, Do I [need to] have an agent? Just calm down. Enjoy school, man. Schools the best time youre ever going to have. This career is...dont worry about it. Just enjoy that girl in front of you.
When you were in school, you werent planning to become an actor, right?
Yeah. I had to get a major in college when I was a junior, so I thought, Well, what about theater? Moms an actress, Dads an actor. I thought it would be easy. You know, I didnt know what else to do. I had terrible stage fright when I first started performing.
Youve said that your dad told you that you were an awful actor at first.
He did, and he was right! It was in those early college productions. I started getting a little better, but I had a long way to go.
So at what point did you start to feel like, Hey, I may actually be a legitimate actor?
Where I actually felt like I had something to offer? That would have to be the year of Fatal Attraction and Wall Street...around 1986, 1987. Up until then, I still dealt with nerves in front of a camera. I felt I was competent; I did 104 hours of a TV show [The Streets of San Francisco]! But I couldnt tell you that I was really enjoying the process or that people were benefiting from what I was doing.
So it was the commercial success of Fatal Attraction that gave me the confirmation that, OK, youre there now. I think when you come from the second generation, and you dont have that rags-to-riches story, your arc is a little smaller. It takes you longer to figure out who you are. The assumption is that everything is laid out for you. And the reality is that, in an industry all about establishing your own identity, youre being judged against your fathers persona.
Youre being judged against Spartacus.
[Laughs] Youre being judged against the guy from Champion. Which, you know, hed begun his career playing sensitive young men before he got that role. He played a prick for the first time and gets nominated for an Oscar.
You won an Oscar for playing a prick [in Wall Street]!
Yeah. Those are the roles that always pay off.
Do you still get people coming up to you in the street, quoting Wall Street lines 30 years later?
Its Wall Street, The Game,and Falling Down those are the predominant ones I still get. A guy stopped me in the street recently, told me, Hey, I got a buddy, he told me that he came up to you years ago and said, Hey, Blue Horseshoe Loves Anacott Steel! And you turned to him and said, Dont you have a more fucking original line than that?!'
Did you say that to him?
Oh, yeah. [Laughs] I remember saying that to him.
The Kominsky Method is a comedy, but it confronts aging and illness in a very candid way. Having been through your own health scare, was that part of what drew you to the show?
I didnt think it was. The writing was just so good. And I said, Well, this is fabulous. I mean, a comedy about getting older? Where do I sign up? Everything else is so depressing about getting older. I wasnt consciously aware [that] my cancer [played a part in drawing me to the role], but it became part of the package, because it was part of my life.
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