Living legend of cinema, Michael Douglas, who will celebrate his 80th birthday next September, is still as active as ever. After receiving an honorary Palme d'Or last year during the 76e Cannes Festival, whose 2024 edition begins this Tuesday, the American star spoke in an interview to be found in full in the new issue ofInterviews. Here is an exerpt…
What filming has had an impact on you during your career?
We have to go back to 1975 and Flight over a cuckoo's nest, which I had produced. We were based in a psychiatric hospital in Oregon for the filming, it was an incredible atmosphere. And we won all the Oscars that year. It was the second film in history to win all five major Academy Awards. It was a magical moment.
Your father, Kirk Douglas, was one of the last representatives of the Golden Age of Hollywood. He witnessed the introduction of blockbusters, the “second decline” with the arrival of streaming, and also many cultural changes in the industry. Is the evolution of cinema going in the right direction?
I don't know if all the current changes are beneficial for cinema and films. I came into the industry in the 1970s, when filmmakers really ruled the industry. And then there was the rise of streaming and platforms. Silicon Valley came to Los Angeles like Atilla the Hun. It turned everything upside down. We thought we had a pretty big industry, but it showed us how tiny we were.
In the 1990s, the fashion was for erotic thrillers, but the filming was not supervised. Since then, measures have been taken with "intimacy coordinators" at sex scenes. This is a good thing ?
Basic Instinct is the kind of film that couldn't be made today without an army of "intimacy coordinators." But is this a good thing? I am not convinced. In the 1990s, many actors were able to exceed their limits without anyone's help. I myself have acted in films with sex scenes. I talked about it again with actresses. We joke about it now. We wonder what use it would have served us to have an intimacy coordinator…
You want to know more ? Discover the entire interview with Michael Douglas in the new issue of Entrevue, on sale everywhere in France…
