THE MICHAEL DOUGLAS FAN PAGE
ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS
Breaking the Mold: Actor and Producer Michael Douglas Defies Leading Man Expectations with Bold Creative Choices
By Alysse Minkoff
Cigar Aficionado Magazine
June 1998
Michael Douglas creates real men. Flawed. Good. Human. Conflicted.
Passionate. Smart, decent men who occasionally have moral lapses. And
immoral men who are dazzlingly desirable. As an actor his choices reflect a
fearlessness in the face of a public who constantly
wants to identify and define its icons by the
characters that they portray on film. He's a leading
man who doesn't always want to do what the
traditional leading man is supposed to do. And he
is one of the few men, in any age category, who
consistently weaves raw and blatant sexuality into
the threads of incredibly charismatic characters.
Douglas eschews the typecasting trap partly
because of his own journey as an artist, and partly
because the public is willing to continue to go see
his movies, regardless of the genre. "I create
challenges by the roles I take," he says. "I'm sort
of proud of the fact that I'm not really typecast.
People are always trying to get a handle on what
you do. With me either it's my sex trilogy--Fatal
Attraction, Basic Instinct and Disclosure--or my
businessman trilogy--Wall Street, The Game and
this picture I'm doing now called A Perfect Murder. I've been fortunate that,
within those categories, [I've been able] to choose different types of roles, and
I am proud that the audience has been able to accept me in whatever type of role
I play. They are not the typical 'movie star' roles. They're more ambivalent
characters. Sometimes they are morally depraved. They are not the outright
positive type of images that you attribute to selecting a 'star' type role.
"And the pictures themselves are more oddball," Douglas adds. "I've been very
fortunate in that area, too. I've taken chances and so far the audiences have
basically condoned those choices. They have allowed me to do those different
types of roles. I do pictures for myself, because I figure if I like them, some
other crazy people out there might like them, too. You know, once you've
gained your confidence and done some bizarre, strange films with some roles
that have been successful, it gives you the confidence to go out there and take
more chances."
Two hammocks, four palm trees and twilight on the magical island of
Bermuda. The cigars are lit, the Black Seal Bermuda rum poured--a feat not
easily accomplished on this windy evening. But we are, after all, in paradise.
Michael Douglas's paradise: the Ariel Sands Beach Club, to be precise. Amid
the coral-painted cottage colony that he has recently invested in (owned by
members of his mother's family), on the idyllic beaches where he happily
played as a boy, and near the golf courses that he cannot get nearly enough of
as a man, Douglas is literally and figuratively at home.
Dressed in neatly pressed khakis and a cozy cashmere sweater, he looks much
younger than his 53 years. Of course, there's his father Kirk's cleft chin to
consider, as well as the sparkling aquamarine eyes of his mother, actress Diana
Dill. Settling back into a hammock with an El Rey del Mundo, Douglas is your
basic brilliant, successful, hard-working, recently divorced guy who just
happens to be an Academy Award-winning actor and producer. He's a
celebrity who dearly wishes he had more time to escape to the golf course and
play hooky with his buddies. And, not unlike many men who have
encountered a mid-life transition, he wonders what he is going to do to imbue
the second half of his life with meaning, now that his marriage has ended and
his child is in college.
His career as an actor has been driven by a series of passionate, if seemingly
quirky, choices. In a way, Michael Douglas has helped reshape our definition
of what a leading man is supposed to be. Very few movie stars will allow
themselves the creative latitude to craft morally ambiguous or flawed characters
on a regular basis. The Hero is supposed to save the day. The country. The
planet. Our celluloid heroes need to be better than good. If If a movie star can't
use his mind or his body or his spirit to vanquish all foes in 120 minutes or
less while still looking great, that movie just isn't a star vehicle.
Douglas's body of work shows that he has built a successful career around a
collection of risky characters, some of whom were downright unappealing.
Even when he was portraying the romantic hero Jack Colton in the 1984 hit
Romancing the Stone and its sequel, Jewel of the Nile, he did so with a
self-deprecating, recalcitrant smirk. It was almost as if he had to constantly
argue with himself to make the correct heroic moves.
His Academy Award-winning performance in Oliver Stone's 1987 hit Wall
Street showed a seductive, arrogant Gordon Gecko, a devil in a custom-made
suit whose amorality spoke to that part within each of us that secretly resonates
with his ice-cold, bottom-line heart. That same year he played the husband who
succumbs to a steamy, adulterous affair with Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction.
Six years later, he was the victim of sexual harassment at the hands of Demi
Moore in Disclosure.
We were saddened when we realized that there was most definitely an ice pick
somewhere in detective Nick Curran's future in Basic Instinct. Falling Down
cast Douglas as a disenfranchised, downsized defense department worker
avenging the wrongs of the world during a day-long gun-toting rampage across
Los Angeles. He played The Game as successful investment banker Nicholas
Van Orton, who had to lose everything he thought he had before he could find
his way back to his own heart and avoid committing suicide like his father.
Even in Rob Reiner's romantic comedy, The American President, Douglas
created a man who could run our country, romance a woman and conduct a
sexual relationship in the White House. Of course, President Andrew Shepherd
was a widower.
As the light of the day slowly begins to fade, Douglas takes a puff on his El
Rey del Mundo and muses metaphorically about how he decides which film he
wants to work on.
"Choosing which movie to do is a lot like falling in love with a woman," he
says, the twinkle in his eyes attempting to disguise just how seriously he takes
this process. "I don't know how well you analyze what qualities of a woman
you are looking for, as opposed to what hits you in the face. You are attracted
to her, you are attracted to a project. You then, because you are a little older
now, don't impulsively go out and get married, i.e., commit to a project, but
you find out about it. How many times do you find yourself thinking about it?
Do you have to have a paper and pen by your bed at night? Do you wake up
thinking about her, about the project? And if she stays with you, that project,
and you can't get enough of her, you're hooked and you know you gotta do it.
You gotta go and make that movie. If the initial infatuation wavers and
wanders, you know that you don't want to make that commitment."
He takes another puff on his cigar. "Sometimes you want to do the dance a
little bit. The director is of utmost importance. There are only about eight
directors that I would walk off the boardwalk to make a picture with. So, short
of those directors that I would sign off on immediately based on their résumé, I
want to talk to the director. I want to be sure that they have a vision, that they
actually have a picture in their mind of this movie, how they want to do it--even
if it is different from what I saw when I read the script. It's important to see
just how clear and strong their vision is."
Pausing for a moment and exhaling smoke, he adds wryly, "Although it is
possible to have love at first sight. I have learned that, professionally at least, I
have pretty good instincts."
The eldest son of Kirk Douglas and Diana Dill Darrid grew up in New Jersey
and Connecticut, away from the glare of Hollywood. His desire to become an
actor surfaced at the University of California, Santa Barbara, as far as a young
man could get from the rigidity of his New England prep schools.
"I went to Choate, which was this very fancy prep school. For a while I was
debating about going to Yale. Going to California to go to college at UC Santa
Barbara was the first real decision in my life. I had no idea what I wanted to
do. I was a real tight-ass and I figured I had to change, so I made the most
radical change I could think of. I went to my college adviser and then to a travel
agent and I looked at all these brochures and said, 'I want to go there.'
"It was great to be in California in the early 1960s. The UC system was in
fabulous shape. The whole culture was just spectacular. It was an important
time in my life and I think it paid off pretty well. I was undeclared for years
and years and then in my junior year they called me and said, 'You gotta get a
major.' I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was a hippie and I was hanging
out. I had flunked out for a year already and I was enjoying myself. So I
thought, I'll take theater. I figured, Mom was an actress in the theater and my
stepfather was a Broadway producer before he was a writer and it just seemed
like it was an opportunity to do something that would be easy. I thought, my
dad's an actor, but I had this terrible stage fright. So after majoring in theater, I
worked as an assistant film editor on my dad's film, Lonely Are the Brave. I
worked as an assistant director on The Heroes of Telemark and Cast a Giant
Shadow."
After receiving his bachelor of arts degree in 1968, Douglas moved to New
York City to continue his dramatic training, first with Sanford Meisner at the
Neighborhood Playhouse and eventually with Wynn Handman at the American
Place Theater. "I did a lot of Off-Broadway work and summer stock and
eventually I was put under contract to CBS. I did three pictures for CBS
Playhouse that did not work out particularly well, but it did bring me out to Los
Angeles. I did a few episodes of 'Medical Center,' 'The FBI' and the like, and
then the series ["The Streets of San Francisco"] came. And it was a really,
really phenomenal opportunity."
"The Streets of San Francisco," which Douglas starred in from 1972 to 1976,
became one of ABC's highest-rated prime-time programs; it was, in a sense,
his graduate level curriculum as an actor. The fast-paced, demanding work of a
one-hour dramatic series honed Douglas's talents. "What happened on 'Streets'
is that I learned what each actor's responsibility was to the process as a
whole," he says. "In my case, I was the second banana and Karl Malden and I
were responsible for carrying the plot. Each week we had a different guest star
coming in and we had a different director. We did 104 hours of the show.
Basically, we made a 52-minute movie in seven working days. It was a lot
about structure, prologues, three to four acts, epilogues. The only thing that
mattered was, 'Is it good for this episode?' It was a really great experience."
Thanks to Malden's goodwill as an actor, Douglas's character did not fade into
the background, like that of so many of his predecessors in the one-hour
dramatic format. The exposure allowed him to work though his residual stage
fright. "Karl was incredibly generous and supportive," Douglas recalls. "Up
until that series, the second banana was always two steps back and in soft
focus. He made sure that I really got the chance to shine. He was always
saying, 'Come on, come on up here.' Any fears that I had of the camera were
allayed by simply having to be up there every hour working." Douglas earned
three successive Emmy Award nominations for his work and directed two
episodes of the series.
In the fourth year of production, Douglas opted to leave "The Streets of San
Francisco" to follow a decidedly different career path. For years, his father had
been trying without success to produce and star in the film adaptation of Ken
Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Now Michael decided to take a
stab at the project.
"Everybody thought I was pretty crazy to leave the series after four years
because it was such a hot show, but I left to produce this picture," recalls
Douglas. "I felt really passionate about it. I really loved the project. I had no
idea or intention that it would win five [major] Academy Awards and all that
kind of stuff, and then it became like a springboard. There I was, an Academy
Award-winning producer at 31 years of age. My career as a producer gave me
an opportunity to do more acting jobs, like China Syndrome and Romancing
the Stone.
"The first few years, everybody just spoke in terms of, 'Why do you even
bother acting?' I said, 'I just love acting.'"
His producer's résumé is equally impressive, balancing box-office success and
critical acclaim with social relevance. In 1984 Douglas produced the hit of the
Christmas season, Starman, which earned lead actor Jeff Bridges an Oscar
nomination. In 1986, Douglas created a television series based on the film.
Two years later, he formed Stonebridge Entertainment Inc., which produced
Flatliners, directed by Joel Schumacher, and Radio Flyer, directed by Richard
Donner. In 1993, he produced Whoopi Goldberg's comedy Made in America,
and in 1996, Douglas formed a production company with Steven Ruether and
produced and starred in The Ghost and the Darkness. In 1997, they gave us the
summer action hit Face/Off and John Grisham's The Rainmaker. Recently, the
pair went their separate ways, and Douglas now has a production deal with
Universal Studios.
During several productions throughout his career, Douglas served as producer
and actor, but he found that doing both jobs on the same project was a bad
mix. "I don't enjoy acting [when producing] because when you're producing a
film that you're acting in, you're looking around at everything else. The joy of
acting is being able to have tunnel vision, to have blinders on and enjoy the
moment. To have no responsibility for anything else other than for creating that
moment on film. To be a producer is to be responsible for everything that is
going on around us. Everything. So I used to do it, and I was successful at it,
but I wasn't necessarily enjoying it. So I realized that I'd rather go focus on
being an actor."
Unlike many movie stars who use their box office clout to control the creative
process, often to the detriment of the film, Douglas says he consciously works
against this tendency, using his knowledge as a producer to temper his own
actor's ego.
"Sure, I like producing. I like the development process and control and being
involved in it. I'll do it once in a while. But I'm very different than a lot of
guys. A lot of the guys love the control factor. They want the whole thing. I
think that's presumptuous. I welcome and I try to encourage everybody else to
do their best work and I try to keep my ego in line. I try not to bury everybody
that's around me, and I try not to throw my weight around. I want to make
everybody else as good as they can be.
"There are some actor-so-called-slash-stars who are in a position to control the
production. And they make a mistake of confusing their stardom with good
film making," Douglas says. "And they think that because they are a star, they
can get directors whose vision they can control and therefore feel that the movie
will make a better vehicle for them as an actor. Because of my career as a
producer, all I want to create is the best movie possible. I want to work with
the best director possible, and usually that person couldn't give a shit about my
ego or what I want to a certain degree. They have a very strong vision of their
own, and that vision is what I'm betting on."
With acting his true love, the lesson that Douglas would like to learn at this
phase of his career has to do with allowing himself to be "creatively selfish," to
think a little bit more like an actor and a little bit less like a producer.
"I tend to think in terms of the movie as a whole, first. I want to make good
movies, which, as an actor, I'll be a part of. But sometimes I cut myself short
as far an as actor is concerned. I don't get a chance to be as selfish as I want to
be because I'm always trying to make it work for everybody else. Part of what
I'm working on right now is learning how to be creatively selfish and just
acting for the joy of it without having to be responsible for the whole picture."
Douglas's love for the business is apparent, as is his gratitude and his awe.
"The process of making a movie continues to amaze me. There is a certain
magic that happens. And you never know when it's going to be. But while a
writer is alone with their word processor, or a painter is alone in a studio, or a
musician is working on a song, movie making is a big kind of collaborative
family. Certainly it starts with the written word, but then it becomes a
collaborative art and that process never ceases to amaze me. It's almost
mystical. It's something that is really alive and fresh.
"I have been fortunate that throughout my career, all of my decisions have been
based upon what I want to do. And what I like seems to be a barometer for
what audiences like," he says. "What it always comes down to is that acting is
a passion for me. And all of my decisions are made with my heart. Either the
choices are made emotionally or passionately, and I tend to make a lot of
dangerous choices. And those dangerous choices have nothing to do with
being calculated. They have to do with knowing what I wanted to do at that
moment. I'm pretty good about being true to myself about where I'm at
creatively. And the truth is, I haven't made that many movies as an actor. I
hope my body of work will speak for itself; there just aren't a lot of dips."
Being in the same business with a successful father posed a unique set of
problems for Michael Douglas. Even though he had two facets of his career in
full swing, it took a while for him to feel like a legitimate success.
"When you are a second-generation success, you are provided for," he says.
"And that certainly was a big opportunity. But you don't have that
'rags-to-riches story,' which is always a much more dramatic story to plot.
Your success is not one that is as easily accepted by the people outside. Or they
don't really have an appreciation of what you have accomplished.
"As a producer, my successes came fairly early in my career; as an actor, they
came much later. Winning the Academy Award for Wall Street really helped me
to finally overcome that 'second generation' thing. It's hard for people, no
matter how generous and gracious they are, to really allow you any slack. They
say, 'Oh it must have been hard to be Kirk Douglas's son,' but they don't
really want to accept it. You grow up in this business and all that means is that
you don't get the joy of succeeding. If you succeed, it's expected." He
considers his words carefully, and continues. "If you look around you can see
that there are hardly any second-generation people that have succeeded at all.
It's a minefield of disasters, of broken careers and self-destruction out there.
The public's perception is that you didn't have to do anything. So if you
succeed, it's just assumed. If you don't get success, you're an asshole like
everybody else.
"I think for me, my success was in two very distinct phases. One was
obviously Cuckoo's Nest, and winning an Oscar at 31, which led to my
producing career." His success as an actor, he says, eluded him until 1987,
when he starred in the financially successful Fatal Attraction and won the Best
Actor Oscar for his performance in Wall Street.
"Unlike your average profession, acting usually comes in concentrated doses.
When you're an actor, it's anywhere from two and a half to five months of
intense work and then it's done. That's the hardest part of film acting. There is
no audience response, so you really don't get any immediate satisfaction," says
Douglas. "What I really love is the feeling of nailing something. You nail the
scene. Most of the time you don't shoot movies in continuity, you only do
things in parts, so nailing a scene is really a rewarding sensation."
Douglas feels that his most important work is done prior to stepping in front of
the camera. "I do most of my preparation before the filming process starts.
Your principal choices are done beforehand and then if you feel like you've
nailed it, and you have adequate time, then you get to try something else. One
of the biggest lessons I have learned as an actor is that it's all just celluloid, it's
all disposable. They only use a little bit and you try to remind yourself of that
so that you can take chances and burn film if you've got to. Make a fool of
yourself. Do something that's not right. And that's the biggest risk and
opportunity."
Douglas tries to find different ways into the psyches of the various characters
he has created. "For The American President I watched documentary footage,
different presidents' speeches, newsreel footage. For Wall Street I met a few of
the big players and watched their behavior. With some characters you just say,
well, I can be me. But one of the greatest things about being an outright villain,
which I play in my new film, A Perfect Murder, is that it entitles you to do
anything, just anything. So that, in itself, is a great freedom. There are no
social boundaries; you just get to lay it out there. So in truth, you don't have to
research that much. You just get to play around in your dark side without ever
having to be responsible for it."
He considers that for a moment. "I think many actors have had bigger
successes playing bad guys. Looking back at my father with The Champion or
Paul Newman with Cool Hand Luke. Villains are a lot of fun because there is
no ambivalence about them whatsoever. Sometimes it's just a whole lot of fun
to be bad."
In 1996, Kirk Douglas suffered a debilitating stroke after being injured in a
helicopter crash. An already close father/son bond was further strengthened by
this adversity, and Michael speaks with obvious
pride about the latest lessons that he is learning
from his father's evolution.
"I find it really inspirational that at this point in
his life he continues to grow. He's somebody
who doesn't look to retirement," Michael says.
"For him retirement would be dying, and he has
a need to continue to grow and to live his life.
I'm just so proud of him. Some people just kind
of switch it off as they get older, and he has
almost an obsession with keeping alive by being
active. He's a very cool man. A full and
complete man. He's at peace with himself and that peace is admirable to watch
evolve. Over his lifetime he has developed all the other parts of his life and
now, at 81, he is nurturing his spirituality.
"My own success gives my father nachas [happiness], pride," Michael adds,
"and gives him an additional sense of immortality. And, just as I have been
able to learn from his mistakes, I hope to learn from his successes. The thing
that impresses me the most about my dad, is here is a man who has had a
stroke. Part of his therapy is speech therapy, so he practices reading the Torah,
which enhances who he is as a person. Then, he studies the Talmud with a
rabbi, to have a better understanding of who he is as a Jew. And then he writes
a book about the whole experience, so other people can benefit from his
journey. It's like killing three birds with one stone. And of all my father's
books, Climbing the Mountain is really my favorite. It's about rediscovering
spirituality, and it is that part of my father that continually impresses me. He is
an inspiration because he continues to grow. And my mother is the same way.
It's beautiful to see people in their 70s and 80s who are still looking for their
next job. They love what they are doing."
This past year, Michael Douglas's divorce from his wife of 19 years, Diandra,
became final, ending one phase of his life and beginning another. It is obvious
that he has closely examined the factors that led to the dissolution of his
marriage.
"For me, having a famous and successful father and having entered the same
field, I identified success in my work. I had two careers, which I pursued
strongly and actively. Once you've achieved a certain amount of success, you
are used to a certain level of control in other areas of your life. And that doesn't
always work well in an intimate relationship," he admits. "My work took first
priority, even beyond my marriage, when I was working. The difference is that
when I wasn't working, I could focus on my family; but when I was working
there was no way to balance them. Most people have an eight-hour job and
they go home, and their family and their life are the most important part of their
world. I got comfortable working. I got acknowledgment and approval from
working. And in relationships you don't get a medal for being a good partner
each week. So my definition of success at this point in my life is much
different than it was 20 years ago."
It is clear that the end of his marriage was a painful, if inevitable, passage for
Douglas, and that he isn't going to let an opportunity for growth slip past him.
"Divorce is a process. I think whenever you go through the loss of a
relationship, there is a certain amount of self-analysis involved. I'm fortunate
to say that there is still a lot of love with Diandra. We are on very good terms. I
would have hated to think that 20 years would go down together and we'd
never see or talk with each other.
"I was very lucky growing up; my mother and father divorced amicably and
were good friends and still are good friends. My stepfather and mother and
father and stepmother used to get together every couple of weeks for dinner,
preferably without the kids. They just enjoyed each others' company. That is a
very positive image of what a divorce can be, and we were all very lucky.
"In truth, divorce is not about children. What you're talking about is the
relationship with your spouse. Therefore, children, at whatever their age, as
long as they can see their parents speaking amicably to each other, they're fine.
I have no patience for the selfishness of wives and husbands who put their
own interests ahead and use their children as weapons. I mean we all know
people who do it, and kids are irreparably damaged by this kind of behavior.
No matter how old they are."
With this life change comes a new set of priorities. "For me it's a question now
of the cultivation of my soul and developing new habits and interests. Now that
my marriage is over and my son, Cameron, is an adult, I find this is a really
exciting time for me. I don't know where it's going; I'm just part of the
excitement. It's a fun time because I don't have anywhere near the personal
responsibilities and obligations that I have had the last 20 years. It makes me be
more responsible for myself than to others. Sometimes you can hide out behind
others and being involved with others."
The obvious question is, will this handsome eligible bachelor ever remarry? "I
would love the opportunity to get married again, and we'll see if it comes up. I
think ladies make certain assumptions about me, so they get kind of cool,
blasé. It's certainly an adjustment learning to be alone over a long period of
time, although I'm enjoying it. It's giving me a chance to work on myself. To
work on my golf game. To do a lot of skiing. And I'm not really looking for a
relationship. That's the nice thing about getting older; you learn to make
decisions without desperation. I'm enjoying this time. I'm more comfortable
with myself than I have ever been before. With any luck, I'll have the good
fortune to be able to give something back, but that's yet to be defined.
"What I see right now for me is a new moment in my life, a new start,"
Douglas says. "I have an interest now in using my ability of being recognized
all over the world to do some things besides simply going out and promoting a
movie." He is already involved in several causes that he holds very dear to his
heart: the United Nations, nuclear nonproliferation and handgun control.
"The reason why I think that the United Nations is so important is that we are
very close to the entire planet having the same form of government:
constitutional, elective, parliamentary. We have a ways to go--there are pockets
on the globe where this doesn't exist. But I think that the United Nations is my
hope for the millennium, that we can have an organization that would, in effect,
allow all governments to act as members of a world congress. And as a result,
I make a plea to Jesse Helms to free up the money for our United Nations debt
so that we will have the opportunity for this organization to make a difference
in the world. I hate to see us as deadbeats as far as the United Nations is
concerned. It has taken me a while to define where I want to work and what I
want to do, and that's the area that captures my imagination the most."
His involvement in nuclear nonproliferation dates back to the late 1970s. "I
have always had an interest in the power and the range of plutonium, both as a
bomb and as an energy source. I made a movie called The China Syndrome
that gave me a deeper understanding of the dangers of all of this. I am worried
about nuclear proliferation. I am very concerned about the disarray of the
Russian military. I am concerned about the elements of a nuclear device being
stolen and used as blackmail. The elements needed to make a bomb are very
small and easy to hide, and ultimately can create damage that we cannot even
comprehend. I think that as a planet we have been extremely lucky and I don't
want to see luck continue to play a part in this. The end of the Cold War made
us think that this threat went away, but the reality is that there are still about
4,400 warheads pointed at all of us. So I think you can see why the issue of
nuclear nonproliferation is important to all of us."
Douglas is also a tireless spokesman for handgun control. "I am part of an
organization called Cease Fire, which was started by Jann Wenner at Rolling
Stone after the death of John Lennon. Our country has more handgun deaths
each year than the rest of the world combined. It's a staggering amount of
people and it is clear that some kind of control is needed. Most handgun deaths
are from people who know each other. So I'm actively involved doing
commercials and voice-overs for them to bring public awareness to this
problem."
It isn't all hard work and introspection for Michael Douglas. He's an avid,
perhaps slightly obsessed, golfer. "My friend Jack Nicholson got me into the
whole golf thing," he recalls. "He started a little before I did. I had knee
surgery from a bad skiing accident and I couldn't play tennis. It was a quality
of life issue and I thought golf would be a good outlet. Golf is a healthy escape
for me. And I kind of dove into it six years ago with a vengeance, like I do
most everything that I commit to. It's an addiction and a rush. Then I spend a
lot of time trying to figure out whatever the hell the rush is all about." He
laughs at himself while he considers the appeal of 18 holes of psychological
torture. "The closest thing I can think of is that it feels like you are sneaking out
of school. Driving to a golf course in the middle of the day just feels like
something that you shouldn't be doing. And you can't believe that you are,
especially during the week.
"I don't play as much as I'd like to, but I just love it. I love being able to go to
different places in the world and finding new golf courses to play. It's a
wonderfully neutralizing sport because it doesn't matter who you are playing
with because the real game is with yourself. And then you get on a roll, you
start hitting really well and then you fall in a tank and you don't know why.
It's head and it's rhythm. And I tend to rush in everything that I do. So golf
really helps me with my tempo. In life and in acting, it really helps me to slow
down.
"And here is an interesting irony: I can act with 300 people watching me behind
a camera and I don't see anybody or feel any different. If there is more than a
foursome watching me play golf, it makes me a little bit crazy. I was thinking
before the Phoenix Open, 'This is supposed to be fun. Why do you put
yourself in a sport where there is a pressure situation?' But I do believe that if I
continue to play in tournaments that it will make me a better golfer. I think an
important part of the game is kind of a controlled relaxation. And you come in
and get pissed off at yourself because you have a bunch of bad shots and it's
all part of not blowing up and screwing up your whole round. I'm learning to
take it one hole at a time, as the saying goes. There could be an epilogue to this
story. I'll let you know."
While a good cigar can sometimes neutralize the effects of a bad round of golf,
Douglas began cigar smoking on the golf course for more practical reasons. "I
originally started smoking cigars to help me quit smoking cigarettes, which
they did, with varying degrees of success. But what I really like about cigars is
that they are easy to find when you put them down on the golf course and you
are concentrating on your game. When I was smoking cigarettes, I'd hit the
ball and then wander around looking for my cigarette for hours because I didn't
want to pollute the golf course. But with a cigar, it's pretty easy to find it after
you putt."
A zealous wine collector, Douglas enjoys cigars the way he enjoys fine wine:
as an adjunct to a great meal and a great experience. "I like cigars because it
gives people a chance for pause. It's a ritual. It gives you a chance to prepare
your thoughts and to think a little bit. I really enjoy smoking with other people
because the feeling of camaraderie is so nice. It's a sign of a certain quality of
life, an opportunity to take a moment to enjoy not only the cigar, but to
celebrate."
Recently, Douglas was given one of his favorite cigars, which he decided to
savor solo. "Somebody gave me an Upmann and I smoked it alone. At the end
of the day, I sat out on my balcony and enjoyed it and it was an interesting
feeling. Most of the time I enjoy sharing the experience with other people. But
cigar smoking by its very nature is much more reflective than interactive. A
cigar gives you time to be philosophical and a time to reflect. I like it because it
gives you something to do with your hands without inhaling a bunch of
nicotine. And the whole process when you're smoking a cigar takes a long
period of time, so it extends the moment for me."
Douglas uses his frequent trips abroad as opportunities to explore and expand
his tastes. "I try to travel as light as possible, so not bringing cigars with me
allows me to try new things," he says. "I just find that there are a lot of great
cigars to be sampled out there in the world. I have not, as opposed to wines,
experimented as much or remembered when I did experiment. I haven't been
good at keeping the bands of more eccentric or esoteric cigars I have tried. But
I'm working on discovering what I enjoy. I like the Dominican Cohibas. I like
Romeo y Julietas a lot. And of course, the Monte No. 2, which is everybody's
favorite."
Walking to the beach at the Ariel Sands Beach Club, where his cousin Seward
Johnson's sculpture of Ariel rises out of the waves, a soft-spoken,
contemplative Douglas emerges as he explains why he has chosen to invest in
the resort.
"I used to come to Bermuda when I was growing up, and I have a whole book
full of memories and characters and family members down here. Ariel Sands
was this cottage colony owned by the family. All the family were shareholders
and it just chugged along that way since the 1950s. It paid dividends, and I
took it for granted.
"Then in the late '70s, the world changed. The Caribbean got more popular and
the airfares got cheaper and Bermuda changed dramatically. It became a bit of a
burden for the family and as a result they hadn't really done the work they
needed to do to this place. They gave me a call and I looked at it, and basically
what I saw was an opportunity. At the same time I saw a lot of family members
who were lost last year; and this relatively large family was going through the
throes of generational changes. So it was a combination of elements, really.
"Given my selfish side, I see this place as something that could really be kind
of fun. It is the right size--the kind of place I could bring friends and hang out.
On the other side, I saw an opportunity where myself and my other two
cousins, Seward Johnson and Elaine Wald, could give something back to the
family and at the same time keep the family together. So these board meetings,
which for the last five or 10 years have been sort of a pain in the ass, could
now be a kind of family reunion. With an insurgence of money we could fix
the place up, bring a little spin to it and have some fun. So it is something that
has revived the family and brings us all a little closer. And of course, you can
get Cuban cigars in Bermuda, and I've got a nice cigar bar at Ariel Sands."
One of the pitfalls of celebrity is an insatiable and intrusive tabloid press.
Recently, Douglas's private life has been its target. "I try to protect myself a
little bit from a certain amount of public scrutiny. And when you protect
yourself, you pay a price, particularly from the tabloids. We have a
phenomenon today that did not exist in my father's generation. They had polite
gossip columnists, nothing like what goes on now. There was a civilized
quality rather than this 'take no prisoners' attitude, and I'm disturbed by it. I
certainly support the First Amendment, but when you look in our trade papers
the largest classified ad is an ad that says, 'We pay for information.' Tabloids
will pay cash to anybody who has any piece of information about a celebrity.
And I find that incredibly disturbing. Now mind you, I might be more likely to
buy it if they want to split half the money with me so that I could give it to my
favorite charity, but they don't want to do that. They want to follow me
around, stalk me with 600-millimeter lenses. They even have people who will
go through my trash, just so they can sell a piece of toilet paper at the checkout
lines once a week to prove, once again, that I have foibles just like everybody
else."
Another drawback of fame is that it insulates a celebrity from making new
friends. Most of Michael Douglas's friends have been close to him for more
than 30 years, which speaks well of him; but he grapples with wanting to forge
some new alliances.
"It's hard in my business to find new friends because you're always suspect of
what their [motives] might be. And while I don't like that about myself, I tend
to get a little more cautious about making new friends. The people that you
knew either when you were starting out in your career or in college didn't take
your success as part of the equation of your friendship. They are the ones you
love and trust. I would like to be more open about meeting people, but it's
hard."
Douglas shares a passion for cigars with his friend and collaborator, actor and
director Danny DeVito, who proudly credits himself with Douglas's initiation
into cigars.
"Michael and I have pretty much known each other since 1963 or 1964, so
we're really what you'd call old friends," DeVito says. "And I think just about
everything that I have done in my life, Michael has imitated. One of the most
incredible things that he has ever done is when he started smoking cigars. He
may not admit it, but I introduced Michael to smoking cigars," he says. "And
Michael, you know, travels in really good circles where he can get all the good
cigars. So whenever I need a good stogie, I know where to go."
DeVito takes the opportunity to throw in a little reminder. "I want Michael to
know how much I rely on him to have good, fresh stogies whenever I arrive at
his house."
So how does a man who travels as much as Douglas deal with humidor
maintenance on a regular basis? "Basically I have cigars in Point A and cigars
in Point B and one of the prerequisites for my personal assistants is to make
sure that the humidity is correct in my humidors," the actor says. "That's
certainly a high-quality problem to have in life: I'm not worried about the
quality of the cigars I smoke, I'm just worried about how dry my cigar is. At
the level that I'm living my life right now, it's fairly rare that I get passed a bad
cigar. I may get a dry cigar, but never a bad cigar."
Douglas is aware of the toll that movie making can take on body, mind and
spirit, and he is consciously looking for healthy avenues to regenerate and
create balance in his life. "I think part of the reason that I am doing fewer
pictures as I get older is that acting takes part of your soul. You give and give
and give, and basically it's depleting your store of power and energy. You
have to find ways to renourish and restore it. Whether it's learning more about
cigars or wine or food or traveling or religion. Culture, nourishing your soul,
your stomach, your mind and all the other things."
As the first stars of the evening begin shimmering on the horizon, Douglas
takes the last puff of his cigar. "The hardest thing for me is to find the next
picture that I want to do. I never know what my next picture is going to be.
Most actors have got a slate. They have pictures lined up. Right now I have
absolutely no idea what I am going to do next. I wish I was one of those
people who could line up pictures, but I never really know what I want to do.
And I'm pretty fortunate in that way, because it allows me to follow my
instincts. I love to act. And my job is to give the audience something that they
want. And I don't know what's going to come next and sometimes it makes me
a little nervous and antsy, but that's really just part of the fun."
Copyright © 1998 Cigar Aficionado. All Rights Reserved.
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