Michael Douglas on Tuesday was celebrated with a lifetime achievement award by Italy’s Taormina Film Festival where “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” the multiple Oscar-winning classic that he produced 50 years ago, will screen in the fest’s 6,000-seat open-air ancient Greek amphitheater.
The fest is headed by marketing guru Tiziana Rocca who has close Hollywood ties and is back at the helm eight years after she was forced to step down due to political infighting in 2017 following a five-year stint.
Douglas, 80, received the prize on the fest’s opening night from Cannes Film Festival president Iris Knobloch, who is attending Taormina to take part in a panel on female empowerment in the film industry.
“Michael Douglas is far more than a star. He is a cornerstone of modern cinema,” Knobloch said. “Over the course of more than five decades he has consistently chosen roles that reflect the complexity of human nature. Michael has given us performances that are unforgettable, layered and always brave,” she went on to note.
In a moving speech, Douglas reminisced about his ties to the Italian film community, recounting that when he traveled to Rome 50 years ago to promote “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “We had a wonderful evening with all of the top Italian directors of that time: Michelangelo Antonioni, Lina Wertmüller, and Bernardo Bertolucci, among others,” he said.
“Their compassion and their appreciation for the movie was unique; there was no jealousy,” Douglas noted. “It was just like being in a big family, and it was very, very special.”
Douglas also reminisced about begin at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios with his father Kirk, making a movie when he was 16.
“I am touched now when I realize that between my father and I we made over 150 movies in the span of 80 years,” Douglas went on to point out, “I want to say that all three of my children want to be actors, so it may be continuing for another generation.”
Before taking the stage of the 2,500 year-old Greek theater which boasts a view of Mt. Etna volcano, that is currently billowing smoke, Douglas took some time to speak to Variety:
You’ve worked with a broad swathe of directors over the years. Who do you feel had an effect on your career as an actor?
Oliver Stone certainly did. His track record is really impressive with his male actors starting with Jimmy Woods in “Salvador” right through to Tom Cruise in “Born on the 4th of July” and Kevin Costner in “JFK,” and of course Charlie Sheen in “Platoon.” He had made an impression on me in terms of acting, and was helpful [when we worked on “Wall Street”].
Stephen Soderbergh is somebody whom I really enjoyed the opportunity of working with and I wish I had had more opportunities of working with him. I really admire those actors who had a relationship with directors and did more than one movie with each other. It’s a joy when as an actor you work with a director more than once because it gives you a familiarity and comfort and you don’t have to go through that dance of trying to meet each other for the first time. You’re more comfortable and relaxed.
Like Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese?
Exactly.
I was thinking about “Falling Down” recently. It feels like a prescient film and after Joel Schumacher died, it was a film that came back to me as one of his most underrated films.
I thought so too. Ebbe Roe Smith wrote the script. Originally, it was going to be a movie for TV. I remember thinking it was just such a great script and the film stands the test of time. It’s one of those pictures I love to do. They’re entertaining but keep giving a little food for thought. Sometimes you get embarrassed at how expensive it is to make a couple of hours of entertainment. So, it’s always nice if you can find not only something that is entertaining but it has something to say.
What did you learn from doing “The Kominsky Method,” your first sitcom?
First, it just confirmed again how important writing is and particularly in comedy, the timing. I’ve always been a script fanatic and I’ve made my choices regardless of the size of my part on the project. It’s the script that counts. I’d prefer to have a small part in a good movie, than a large part in a bad one. And that idea has served me well. I’ve had a lot of hits in there. Hits, singles, doubles, triples, not necessarily home runs. So on “Kominsky” to get to watch Alan Arkin and Chuck Lorre, who is just amazing, and the simplicity of their work, and what I call Jewish humor too, the Jewish rhythm. A slight raising of the voice. It was a nice experience. Timing is really the biggest thing.
You’re developing a project at the moment. Can you tell me anything about it?
No, because I don’t have the script yet. It’s based on an article that was in the Atlantic
magazine, but I don’t want to give anything away. It’s hopefully a dramedy. A drama-comedy and dealing with a contemporary issue, but I’m still in the process of finding the screenwriter, so it’s early stages.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.