THE MICHAEL DOUGLAS FAN PAGE
ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS

Presidential Passion
By SCOTT SUBLETT
The San Francisco Chronicle
November 12, 1995


Michael Douglas seems nervous. He is undoubtedly a bigger star than his father, Kirk, ever was, and he is certainly a richer and bigger Hollywood player than Dad. His new production company is financed to the tune of $500 million, a lot of clams even by Hollywood standards. Any real star can get the green light on a picture he really wants to do, but Douglas can get the go-ahead on pictures in which he does not appear. That makes him one of the most powerful players in the business.

The advance word on his ``The American President,'' which opens Friday, is that it's his best, most charming work and may get him his second Oscar. He got his first for ``Wall Street'' in 1988. He has reached a level of bankability where his career probably could withstand two or three flops in a row.

Still, he sprawls and slouches on the couch like a teenager, fidgeting madly, legs crossed. One foot bobs in a furious rhythm similar to a dog's scratching a flea. He dreads opening weekend, when films usually make most of their money. ``It's the closest that we have to an opening night in moviemaking,'' he says. ``The strange irony of films is, we finished shooting this in April and you have this long lead time until people are seeing it. And in film making you never, kind of, get off (work). Most of the time film making is going home with mixed feelings, worried about this, does it tie in with that. You never get the theatrical experience of doing a rehearsal, opening night, taking a bow, then doing a show each night, taking a bow, and that feeling of complet ion. So, yeah, something like this, when you're feeling this enthusiasm coming forward, it's exciting.''

That's how Douglas talks: rambling and circular.

At 51, he's still handsome, maybe more so than when he starred in TV's ``The Streets of San Francisco'' in the '70s. His hair, which was short and silver for ``The American President,'' is now longish, streaky gray-beige and wavy. He runs his hands through it, plays with it like a kid. He's reasonably fit and attired in a soft green knit shirt that sets off the pink glow of his skin (which could be courtesy of Max Factor).

His voice drops low and brims with contrition when he talks about his faltering marriage.

``My wife and I are separated -- we've been married 18 years. We are separated -- amicably. Talk to each other all the time, a lot of love. We are separated now -- I don't know what the future may hold.''

With homes in Santa Barbara, Spain, Manhattan and Aspen, it's easier for the Douglases to be separated than it is for most couples.

His estranged wife, Diandra, 37, a documentary film maker and philanthropist, filed for divorce last summer. It has been noted that she looks amazingly like Michael's mother, Diana, who divorced Kirk Douglas when Michael was 5. Kirk tried for a year to win his wife back, but she couldn't forgive his womanizing. Like father, like son? Diandra said in an interview last year that Michael's ``women'' were a problem.

Michael has had a rocky relationship with Kirk, but it's better now and in April production commences on their first film together, ``Song of David,'' about a father and son in the construction business.

``It's a drama,'' Douglas says. ``It's a reconciliation picture. We're going to try to get as close as we can to the real stuff. Mix it up.''

Douglas and his wife have one child, Cameron. In a joint interview with Diandra a few years ago, Douglas commented that he was trying to have an effect on Cameron before he turned 16 and the chance was gone. Now Cameron is 16, and, Douglas says, ``It's like a switch goes on, or a button goes off, and they're hormonally exploding in every direction, struggling, fighting for independence, resisting responsibility.''

He says he has tried to talk to Cameron about the pressures of being a famous man's son, but for Cameron, ``the legacy just continues -- now he's got two generations.''

Diandra's previous divorce threat, three years ago, resulted in Douglas' checking himself into rehab at Arizona's Sierra Tuscon clinic, ostensibly to deal with alcohol ADDICTION. But there were rumors, publicly denied by Douglas, of other addictions as well, including sex addiction. He came out of the clinic and the marriage held.

Ironically, his current personal turmoil coincides with what may turn out to be his most successful professional stretch since 1987 (the year he starred in ``Fatal Attraction'' and ``Wall Street'').

Last year, ``Disclosure,'' which fearlessly addressed the rampant social issue of women who look like Demi Moore sexually harassing their male employees, was a medium- size hit. And now comes ``The American President,'' a romantic dramedy with Douglas as a widowed president falling for lobbyist Annette Bening.

Directed by Rob Reiner and written by Aaron Sorkin (``A Few Good Men''), the movie wrings laughs out of the absurdity of the most powerful man in the world's trying to kiss his girlfriend amid the bustle of the White House. The film also contains career-resuscitating supporting performances by Michael J. Fox as the president's domestic policy adviser and Martin Sheen as the president's chief of staff. Weighing in as the heavy is Richard Dreyfuss as a Republican senator so evil he does everything but twirl his mustache.

Douglas and Sorkin say the film's liberal slant was very intentional. Douglas claims he isn't worried that the film's politics will prove a liability at the box office.

The part of President Andrew Shepherd may be the role of Douglas' career, but he wouldn't have gotten it if Robert Redford hadn't dropped out of the project. As far back as 1989, Redford was developing a screwball comedy set in the White House, under various titles (including ``The President Has Eloped!''). Reiner came aboard and commissioned a new screenplay from Sorkin. Together Reiner and Sorkin made the film more serious and much more political. Sorkin says Redford bailed because he feared that, given his well-known liberal leanings, the audience would have a hard time separating him from the character.

Douglas, who has similar liberal credentials, wasn't worried. ``I guess I don't have such a strong sense of my own persona that I would be too worried that people would be so conscious of myself and my politics.''

He is unapologetic about people in Hollywood's contributing to liberal causes.

``You've got PAC groups supporting the other side very strongly,'' he says. ``The film industry, entertainment business, is one of the few liberal big businesses in this country. Almost all the rest generally support conservative policies, so I don't see a problem.'' Douglas loves to talk current events and reads four newspapers a day. Other avocations are golf, televised sports, and hanging with pals Jack Nicholson and Danny DeVito.

As for alternate careers, Douglas can't imagine what he'd have been if not an actor. ``When I was a kid I talked about being a lawyer or doctor, and if they asked if I wanted to be an actor, I said, `Absolutely not! No!' So I'm sure that was a natural reaction against one's father. I don't know. I've always been a late bloomer. I was a hippie -- went to UC Santa Barbara, spent a lot of time up in San Francisco, Fillmore. Had a lot of friends who had houseboats out in Sausalito. Spent the '60s riding my motorcycle -- Renaissance shirts -- >from Santa Barbara to San Francisco. I was a junior in college before they called me into the vice chancellor's office and said, `You've got to have a major. You don't have a major.' That's how involved I was. So I decided, `Well, I'll take theater.' My mother's an actress -- my dad was -- I thought it would be easy.''

It wasn't. ``I had terrible stage fright. I'm not a ham. I'm not comfortable -- I mean, I don't enjoy performing.'' Maybe that's why Michael Douglas is nervous.

Copyright ©San Francisco Chronicle



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