THE MICHAEL DOUGLAS FAN PAGE
ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS
Q&A With Michael Douglas
BY DORRIE CROCKETT
People Magazine Online
1998
Michael Douglas, 53 and newly single, exudes the kind of confidence
you'd expect from a movie star with his pedigree. Stands to reason:
Successful in his own right with two Oscars (one for Best Actor in Wall
Street, the other as producer of Best Film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's
Nest), he commands upwards of $15 million a picture. His role as the
slippery, amoral Steven Taylor is the latest in a long line of the
"Prince of Darkness" roles at which Douglas excels, from Wall Street
shark Gordon Gekko to pretentious attorney Oliver Rose (The War of the
Roses) and tortured banker Nicholas Van Orton in last fall's The Game.
PEOPLE Online: How long have you known Gwyneth Paltrow?
MICHAEL DOUGLAS: I've known her since she was a little girl sitting on
my knee. And now she's a big girl sitting on my knee. [laughs]
PEOPLE Online: She said you drove her dad crazy about that.
MICHAEL DOUGLAS: Boy, she's getting a lot of mileage out of this story.
But Bruce [Paltrow] and Blythe [Danner] I've known forever. [Bruce]
called up: "You got any kissing scenes?" I said, "Bruce, she's my wife.
You're a professional." He'd lost all professional rhyme or reason,
because it's hard when you know somebody personally. I think he knew she
was in good hands. I'm very proud of how well all my leading ladies have
come off.
"I've known Gwyneth since she was a little girl sitting on my knee. And now she's a big girl sitting on my knee."
PEOPLE Online: Gwyneth said it was tough for her, she still wants to call you "Mr. Douglas."
MICHAEL DOUGLAS: Aw, poor Gwyneth. Hard life, very hard life. Princess Gwyneth.
PEOPLE Online: What was she like as a child?
MICHAEL DOUGLAS: Spoiled.
PEOPLE Online: She said she wasn't particularly fond of Dial M for Murder; what are your favorite Hitchcock movies?
MICHAEL DOUGLAS: I'm not a big filmophile. I don't watch movies a lot for a hobby. I spend all my time watching sporting events. Because, opposed to movies, you can never tell how they're going to end. But I loved Rear Window an awful lot. North by Northwest. Psycho. One of my first jobs in the business was working in the editing room for a summer at Universal. And at the same time they were cutting Psycho. So at lunch time we used to take our little lunch bags and go down and look at the outtakes of Janet Leigh in the shower scene.
PEOPLE Online: What were the pros and cons of re-making A Perfect Murder?
MICHAEL DOUGLAS: Well, it's not a remake. I think Warners really did a
disservice to this project. The last thing I wanted to do was another
prince of darkness, after The Game. But this was a real good script.
Patrick Kelly wrote it and it has nothing to do with the original. But
Warner Bros. had already started this Dial M for Murder campaign.
PEOPLE Online: You are playing another prince of darkness, though.
MICHAEL DOUGLAS: [In The Game] Nicholas Van Orton was kind of tortured.
This one's at least having a good time. That's the joy of playing a pure
villain. There is no moral dilemma. And after doing a lot of pictures
[about] moral ambivalence and the struggle to do what's right, to play a
hungry white shark is great. Audiences love the[se pictures] because we
are all caught by our civility, what's right, our social responsibility.
I think that's why we love to watch someone just rip it up.
PEOPLE Online: What did you bring to the part?
MICHAEL DOUGLAS: Sickness. Perversion. Those are the two things that
come to mind. I thought about Fatal Attraction when I was doing this,
the comparison [between] Gwyneth being an adulteress, [and] how fast
[audiences] forgave me in Fatal Attraction. I tried to encourage Gwyneth
not to be afraid to be disliked. I wanted her to realize that sympathies
are going to be with me in the first act. Actresses have more fear of
being disliked. I, on the other hand, revel in it.
"That's the joy of playing a pure villain: there is no moral dilemma."
PEOPLE Online: Have you seen the picture with an audience and heard how they hiss?
MICHAEL DOUGLAS: Yeah, it's cool. That's what I was hoping [for]. I
wanted it to be slightly theatrical. [As if he] almost twirls the ends
of a mustache. We wanted to get a fun thing, where you can sit there and
throw popcorn at the screen.
PEOPLE Online: Have you thought about what it is about you as an actor
that audiences will go with you on that journey regardless of the role
you play?
MICHAEL DOUGLAS: I think people realize that for me the most important
thing is the movie. I'm not as concerned about the character or the part
that I play. Actresses get very concerned about their role, [what with
the] women's movement, they've got to make political decisions about
this, that. Go back to Cuckoo's Nest: five actresses turned down Louise
Fletcher's part, because at that time it wasn't politically correct for
a woman to play a villain.
PEOPLE Online: As a producer, what are your thoughts of this picture
getting shunted into this wild Godzilla summer?
MD: I thought it was pretty crazy at first, but now I see the other
trailers, all this effects stuff, and it's all huger than life. And all
of a sudden this reality-based movie stands out there kind of clean and
simple.
PEOPLE Online: You have a tendency to pick films that are
extraordinarily timely, that tap into whatever is happening at the
moment, whether it's Disclosure or Falling Down. Are you looking for
that, or is it just timing?
MICHAEL DOUGLAS: I read a lot of newspapers, I'm a newspaper fiend. I
just love current events. But that said, I don't try to ride on the fact
that it's in the news. I just ride on things that interest me. It's not
a conscious effort in terms of trying to be the flavor of the month, but
hopefully it is a reflection of being aware of a psyche that might exist
at that time.
On his father, Kirk Douglas: "One of the nice things about having
success in your own right is you're freer and able to use that gene pool of your father's side that allows you to have similar gestures and expressions."
PEOPLE Online: One can see more of your dad in you as time goes on. When
you watch yourself do you see it?
MICHAEL DOUGLAS: Yeah. I see a lot of similarities. And one of the nice
things about having success in your own right is you're freer and able
to use that gene pool of your father's side that allows you to have
similar gestures and expressions. Dad called about a month ago.
"Michael," he said, "I turned on the television, one of my old movies
came on. I was watching my old movie and I was trying to remember [it],
and then I looked: That wasn't me, it was you." [laughs]
PEOPLE Online: There's a rumor floating around that Sharon Stone is
thinking about a Basic Instinct sequel.
MICHAEL DOUGLAS: God bless her. It's the last time I'm dropping my
pants. I don't like sequels. I did one of mine, the Jewel of the Nile,
[but] I don't like doing them.
PEOPLE Online: How do you like living in NY?
MICHAEL DOUGLAS: I love it. Of course, I'm single. I grew up in NY. And
I've had a place here off and on over the years. But the city's rockin'.
PEOPLE Online: And how are you liking being single?
MICHAEL DOUGLAS: It's pretty good. It's a nice sense of
irresponsibility.
PEOPLE Online: Since you're so well-known, don't you worry when you meet
somebody that they might have an agenda?
MICHAEL DOUGLAS: Yeah, it's a little harder. I take it for granted that
one's career might be influential to some degree. But what the hell.
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