Big Year for a Wonder Boy

Toward the end of the last decade, Michael Douglas was beginning to resemble one of the characters he often plays--a middle-aged man whipsawed by the travails of modern life. The new millennium is looking a lot better for the 56-year-old actor. His relationship with Catherine Zeta-Jones, fodder for the tabloids since the couple got together in 1999, resulted in their marriage in November, three months after the birth of their son, Dylan. Douglas starred in two of this year’s most well-regarded films--Curtis Hanson’s “Wonder Boys” (which was released in February and is now back in theaters for Academy consideration) and “Traffic,” directed by Steven Soderbergh and co-starring Zeta-Jones. He is up for a Best Actor Golden Globe award and potentially a candidate for an Oscar, the nominations for which will be announced next month--probably explaining his handlers’ timing in suggesting we sit down for an interview.

Son of Hollywood icon Kirk Douglas, owner of two Academy Awards, including his first, at 30, for producing “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Douglas has always seemed one of the lucky ones. With his sexy good looks and savvy, smart-alecky mien, he excelled at playing what screenwriter William Goldman has called the flawed contemporary American male. One of the few Hollywood stars to carve a career with neurotic rather than heroic leading roles, Douglas found his niche starring in such controversial films as “Fatal Attraction,” “Basic Instinct,” “Disclosure” and “Wall Street,” which brought the actor his second Oscar--as a leading man--in 1987. But Douglas’ decade-long string of headline-making hits seemed to run its course as he appeared in “The American President,” “The Game” and “A Perfect Murder.” His Midas-touch as a producer was tarnished with such bombs as “Sabrina” and “The Ghost and the Darkness.” His personal life also underwent reversals, including the end of his 20-plus-year marriage to Diandra Douglas in 1997 and the stroke suffered by his father. In addition, his 21-year-old son Cameron, his only child at the time, entered a clinic for substance abuse, a reminder of Douglas’s own time in rehab several years before. It was “the worst year of my life,” Douglas said in 1997. It seemed the end of the run for one of Hollywood’s most successful stars.

Now, with his new marriage, new production company (Furthur Films), and Oscar buzz building for his performance as the overweight, over-the-hill, pot-smoking college professor in “Wonder Boys” and for “Traffic” (Golden Globe nominations went to Zeta-Jones for best supporting actress and to the film for best picture), all that seems like ancient history. “Michael is getting more and more interesting as an actor as he gets older,” says Soderbergh. Adds Hanson: “He’s showing a vulnerability and a humor that we haven’t seen and that most actors in his league aren’t willing to reveal.” During an interview in his two-bedroom,

Century City pied-a-terre, which is decorated in silver-framed family photographs and modern art, he fiddles with his shiny wedding band (“It’s Welsh gold done in a Celtic design”), but seems less eager to discuss his revivified personal life than to remind Hollywood that he is still a working actor. “Everyone asks, ‘When are you going on a honeymoon?’ ” he says. “But we’ve been on a honeymoon for two years now. It’s time to go back to work.”

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Q: After the year you’ve had, how does it feel to have “Wonder Boys” out there--again--as an Oscar contender?

A: Well, its the most unique release experience I’ve ever had (laughing). I mean, “Wonder Boys” was supposed to come out this time last year--it was the reason we all cut our prices--and it didn’t for whatever reasons. But we really liked the picture, it got great reviews and it’s been lovely to see it out again.

Q: How did that happen? Did you arm-twist the studio?

A: No, the person who’s been most instrumental is [director] Curtis [Hanson], his insistence in his diplomatic but stubborn way and then the studio admitting that the movie did deserve another look. Excuse me (rising), but have you met Cathy? (Catherine Zeta-Jones comes into the room.)

Q: Hello. How are you? How’s the baby?

A: Zeta-Jones: The baby is fabulous (laughing and kissing her fingers). He’s 3 1/2 months now.

Q: Sleeping through the night?

A: Zeta-Jones: Yes, he is--to the horror of some of my friends.

Douglas: Excuse us for a second. (They leave the room and Douglas quickly returns.) So, yes, “Wonder Boys” was a really nice experience.

Q: What do you think of its chances--or yours--for an Oscar nomination?

A: It’s gravy. Look, it’s just wonderful to be associated with quality. It’s one thing to be singled out for a performance, but when you can talk about the screenplay, the editing, the director and the other actors, it’s fantastic. Do I like being associated with Academy pictures? You betcha I do. I love nothing better.

Q: Grady Tripp couldn’t be more different from Gordon Gekko [in “Wall Street”]. Is it one of your best performances?

A: I think it’s probably a different performance, but I’m not really a good judge of that. You have a great screenplay, a chance to play a part that’s different than what you’ve done before, and the truth of the matter is that it’s character work--like what I did in “Falling Down”--and that’s always different than leading man.

Q: Were you looking to make such a radical change from the icy, Armani-clad guys you played in “The Game” and “A Perfect Murder,” because those films didn’t do that well?

A: Those were well-to-do, coiffed and seemingly in-control guys, but I’ve always tried to do different things, take risks in my career, whether in acting or producing, and they’ve paid off. This [role] seemed like another one of those opportunities.

Q: Other than Jack Nicholson, there aren’t too many actors willing to look so ridiculous on camera. But that’s not a problem for you?

A: It’s all part of the fun--the glasses, the weight gain. It’s a mask, like a clown in a circus. Yeah, OK, the pink robe had me going for a bit there (laughing). But it turned out well and it’s been nice to see we weren’t crazy.

Q: You haven’t played many heroes--unlike most of your peers. Why not?

A: I’m attracted to things that are contemporary. I’m not a sci-fi fan and I don’t do a lot of period pictures, so everything I do deals with our contemporary psyche. That’s somewhat limiting, but within that range you try to find a mix between drama and comedy and terror. Look, it was only a little while ago that people were focused on the sex trilogies [“Fatal Attraction,” “Basic Instinct,” “Disclosure”] and that was the definition of my entire career. Then it was the wealthy, Wall Street guys. Now, I’m getting to the father stage. Fortunately, I haven’t started playing grandfathers yet.

Q: You’re said to be quite savvy in your choices of films. Why did you initially turn down the role of the drug czar in “Traffic”?

A: When Steven presented it to me, the character on the page was kind of two-dimensional, and I said, “I love this but there’s not enough here for me to do.” Then he went to Harrison [Ford] and they did some work on the role. I don’t know what happened to Harrison, but when he came to Catherine for her part, I looked at the script and I thought, “Hey, this has really gotten good.” So I went back to Steven and said, “Had I known you were into developing this role, I would have been [on board],” and he said, “Great.”

Q: What was it like working with Catherine for the first time? Did you have any concerns about her working during her pregnancy?

A: We actually never had any scenes together--she shot down in San Diego and I was mostly in Ohio. But we had been keeping this big secret about her pregnancy--she had turned down Oliver [Stone’s] movie and we couldn’t quite give the exact reasons--then “Traffic” came up and she was supposed to have two kids in the film, and so she said to Steve, “What do you think if I played this pregnant?” He thought it really upped the stakes, and I think she’s wonderful in the picture. It’s really a chance for her to show her acting chops, because as young as her career is, it’s amazing how quickly they want to type you into playing one thing.

Q: Drug use is an issue in both films, as it has been in your life. Did that affect your performances?

A: Sure, you bring to any role what you can from your personal life, and drugs have touched my family as [they probably have] most families in this country. It’s a struggle, but I see Proposition 36 here in California [which substitutes rehabilitation for jail time on first-time drug convictions] as an indication that people are really starting to explore alternatives. The fact that Steven got the cooperation of our major federal agencies [for “Traffic”] really impressed me--that even the government was willing to say, “Let’s open this discussion up.”

Q: Robert Downey Jr., your co-star in “Wonder Boys,” [allegedly] continues to have drug problems. How was he during the film’s shoot two years ago?

A: He’s a lovely guy and my heart goes out to him. Who knows what anybody’s doing [drug-wise], but he did a lovely job on the film, and there were no behavioral issues. He went away [to prison] right after the picture.

Q: Have you been in touch with him since?

A: I did talk to him a couple of times when he got out, and I dropped him a couple of notes when he was in, but I’m not close to him.

Q: You’ve logged time in the tabloids yourself, and it was only a few years ago that you seemed to hit a nadir. What was that about?

A: There were a couple of years in the last part of the ‘90s when a lot of personal stuff didn’t allow me to focus on my career as much as I would have liked. My mother had some medical problems and my dad had his stroke. The dissolution of my [first] marriage. All of that took a lot of time.

Q: Is that why you closed your production company?

A: I had to remind myself why I was spending so much time producing when I really love acting. You can spread yourself too thin, and if you have, as I had, a major producing responsibility--it wasn’t just a development deal but we were financing pictures like “Face/Off” and “The Rainmaker”--and you still want to act, and then you have personal issues, it’s difficult. Mind if I smoke? I’m trying not to.

Q: You’re about the only major star who’s had as much success as a producer. How did you get started?

A: I was doing episodic television because I couldn’t get arrested--I had acted in two or three pictures that hadn’t worked out, and my father had the rights to “Cuckoo’s Nest,” which he was trying to sell. I had read the book in college and just loved it, so I started to get it set up, and then “Streets of San Francisco” came up and my [producing] partner, Saul Zaentz, happened to live in Berkeley. So while I was shooting the series, if I had a break I would go across the bridge and see Saul about the film. But those four years on the show were crucial because I learned so much about production. It was like we were doing a 52-minute film each week.

Q: How did it feel to win an Oscar for your first film at age 30--especially when your father hadn’t won one?

A: It was beyond anything. But I think my dad was always disappointed that I hadn’t given him the role of McMurphy [played by Jack Nicholson]. How often do you get a good part like that?

Q: Wait a minute. In your first producing effort, you turned your dad down for a role?

A: I didn’t have to--the director makes the casting decisions. Whenever there’s a good part and you don’t get it, it’s a disappointment because there are so few out there. That’s what’s so hard about it. You have to do it yourself.

Q: You mean develop your own projects?

A: One of the mistakes I made as a producer is that I never really developed anything for myself. When you run a production company, you don’t really think that way. I actually haven’t made that many movies. My dad’s made 84, partly because they just made more movies back then, before television, but even among my generation and younger, there are a lot of actors who have made a lot more movies than I have. What’s happened in our business, in terms of development, is that you have to take more responsibility. You have to have one or two projects in your back pocket that you like for yourself. Studios are happy to make movies with you, but their development system hasn’t been that good lately.

Q: Why not?

A: Because this little cottage industry started by the Warner brothers and Harry Cohn and others is now a very small piece of a Vivendi or News Corp. or Sony or AOL. The movie business represents something like 3% to 5% of the gross revenues of these companies, which are much savvier about their quarterly earnings. So there are fewer chances being taken. Studios go for the tent-pole picture, the lowest common denominator that has the biggest possible audience.

Q: So if you’re not Adam Sandler, what do you do?

A: I’m not going to bad-mouth anybody, but this goofball stuff--some of these are really funny, like “Meet the Parents”--but others are not. I think part of it is a generation finding itself. But it goes further. At my age you become very conscious of the number of youth-driven films and the huge cutoff between them and adult fare.

Q: Is Hollywood more youth-obsessed today? Ironically, you found it difficult to be taken seriously as an actor when you first started.

A: Right now we’re inhaling [youth-driven] movies pretty fast and spitting them out, but I think some of this will run its course. Let’s be honest. I think there are some wonderful young actors, but we’re still looking for our young stars. I don’t think we have anybody yet who has shown staying power. There are a lot of good young comedians, but that’s not true for young dramatic actors. I mean, Tom [Cruise] is 38, 39, and we have yet to find the actor who can replace him. There are a lot of kids working now who are out of their 20s and into their 30s, and if you look back historically, people were established stars by then. But I don’t see it now.

Q: You were in your 40s when you finally became a star with “Fatal Attraction” and “Wall Street.” Why did it take so long?

A: I was a late bloomer--I physically looked pretty young for my age, I was pretty white bread and I don’t think I really matured until then. But also having those two movies back to back, a big commercial success followed by a critical hit, really changed my life.

Q: With your success as a producer, you didn’t have any thoughts of going that route? Weren’t you offered a studio job at one point?

A: Twice, actually. But yeah, everybody was asking me earlier in my career, “Why are you acting?”--this kind of backhanded compliment. But I thought I had something to say [as an actor].

Q: Were you intimidated by your dad’s career, or was he supportive?

A: He was actually very sweet and saw everything I did in college, and it was a little intimidating to have him out there in the audience. Look, it’s very easy for people to be dismissive or jealous of how easy they think it’s been for you as a second-generation actor, but it doesn’t work that way. Sure, you have access to meetings and stuff like that, but I still remember the publicity department promoting my first film as [Kirk Douglas’] son, which I just loved because it gave you such a great sense of your own identity. But there are genes, and people make comparisons, and so there is a need to prove yourself to the world.

Q: You hit your stride in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, when your persona seemed to encapsulate the Zeitgeist. Did it seem that way to you?

A: I don’t analyze it. You make an instinctual move. With “Fatal” the concept was so simple: What if you have an affair and it’s the nightmare from hell? And [with] “Wall Street,” I was just really blessed that Oliver [Stone] was coming off all those Oscars for “Born on the Fourth of July,” and I had a great part.

Q: But then after you made the rest of what you call the “Sex Trilogy” and entered rehab, for what was rumored to be sex addiction, you became the poster boy for feminist rage.

A: A lot of that was created by tabloids because “Basic Instinct” had just come out--so that was the hook they put on a boring rehab story. No, I think all those pictures were really strong. “Fatal” was good and “Basic” was a slam-dance. That was a very conscious decision. It was getting so precious out there, so restrictive socially, politically and in films. So we took a hit from the gay and lesbian community [because of Sharon Stone’s unflattering bisexual character in “Basic Instinct”]. And then with “Disclosure,” [Michael] Crichton’s bestseller, it was: How dare we show a woman harassing a man? But all three were successful pictures, and I’m proud of them.

Q: Do you find the criticisms hypocritical, given that so many women have had major roles in your films?

A: Women have had more great roles in pictures that I’ve done, from top to bottom, from Kathleen [Turner], to Glenn [Close], Sharon Stone, Annette Bening, Demi [Moore]. A lot of women have given great performances in my films. So, yeah, there is a certain amount of irony in that. But look at it historically. We had five top actresses turn us down to play Nurse Ratched in “Cuckoo’s Nest” because women didn’t want to play villains back then. It wasn’t politically correct.

Q: Now you’ve entered a new chapter in your career. What kind of roles are you developing for yourself at your production company?

A: There’s a bunch, but I hate to talk about them before they’re out there because they’re all over the place--one’s a race-car driver, another’s an astronaut--just a wide spectrum, from drama to comedy.

Q: What’s taking so long? Furthur Films is 3 years old already and has yet to release a film.

A: Well, our first film, “One Night at McCool’s” [starring Liv Tyler and Matt Dillon], is coming out [in March], and we have another 12 pictures that we’ve been nurturing that are about to come to fruition. But I can’t handle anymore than that. When I made “Cuckoo’s Nest,” that was the only thing I had in development. Same thing with “China Syndrome” and even “Romancing the Stone.” So I’m trying to do it the same way with Furthur [Films] because I have quality-of-life issues now. I have a wonderful bride and a beautiful son and I want to keep acting, and I don’t want to be overwhelmed by development hell.

Q: Were you looking to get married again when you met Catherine?

A: I don’t think I was looking right off the bat, but I also wasn’t looking forward to being alone for the rest of my life. After being married for so long, I was dating and I was seeing a lot of people, but then shortly after Cathy and I got together we decided to make it exclusive. There’s a maturity to her. Cathy’s been working on her own since she was 15; she had my equivalent of “The Streets of San Francisco” when she spent 2 1/2 years doing eight shows a week of “42nd Street” in the West End. So she’s very disciplined and has strong family ties--her brother is here now--and we’re both pretty positive people. We’re generally not moody. We try to give things our best shot. We like to work in comfortable environments, and that’s the way we like to live our lives. Neither of us is a drama queen.

Q: Did you plan on having a baby, or are those rumors that you told Catherine you wanted to “father her children” untrue?

A: I wanted more children, sure. I only had one son and I did want to have more kids. I think you’d have to ask Cathy, but I think she was at the point of asking herself whether she was turning into one of those career actresses or wondering would this [relationship] work out. Certainly people have children out of wedlock, but [marriage] just seemed the thing to do.

Q: People have made a big deal about the age difference between the two of you [Zeta-Jones is 31]. You were criticized [for playing an older man with a young spouse] in “A Perfect Murder,” with Gwyneth Paltrow.

A: Yeah, the young little trophy wife. But that turned out not to be quite as bizarre as it appeared to be. I mean, there has to be a reason why men can propagate into their 60s.

Q: So it’s genetics? Many women are angry about how Hollywood perpetuates this age discrepancy.

A: There must be a reason for it.

Q: So it’s not an issue for the two of you?

A: Early on (sighing), but we never think about it unless people bring it up. I’ll talk to her about bands that lived in the ‘60s, and she’ll say, “Who?” and that kind of stuff, but I’m not really aware of it. What I am aware of is that it’s not that unusual.

Q: Why do you think your relationship has been such a staple in the tabloids?

A: Part of it is that Cathy is from the homeland of tabloid journalism--England--where you have Murdoch’s network of tabloid papers, which feed his papers over here. The reality is that reality-based stories, whether on television or in magazines, are the cheapest things [to make], and that’s what it’s about--profit.

Q: So how do you explain selling your wedding photos to a British magazine?

A: The reason we did is the control you get from it. The fact that they pay you is a luxury, but by working with an organization, deciding that only one magazine in Britain, one in America, gets the photos, it stops the feeding frenzy of the paparazzi. I know American publications are a little nervous [about paying for photos], but European magazines do this a lot, and it was a way for us to have some control.

Q: Like $1.5-million worth of control?

A: A lot of figures have been thrown around.

Q: Did you use that money to pay for the wedding?

A: No, I did not. We took care of that ourselves. I made some [charitable] contributions, but the money issue was the least part of it. It was the idea of having control.

Q: Is that why you also sold pictures of your son to a magazine?

A: Yes, because every time we left the house, a photographer ran up and tried to take a photograph of our child. Once those pictures were out, the value of them isn’t worth anything. People were interested in seeing our child, and I would rather do something like that--I thought they were lovely photos--and kill two birds with one stone: get some nice photos and set up a trust fund for our son and eliminate being harassed.

Q: And there seemed to be some confusion over your request for monetary wedding gifts.

A: There wasn’t a lot of confusion. Liz Smith [who misreported this] was wrong. [Smith later wrote a clarification.] We simply decided that instead of registering ourselves for more silver or dishes, that if people wanted to give us a gift, we’d set up a charitable trust for our son. So when he turns 21, he’ll begin learning the process of giving. It’s all for charity, and our friends have generously made their tax-deductible contributions, and everyone thought it was a great idea--except some mean-spirited people who thought it was some kind of monetary gift to him.

Q: You’re 56 now, and with your marriage and new son, you have a revived and virile image out there. Does that affect how you’re perceived in Hollywood?

A: No. You hope you still have an age range that you can play. I mean, I don’t think you want to go play a lot of “Wonder Boys”-type characters (laughing). I’d like to do a nice romance again and some more mainstream roles, but I don’t think you want to be a fool about your age. That’s a sad and embarrassing thing for a man or a woman when they pretend they’re not getting older.

Q: But men seem to have it easier that way than women--in being perceived as sexy leading men and in making that transition into character work, like “Wonder Boys.”

A: Whether it’s a Tony Hopkins or Sean Connery, there’s a number of actors out there doing that [transition]. But in general, I think [sexiness] is in the eye of the beholder, and people are living longer these days and looking better longer. You just try to maintain a level of quality, and I’ve been fairly selective. I wish I had found more things I wanted to play, but I haven’t. It’s why I’ve found things like the U.N. [where Douglas is an official “messenger of peace”] to do in my free time that I really enjoy. Some actors I know don’t know what to do with themselves when they’re not working.

Q: You don’t have that problem?

A: (Laughing) No, that’s not my problem.

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Styled by Tina Fagin; grooming: Maria Verel

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Hilary de Vries’ last piece for the magazine was a Q&A; with Samuel L. Jackson.