Michael Douglas Has 'No Real Intentions' to Act Again, Says US Is 'Flirting with Autocracy'
“The disappointing factor is that politics now appears to be for revenue,” the actor says. “Individuals are going into politics now to earn money, and we preserve an idealism within the U.S. which doesn’t exist now.”
Michael Douglas could have been on the Kolovy Differ Movie Competition in Czechoslovakia for the fiftieth anniversary screening of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, however the Wall Avenue star took the chance to lambaste the course of the USA, and “valuable democracy” on the whole.
He additionally took a second to speak about his private life, together with a daunting battle with throat most cancers. “Stage 4 most cancers just isn’t a vacation, however there aren’t many selections, are there,” Douglas stated on stage, per Variety, noting that he was “lucky” that radiation was profitable as surgical procedure “would have meant not having the ability to discuss and eradicating a part of my jaw.”
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Whereas the Deadly Attraction star stated that such an end result would have restricted his talents as an actor, it seems that the 80-year-old is not all that involved about it, both manner. He stated he stopped in 2022 as a result of he realized he had to.
“I had been working fairly onerous for nearly 60 years, and I didn’t need to be a type of individuals who dropped useless on the set,” he defined, per The Hollywood Reporter. “I’ve no actual intentions of going again. I say I’m not retired as a result of if one thing particular got here up, I’d return, however in any other case, no.”
“I’m fairly comfortable to watch my spouse work,” he quipped, referring to Catherine Zeta-Jones. “Catherine is 25 years youthful than I’m. She’s very busy proper now. And I feel within the spirit of sustaining a great marriage, I’m comfortable to play the spouse.”
Whereas a lot of the press convention following the screening centered on the lengthy and storied historical past of the movie’s manufacturing, the media did lastly asks Douglas his ideas on the present state of politics in the USA.
“Let’s simply say that our president’s identify has been talked about sufficient,” Douglas replied. However whereas he resisted the urge to speak about Donald Trump straight, he did weigh in on what he calls the “weak” state of democracy within the U.S. and around the globe.
“I take a look at it usually as the very fact how valuable democracy is, how weak it’s, and the way it at all times has to be protected,” he stated, including of the USA, “Proper now, our nation is flirting with autocracy, as [are] another democracies on this world.”
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“I hope what we’re struggling with now [helps us remember] all of the onerous work that the Czechs did,” he continued. “Democracy just isn’t to be taken as a right.”
“The disappointing factor is that politics now appears to be for revenue,” he asserted. “We maintained an idealism within the U.S. which doesn’t exist now. The information speaks for itself. I’m frightened, I’m nervous. And I simply assume it’s in regards to the accountability not for another person to look out for us however for us to look out for one another.”
Paul Zaentz, the nephew of Cuckoo producer Saul Zaentz, was on the stage as nicely and, as detailed by IndieWire, provided his personal ideas — and even linked the dialog to the Oscar-winning movie, based mostly on Ken Kesey’s novel.
Recurring themes in [director Miloš Forman’s] motion pictures are particular person freedom, and the battle towards oppression. Cuckoo’s Nest is about rise up.”
“It is without doubt one of the explanation why after I confirmed ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ to the ‘Amadeus’ crew in Prague in 1983, the following day I had a go to by the Czech secret police asking me, ‘Please do not present motion pictures which are banned in Czechoslovakia,'” he continued.
“It is ironic that 42 years later, Cuckoo’s Nest is getting honored right here on its fiftieth anniversary, and I am afraid that Ken Kesey’s sensible e book could also be banned within the USA,” he emphasised. “We all know what Nurse Ratched represents.”
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Zaentz went on to blast Trump’s “Massive, Lovely Invoice,” which he signed into regulation on Friday: “Yesterday, July 4th, the malignant, narcissist, want-to-be dictator that occupies the White Home signed a invoice that was handed by his merciless heartless followers to make the wealthy richer and take meals and well being care away from the individuals who want it. A really unhappy July 4th for the USA.”
He ended his passionate message with a plea to everybody on the planet, asking them to not “surrender on America.” He reminded everybody that when Kesey’s e book was written in 1962, the protest slogan for the Vietnam Conflict was, “We will overcome.”
Making a marked comparability to now, Zaentz stated, “We will overcome the completely corrupt, morally bankrupt, treasonous evil factor and his cronies. I am sure that Miloš would agree with me that Trump is a stain on my nation and his presidency can be regarded upon as the best ethical failure within the historical past of the U.S.”
In information that appeared to come as a shock to Douglas, Zaentz additionally revealed that he has been working with Kesey’s household with the intention to launch a sequence adaptation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Subsequent, shifting the main target to the e book’s Native American narrator.
“It’s based mostly on the e book and the e book was instructed by means of the eyes of Chief Bromden,” Zaentz defined. “On the finish of the primary [season], the Jack Nicholson character would die. After which the second yr can be what occurs to the Chief after he escapes. That I’m okay with, however by no means a remake of the film.”
