Michael in Cannes with his daughter Carise and wife Catherine (Photo: AP/REX/Shutterstock)
Michael Douglas is no stranger to the Cannes Film Festival. He debuted there 44 years ago for the edge-of-the-seat – some might say prophetic – nuclear disaster thriller The China Syndrome.
He followed that up 13 years later with the murder drama Basic Instinct, which propelled Sharon Stone into the public eye, and in 2012, he raised eyebrows and touched hearts with his surprisingly tender portrayal of the accomplished pianist Liberace in Behind The Candelabra.
Along the way, of course, he’s picked up one or two other career accolades—like, say, two Oscars (Best Picture for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1976 and Best Actor for Wall Street in 1988), five Golden Globes and a number countless others.
So it was fitting that this year, at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, the 78-year-old actor was presented with his most prestigious award, the most prestigious Honorary Award in recognition of his remarkable career, both acting in front of the camera, and producing behind it.
The audience burst into raucous applause as Michael, silver-haired and sleek as ever, climbed onto the stage, to firmly announce, “There was only one,” before adding, in his trademark trademark humour: “I’m bigger than a festival!”
Read More: Philip Scofield’s Most Explosive Splits Among Celebrities From Amanda Holden To Holly Willoughby
Michael with Katherine and their children, Carys and Dylan (Image: GETTY)
The day after the ceremony, relaxing in the elegant Ambassadors salon at the Palais des Festivals, he expressed his appreciation for feeling privileged upon receiving the award.
“I feel like I have a good heart rate,” he says modestly. “To use the term baseball, I can’t say they were all home runs—
Obviously we all have our failures, and I have films that I’ve worked on that I love, that no one has seen.
“But I’ve got a lot of hits too, and—to continue the baseball analogy—if I were to be a batter, I feel like I’d be third. Overall, I’m proud. I’m very proud.”
Cannes wasn’t always a success for him, and Basic Instinct, released in 1992, was met with mixed reactions. The film’s infamous sex scenes left festival audiences with—to paraphrase—stone cold.
“The screen was too big for what was going on!” He remembers.
“I remember the dinner afterward being very quiet—nobody quite knew what to say next. But that’s okay. Sharon Stone had a great, wonderful role, and she was amazing in it.”
One of the aspects Michael likes most about Cannes is the lack of rivalry between actors and filmmakers. He feels “only the happiness of cinema.”
Starring in Basic Instinct with Sharon Stone (Image: GETTY)
“I love the fact that people in Cannes are happy for you, no matter what country you’re from,” he adds. “One of the dangers of social media is that it can divide us, and I think we all need something to bring us closer as human beings. I find Cannes has always been friendly and supportive of everyone.”
He explains how he has a very personal relationship with the festival. It was here, in the 1950s, that his father, the legendary actor Kirk Douglas, who had separated two years ago from Michael’s mother Diana, met a beautiful French journalist named Anne. Later, with Ann, Kirk had one of the most famous happy marriages in Hollywood.
“Ann was a publicist here at the festival. She worked with him and that got her started,” Michael continues. “Anne was my stepmother for 63 years, and I was very close to her and loved her very much. She and my mother were close too, so I benefited from having two parents who loved each other.”
Born in New Jersey in 1944, Michael was educated in New York City, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, then studied dramatic art at UCLA.
His father, who passed away in 2020, was one of the most popular American actors of the 20th century thanks to his roles in films such as Spartacus, Paths of Glory, Gunfight at the OK Corral, and The Heroes of Telemark.
Michael revealed that his relationship with Kirk – which became closer as the two men grew older – was rocky in his youth. “In the beginning there was a kind of resentment,” he explains.
“He started his career before TV even existed, and it wasn’t unusual for him to do six or seven movies a year. So he worked all the time and didn’t have much time for his family.
“I think I might have resented it until he was old enough to have my own family and understood a little bit better. Then I thought, ‘He’s not so bad after all.’” Then, later in life, he changed, and we had a very close relationship. I am very, very lucky.”
Michael admits that, despite all his shortcomings, being the son of a very prominent and successful father also had its advantages.
“If you’re a second generation of film actors, you can see how social the first generation is,” he explains.
“You can see my dad and his friends, and his friends are people like Frank Sinatra and Gregory Peck. You have to see them as
Real people, with all their insecurities and vulnerabilities. I also saw how hard my father worked. I saw perseverance, and I saw strength. It takes a huge amount of effort to see the whole project through, not to lose faith, not to lose faith. He was a rather extraordinary man.”
Michael says that one of his father’s smartest moves, professionally speaking, was surrounding himself with “the best actors possible.”
Michael poses at a film festival (Photo: AP/REX/Shutterstock)
He explains that this was more important to him than worrying about the prominence of his film roles.
“Paul Newman did that a lot, too,” Michael adds. “He wasn’t worried about being ahead. His feeling is, if they have the turn, let them go with it. Because the more good people behaving around you, the more you’ll ride with them.”
It is the spirit of generosity that has crept into Michael’s career as a film producer.
“You try to make everyone else the best they can be,” he says of his management tactics. “Don’t try to undermine them or take them away from you.”
Michael learned similar lessons from Karl Malden, his co-star in The Streets of San Francisco, the 1970s police drama that originally made him a household name.
“We’ve had guest actors come over to work on the show and they’ll always be a little more nervous, so you might want to cheer them up and help them relax,” he recalls. Michael has three adult children, and it is clear that the working gene has been passed on to them.
The forty-four-year-old Cameron, son of his first wife Diandra, is a talented actor who, after serving time in prison for drug possession, has now returned to the screen with roles in films such as the Bruce Willis Theater Wire film Room.
And the kids he has with British actress Catherine Zeta-Jones — Dylan, 22, and Carys, 20 — are set to stage jobs. “That’s a true testament to their grandfather, I think,” Michael says proudly.
“They were all very close to him—and I think they were all very close to him. I think there could be a third generation… Acting is a wonderful existence, but it’s not all signatures and sunglasses—it’s really hard work.”
Interestingly, Michael only appeared once on the big screen alongside Katherine, and that was in the 2000 movie, Traffic, about drug dealing.
“We were in different parts of the movie, and Katherine was pregnant with Carrie at the time,” he adds.
Could we see husband and wife sharing a screen again? “I think we should find something to do,” Michael says sarcastically. “You wouldn’t want to see us petrified, so maybe a remake of The War Of The Roses.”
Fans will remember that 1989 black comedy where Michael played Kathleen Turner’s husband in a bitter divorce battle. Michael smiles mischievously: “Katherine would be a great character if you wanted to.”
See this space.
[ad_2]
