Michael Douglas: ‘I consider myself a really good friend’

MICHAEL DOUGLAS (Photo by Ruben V. Nepales)

Los Angeles – When you put Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro and Kevin Kline together, the result is just fun – onscreen and offscreen.

That was exactly what happened when the four award-winning actors worked together for the first time in the Jon Turteltaub-helmed comedy film, “Last Vegas.”

Set in Las Vegas, Nevada, the film is about four best friends in their late ’60s – Billy (Michael), Paddy (Robert), Sam (Kevin) and Archie (Morgan) – who decide to have a bachelor party in Las Vegas for Billy who was getting married.

When we talked to Michael recently at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas, we asked him if anything funny or memorable happened with the four of them on the set since they didn’t know each other that well.

With a twinkle in his eye, Michael said, “Well, obviously the bathing suit contest was not a rough day. We had a good time on that. When we had the party sequence and Morgan was doing his whole spiel about being drunk with the Red Bull and Vodka, he said he didn’t know if he was getting drunk or electrocuted. Our director Jon Turteltaub said, ‘Just pick up the pace a little bit’ and he picked it up and I fell down. It was so funny. Really, really good.”

He continued, “Kevin, I would just stare at because he had more shtick than anybody I had ever seen in my life. He had glasses going up and down. He had more things and I was fascinated. He was wonderful and so funny. He was always alive. He was always looking for something that he could do.

“As for Bobby, he is a pussycat. He is a sweetheart. He’s just got a real family. He’s very family oriented. You really feel the Italian in him. Above all, all of us were just so happy that there wasn’t a dickhead among the group. Everyone was nice and I understand why actors and directors work together whenever they can. You don’t have to go through that dance of meeting each other. There’s a comfort factor. It saves days of getting to know somebody. It’s just like a comfortable chair that you have been in for a long, long time.”

Asked what kind of a friend he was, Michael replied, “I consider myself a really good friend. The fact that I could only mirror my friends, who are all people who I have known either in college when I graduated in 1968, or people like Danny De Vito. We were roommates in New York in 1968. Jack Nicholson, who I have known since ‘Cuckoo’s Nest,’ has been an old friend.

“The nice thing about old friends is that a lot of times, they know you before your successes. So you are not worried about being cautious. Then lately, I have been fortunate to have made a couple of new friends. The magic of a movie like ‘Last Vegas,’ you heard the story that none of us had ever worked before together, but Morgan and I play golf. So I know Morgan a little bit. Bobby, I have known over the years a bit. Kevin, I do not know so much. But it’s one of those opportunities where you make new friends. I think the greatest treat was the end of the first week of this movie where we all realized that we liked each other. There was no competition. You were older and past that point. We adored our director Jon Turteltaub. I remember going to the producers and saying, ‘Look, don’t do anything. You have four actors who really like each other. They like the director. There’s nothing more you want than that. The only way you can mess this up is to try and make suggestions.”

Now 69 years old, the former symbol of power and sex in Hollywood for a long time as director Jon Turteltaub described him, revealed that he can relate to his character. “I know that character in Los Angeles who is married to someone 30 years younger,” he said. “But I don’t think you have to live the part. I certainly haven’t because I have been married most of my adult life, except for earlier in my career and then five, six years before I met Catherine (Zeta Jones). So it was just a really well written part.”

He continued, “It was a good idea. Obviously, you were a little aware of the ‘Hangover’ similarities and all of that. But they did a really good job and Jon did it with the writer developing Kevin and Morgan’s parts which were not anywhere as near as developed. It was much more of a conflict between Bobby and I. So I guess, my input into the project really was just encouraging. The development of Morgan’s part and Kevin’s part and now of course, I am extremely jealous because they did such a good job. They are both so funny in the picture.”

Michael Douglas: ‘I consider myself a really good friend’

Source: Mb.com.ph (November 03, 2013 at 10:00PM)

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