Actor Michael Douglas is reflecting on his extraordinary Hollywood career, as well as the complicated personal experiences that shaped his life away from the screen.
Douglas, now 82, recalled how actress Catherine Zeta-Jones first captured his attention when he saw her in the 1998 film “The Mask of Zorro.” He would eventually meet the woman he calls the love of his life.
Not long afterward, Douglas read a magazine profile about Zeta-Jones and noticed that she was attracted to older men. “So I said, ‘Whoa,'” he told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer in an interview that aired Tuesday on “Good Morning America.” Douglas is 25 years older than Zeta-Jones.
The pair later met at a dinner. They share two children and are set to mark their 26th wedding anniversary in November.
Their marriage has endured its share of challenges, including a brief separation that Douglas described as a “time out” for the relationship.
“We both had to change,” Douglas told Sawyer when discussing their time apart. At times, he said, it can be helpful to pause, step back and speak “as two human beings.”
In his new memoir, “One Helluva Ride,” Douglas writes about his relationship with Zeta-Jones and reveals details of earlier romances, including a secret affair with his “Romancing the Stone” co-star Kathleen Turner that remained hidden for 40 years.
The “Fatal Attraction” star also discusses his own struggle with substance abuse, his son Cameron Douglas’ battle with addiction and what it was like to grow up as the child of Hollywood icons Diana Douglas and Kirk Douglas.
Kirk Douglas, a three-time Oscar nominee whom Michael describes as “larger than life,” cast a long shadow over his son’s childhood and career—as both a demanding father and a towering figure in Hollywood.
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“I think he meant well, but he was out of that generation where you smacked around a fair amount,” Michael Douglas told Sawyer. He said his father’s temper contributed to his shyness as a child.
Michael followed his father into acting in his 20s, but their professional paths eventually brought him to an uncomfortable decision: turning Kirk down for a role.
While producing “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Michael said his father strongly wanted to play Randle Patrick McMurphy. However, the studio head and director believed Kirk Douglas was too old for the role. Michael cast Jack Nicholson instead, and Nicholson went on to win an Oscar.
More than five decades later, Michael told Sawyer that informing Kirk—who died in 2020 at age 103—that he had not won the part remains the “hardest thing I ever had to do.”
Years afterward, when Michael Douglas was receiving cancer treatment, his father offered an unexpected display of affection. Kirk surprised him by dressing as a clown in an effort to lift his spirits.
Looking back on a life marked by fame, hardship, loss and second chances, Douglas writes that he now considers himself lucky.
“As I finish the last page of this book, I could look back and say this. I have loved and lost. I have also loved and won with my partner for life, Catherine. Life gave me a second chance at a relationship with my father and life gave me a second chance as a relationship with my son,” Douglas writes on the memoir’s final page.
Editor’s note: This report was updated to reflect that Kirk Douglas died in the year 2020 at age 103.
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