Two-time Oscar winner Michael Douglas has revealed he may be finished with acting, saying he has “no real intentions” to return to the industry.
Speaking at the Karlovy Vary international film festival in the Czech Republic for the 50th anniversary of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – which Douglas co-produced – the 80-year-old actor and producer told a press conference that unless “something special came up” for him, he would not act again.
His last role was playing Benjamin Franklin in the Apple TV+ series Franklin, which was filmed in 2022 and released in 2024.
“I’ve had a very busy career. Now, I have not worked since 2022, purposely, because I realised I had to stop,” he said.
“I’d been working pretty hard for almost 60 years, and I did not want to be one of those people who dropped dead on the set,” he added.
“I’m very happy with taking the time off. I have no real intentions. But I say I’m not retired, because if something special came up, I’d go back. But otherwise, I’m quite happy. I just like to watch my wife [actor Catherine Zeta-Jones] work.”
He added that he was “trying to get a good script out” of a ‘“little independent movie”, but joked: “I’m not pursuing work. My golf game is getting better.”
In 2010 Douglas underwent chemotherapy and radiation for stage four throat cancer. At Karlovy Vary, he said he was “fortunate” to avoid surgery, which “would have meant not being able to talk and removing part of my jaw … that would have been limiting as an actor”.
Douglas also addressed the current state of US politics, saying that he felt his country is “flirting with autocracy”.
“I look at it generally as the fact of how precious democracy is, of how vulnerable it is and how it always has to be protected,” he said. “I hope that what we’re struggling with right now is a reminder of all the hard work the Czechs did in gaining their freedom and independence. Politics now seem to be for profit. Money has entered democracy as a profit centre. People are going into politics now to make money. We maintained an ideal, an idealism in the US, which does not exist now.”
However, he added that he would “not to go into too much detail” as “the news speaks for itself”.
“I myself am worried, I am nervous, and I think it’s all of our responsibility to look out for ourselves,” he added.