International star Michael Douglas tells Al-Mawed: I spent my first salary on food
I grew up in Bermuda.
Steve McQueen gave me a Porsche that I drove while I was acting in my second movie.
I've been in movies about technology and I don't understand what I'm saying.
After losing money I gave my money management to professionals
I'm acting in a Chinese movie now and it's a unique and fun experience.
The lives of stars are often different from those of other people, or so I personally imagine, through the actors and actresses I have interacted with in my long journalistic career, and Michael Douglas is no different from them, as he comes from a family whose members mostly have a relationship with cinema and whose personal lives are volatile in terms of marriage and divorce. His father is the famous film actor Kirk Douglas and his mother is also an actress from the islands of Bermuda. She divorced her husband Kirk Douglas when Michael was five years old. Michael grew up between the islands of Bermuda and America. After her divorce, his mother married David Dared, who is also an actor, director and screenwriter and had a great influence on Michael Douglas’ upbringing, as he worked in New York City.
One of the most important milestones in Michael's personal life was when he married his second wife, the beautiful actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, who was 25 years younger than him, as they were born on the same day but 25 years apart. At the time, he told his friends after seeing her in the movie "The Mark of Zoro" that he would marry her, and he actually proposed to her and married her in a huge ceremony in the largest hotel in New York.
Michael Douglas' life was not easy at all. Years ago, he was diagnosed with throat cancer, but he was treated and completely cured. Also, at one point, his wife, Catherine Zeta Jones, separated from him, but they got back together to resume their married life. In a recent interview with him, I asked him about his life and upbringing. He said that he grew up in Bermuda, where his maternal ancestors are from these beautiful islands. He is proud that his family history on his maternal side goes back about 400 years, as his ancestors migrated from Scotland to this beautiful island. He said: “It was difficult for me to leave this beautiful place, but work necessities forced me to live in New York City. This was when I started acting. My first salary was $85, which I spent on food. But then I acted in a Steve McQueen movie, and my salary was $3,400. In addition to acting in the movie, I enjoyed driving a Porsche. At the end of the movie, Steve McQueen gave me the keys to the car as a gift. At the time, I was living in a small apartment with the actor Danny DeVito in Manhattan, New York. This is where my cinematic life developed.”
I asked him about acting in films with emerging actors and he said: The most important thing is for the film to be successful. This is the most important thing in acting. He said that some actors try to compete in the work to appear at the expense of others in the film and this is a big mistake because every actor must do his best to show the merits of the actor opposite him in the best possible way because the success of the film benefits everyone. Directing and producing a film is a collective cooperation of all those working in it, from actors to director to writer and producer. This is what makes a film successful or not.
He added: “In some films, especially those whose stories revolve around technology, computers, space or medicine, I would act and say topics and sentences, and I would not understand at all what I was saying, but they would explain the general meaning to me, so that I could express it with my face or hands, and I personally hate being forced to say things that I do not understand.”
I told him that I know that he loves collecting paintings and oil paintings. How much of this information is true? He said that he really loves collecting beautiful paintings, which are often very expensive and their price increases every year with the passage of time, but for example, he loves “German Expressionism” paintings, which are now very expensive, so he goes to collect the Century Hudson River paintings, which are very beautiful. He especially loves a painting next to a window that overlooks a beautiful view, but after that he found that these paintings are very valuable and expensive. He also started buying land, but now he is selling it. Then he continued, saying: “Do you know someone who wants to buy land in Majorca?” He wants to sell it (and of course this remark was a joke from him) and said: “I was investing and managing my own capital, and that was of course during the days of good economic activity in the nineties of the last century, but after the international collapse in securities and other things in the years between 2007 and 2008, I lost a large sum of money and realized that I am not the genius in economics as I thought - so now I leave that to the specialists and follow their advice and instructions.”
I told him that I knew he was working on a Chinese movie now, so how did that happen and what was its effect on him? Was the pay good? He said: “No, the pay wasn’t good, but it was a wonderful experience for me. I was acting in the Chinese city of Hainan, and of course I don’t speak Chinese. I had an American girl with me the whole time who spoke Chinese and translated what was going on for me, and so on. It was a unique experience for me and enjoyable at the same time. I hope the movie itself will be a great success, as China is one of the biggest markets for movies.”
Hollywood - By George Doss
Steve McQueen gave me a Porsche that I drove while I was acting in my second movie.
I've been in movies about technology and I don't understand what I'm saying.
After losing money I gave my money management to professionals
I'm acting in a Chinese movie now and it's a unique and fun experience.
The lives of stars are often different from those of other people, or so I personally imagine, through the actors and actresses I have interacted with in my long journalistic career, and Michael Douglas is no different from them, as he comes from a family whose members mostly have a relationship with cinema and whose personal lives are volatile in terms of marriage and divorce. His father is the famous film actor Kirk Douglas and his mother is also an actress from the islands of Bermuda. She divorced her husband Kirk Douglas when Michael was five years old. Michael grew up between the islands of Bermuda and America. After her divorce, his mother married David Dared, who is also an actor, director and screenwriter and had a great influence on Michael Douglas’ upbringing, as he worked in New York City.
One of the most important milestones in Michael's personal life was when he married his second wife, the beautiful actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, who was 25 years younger than him, as they were born on the same day but 25 years apart. At the time, he told his friends after seeing her in the movie "The Mark of Zoro" that he would marry her, and he actually proposed to her and married her in a huge ceremony in the largest hotel in New York.
Michael Douglas' life was not easy at all. Years ago, he was diagnosed with throat cancer, but he was treated and completely cured. Also, at one point, his wife, Catherine Zeta Jones, separated from him, but they got back together to resume their married life. In a recent interview with him, I asked him about his life and upbringing. He said that he grew up in Bermuda, where his maternal ancestors are from these beautiful islands. He is proud that his family history on his maternal side goes back about 400 years, as his ancestors migrated from Scotland to this beautiful island. He said: “It was difficult for me to leave this beautiful place, but work necessities forced me to live in New York City. This was when I started acting. My first salary was $85, which I spent on food. But then I acted in a Steve McQueen movie, and my salary was $3,400. In addition to acting in the movie, I enjoyed driving a Porsche. At the end of the movie, Steve McQueen gave me the keys to the car as a gift. At the time, I was living in a small apartment with the actor Danny DeVito in Manhattan, New York. This is where my cinematic life developed.”
I asked him about acting in films with emerging actors and he said: The most important thing is for the film to be successful. This is the most important thing in acting. He said that some actors try to compete in the work to appear at the expense of others in the film and this is a big mistake because every actor must do his best to show the merits of the actor opposite him in the best possible way because the success of the film benefits everyone. Directing and producing a film is a collective cooperation of all those working in it, from actors to director to writer and producer. This is what makes a film successful or not.
He added: “In some films, especially those whose stories revolve around technology, computers, space or medicine, I would act and say topics and sentences, and I would not understand at all what I was saying, but they would explain the general meaning to me, so that I could express it with my face or hands, and I personally hate being forced to say things that I do not understand.”
I told him that I know that he loves collecting paintings and oil paintings. How much of this information is true? He said that he really loves collecting beautiful paintings, which are often very expensive and their price increases every year with the passage of time, but for example, he loves “German Expressionism” paintings, which are now very expensive, so he goes to collect the Century Hudson River paintings, which are very beautiful. He especially loves a painting next to a window that overlooks a beautiful view, but after that he found that these paintings are very valuable and expensive. He also started buying land, but now he is selling it. Then he continued, saying: “Do you know someone who wants to buy land in Majorca?” He wants to sell it (and of course this remark was a joke from him) and said: “I was investing and managing my own capital, and that was of course during the days of good economic activity in the nineties of the last century, but after the international collapse in securities and other things in the years between 2007 and 2008, I lost a large sum of money and realized that I am not the genius in economics as I thought - so now I leave that to the specialists and follow their advice and instructions.”
I told him that I knew he was working on a Chinese movie now, so how did that happen and what was its effect on him? Was the pay good? He said: “No, the pay wasn’t good, but it was a wonderful experience for me. I was acting in the Chinese city of Hainan, and of course I don’t speak Chinese. I had an American girl with me the whole time who spoke Chinese and translated what was going on for me, and so on. It was a unique experience for me and enjoyable at the same time. I hope the movie itself will be a great success, as China is one of the biggest markets for movies.”
Hollywood - By George Doss