THE MICHAEL DOUGLAS FAN PAGE
ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS
Michael Douglas Has Made a Career of Taking Chances
By BARRY KOLTNOW
Special from The Orange County Register
Wednesday, September 17, 1997
When he was a young boy growing up in Connecticut with his mother and stepfather, Michael Douglas was a thrill-seeker.
Whether motivated by the guilt or boredom that comes with a life of
privilege or simply trying to establish his own identity outside the
shadow cast by his father, the legendary Kirk Douglas, he pushed himself
to climb the highest trees, ride the fastest bikes, and take the biggest
risks. He once dived off a bridge into a rushing river 70 feet below.
In some ways, he's still jumping off that same bridge.
The difference now is that the only thing he's risking is his career,
not his neck. And, more important, he's doing it because he enjoys it.
"I'm sure that some part of my drive to succeed was a need to prove
myself because of all my father's accomplishments," the actor said as he
rested comfortably on a sofa in a luxury hotel suite in Century City.
Looking fit and dressed impeccably in dark slacks and a knit shirt, the
52-year-old Douglas was discussing his new movie, "The Game," which
opened atop the box office Friday. He paused occasionally to watch a
golf tournament on television and to search desperately for a Snickers
bar to give him a sugar lift in the middle of a day of interviews.
"But that's all changed now. At this age, I don't have to prove anything
to anyone, including myself. Now it's just a matter of how I want to
spend my time."
What he likes to spend his time on are movie roles that many other stars
of his caliber won't touch. Douglas has earned a reputation as one of
Hollywood's gutsiest actors with a series of roles that may have seemed
unsympathetic on the page but somehow, in Douglas' hands, became
audience favorites.
Whether it was as the adulterer in "Fatal Attraction" or the
disagreeable cop in "Black Rain" or the white-collar geek who snaps in
"Falling Down," Douglas has sought out roles that challenge him as an
actor while giving him that thrill of jumping off the bridge.
It is a career strategy that has worked: He won an Oscar for his
portrayal of the greedy Gordon Gekko in "Wall Street" and has
established himself as one of Hollywood's top box-office draws.
"The Game" is more of the same.
Douglas plays a cold, ruthless investment banker and member of one of
San Francisco's old-money families. On the eve of his 48th birthday, the
same birthday on which his father leaped to his death, he is given a
special gift by his brother, played by Sean Penn.
The gift is an invitation to play an elaborate game set up by a
mysterious company that specializes in realistic thrill rides. Douglas'
character, a notorious control freak, is a bit unnerved when he finds
himself losing control over his own life. The film was directed by David
Fincher, whose last film, "Seven," found an audience despite its
extremely dark nature.
Douglas insists that a film's commercial prospect is the last thing on
his mind when he considers a role.
"The first thing I do is read a script as a whole, without thinking
about the particular role they're offering," the actor said.
"What I want to know is, 'Does the script work? Does the movie work?' It
doesn't make sense to have a good role in a movie that doesn't work. I
also like to be surprised. I want to turn page after page and not know
where it's going. If I feel I know where the story's going, I feel like
it's a waste of my time. To me, the excitement of any movie is in the
uncertainty.
"Commercial expectations are nothing I worry about. If I worried about
that, I never would have done 'Basic Instinct' or 'Falling Down' or 'The
War of the Roses.' For crying out loud, the two lead characters die in
'The War of the Roses.' That certainly didn't seem very commercial. But
it did seem dangerous, and that's why I liked it. My tastes have always
run toward the strange and macabre."
Winning the best-actor Oscar for "Wall Street" was a turning point in
his life, he said.
"That was the moment when I became my own man," he said. "That was the
moment when I was no longer a second generation. I was no longer Kirk
Douglas' son.
"My peers, my fellow actors, had given me an acknowledgment because they
respected my acting. They don't give out Oscars just because they like
you or admire your father. That was a tremendous moment for me and
forever changed where I was on the totem pole."
Copyright © 1997 Bergen Record Corp.
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