Name dropping with Michael Douglas

Brut America

Sharon Stone … Paul Rudd … Jane Fonda … Jack Nicholson …  Michael Douglas, Palme d'or d'honneur recipient for the Festival de Cannes, gives us the tea.  #Cannes2023

Transcript

00:00Bravo, bravo, Oliver.

00:02Yeah, yeah, there'll be nudity, huh?

00:04The so-called f*** of the century.

00:09If I try to be objective about my father

00:13and look at him afar,

00:15he had more stamina, more energy,

00:20more intensity than almost anybody

00:23I've ever seen in my life.

00:25I admired him so much because he used to ask me,

00:28do you think I was a good father?

00:31And he was, eventually,

00:33because as his career dwindled and he got older,

00:39and he had a couple of serious accidents,

00:40he had a stroke,

00:42and then he had a very bad helicopter accident

00:45where he survived,

00:47and some other people were killed.

00:50He asked himself, why am I still alive,

00:54and this 18-year-old pilot is dead?

00:57And he kind of returned to his roots,

00:59and he began working with a rabbi

01:02every week studying the Old Testament,

01:05and in my father's old age,

01:07he became quite spiritual, quite kind,

01:11and I love him and I miss him very, very much, very much.

01:15Sharon Stone, we were casting Basic Instinct,

01:21and we could not find an actress to play the part,

01:25and I don't know if you know Paul Verhoeven

01:27or if you've ever had experience with Paul Verhoeven.

01:32He's sort of a Dutch Calvinist director,

01:37and when he would interview the ladies for the parts

01:40for the movies, he'd go, yeah, yeah,

01:42there'll be nudity, huh?

01:44There'll be nudity, much, a lot of nudity.

01:46I say, Paul, you can't, you're not gonna get anybody.

01:49I was away in Europe,

01:52and Paul sends me a audition tape

01:57that he did with Sharon Stone playing my role,

02:01and she's fantastic.

02:04So we had a wonderful, wonderful working relationship.

02:08We had a lot of intimacy, I mean,

02:10to say the least, on camera.

02:14The so-called fuck of the century,

02:16we spent a week in bed.

02:20We got to know each other very well,

02:23but it's very, very sweet.

02:24Oliver Stone, extremely talented writer and director,

02:30and every actor has given probably their best performances

02:34with Oliver Stone.

02:35Why is that?

02:37Because he's tough.

02:40Most directors act like the patriarch, the father figure,

02:45and the actors are children.

02:48Oliver treats you like another soldier in the tent,

02:53like we're in Vietnam.

02:54He wanted Gekko to be a little meaner, a little tougher,

02:59and he was willing to have me angry at him.

03:02When you were shooting Wall Street,

03:04one day he said you're bad.

03:07He said I was bad, and I went to go look at the film,

03:12and I thought I was pretty good,

03:15and he said, yeah, you are,

03:18and I didn't know what he was doing, but I was not happy,

03:23and that's what I didn't realize until afterwards,

03:27but he was happy to have me just a little more angrier

03:30at him for the performance,

03:33and that, I think, is part of the reason

03:36why every actor we ever worked with

03:38gave their best performances,

03:39so bravo, bravo, Oliver.

03:43Paul Rudd is probably the nicest man in our industry.

03:50I love the combination of what a star he is,

03:55and he well deserves it.

03:56He's brilliant talent as a writer,

03:59and yet he's very self-effacing.

04:04He's very humble, great humility,

04:07a crazy Kansas City Chiefs football fan.

04:12We share our joy for football a lot.

04:14Everything that happens to him is well-deserved.

04:18I don't think he has an enemy in the world,

04:21and yet does not make him weak.

04:25He approaches work and life the way I do.

04:28You try to give the best situations you can.

04:32You try to make it as best as you can.

04:34You don't make it dark, you make it light.

04:38Jane Fonda, we shared the fact

04:40that we both were the products,

04:42the children of famous parents.

04:45Her father, Henry Fonda, my father, Kirk,

04:48and we produced together The China Syndrome.

04:53She's a lovely, lovely lady.

04:55I love the way she's talking about

04:57how happy she is in her 80s now,

04:59and I think she's encouraging a lot of people.

05:03Very, very bright and very strong,

05:08and I'm always, always happy to see her.

05:11Jack is an extraordinary, unique individual.

05:15In real life, he's a lovely man, but he's guarded.

05:20It's difficult to know in real life.

05:22When he gets in front of a camera,

05:26he uses that as an excuse to open himself up completely.

05:30For me, one of the big lessons for Jack

05:34is to learn about reacting.

05:36There's too many actors who wait for their line.

05:39They just wait, wait, and then they start to talk,

05:43but they don't listen, and he's a great, great listener

05:46and a wonderful actor.

05:48Thank you so much.

05:49I think that's all the time we have.

05:51All right, well, thank you.

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