Michael Douglas loves the Traffic

Lesley O'Toole10 April 2012

Michael Douglas is in an understandably ebullient mood. His two films Wonder Boys and Traffic, currently playing in US cinemas, both earned Golden Globe nominations for Best Picture and he, himself, a Best Actor nod for the former.

And, of course, there's that baby, that wedding and that Welsh girl, herself the recipient of a Golden Globe Best Supporting Actress nomination for Traffic, Steven Soderbergh's enthralling exposition on drug trafficking either side of the US-Mexico border.

Douglas will go no further on the subject of Traffic without clarifying a very important point: he and Catherine Zeta Jones both star in the film, but not together. Though happy to sell themselves to panting OK! readers, they are less thrilled at the prospect of Traffic being sold as a Douglas mom and pop package. Not only do they have no scenes together, they don't even appear in the same strands of the film, which comprises three non-connecting segments.

"We consciously try to have our names apart in the artwork" says Douglas. "But the trouble is with the publicity machines in each country, they want to put us together because they think it's going to sell more cinema tickets. We try to police it. We have things in our contracts."

Douglas had initially turned down the role of America's newlyappointed drug czar Robert Wakefield which was then offered to Harrison Ford. At the time, says Douglas, the role was "the weakest part in the piece". By the time Zeta Jones was signed up (Soderbergh's first and only choice for the role), the script had improved immeasurably.

"Harrison is smart. I don't know what happened to him but the part got a lot better, really smart. So I jumped up and said, 'Please reconsider me, can we think about it?'"

What director, even one as erudite as Soderbergh, wouldn't want Michael Douglas, famed Democrat and political flirt, playing a Republican politician whose teenage daughter is strung out on drugs? It was only a few months ago that Douglas was complaining about the appalling scripts cluttering his desk. Now he is a strong contender in the Best Actor Oscar race, for his Wonder Boys performance. He might also score a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Traffic. Yet, in spite of the accolades, Douglas is extremely self-effacing.

"What I like most about all the talk is that we're talking about two movies that are in the running for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Cinematography. That's when you know you're in a good movie. So many actors just read their parts and say, 'What a great part this is'. I say, 'Yeah, but the movie can still be a piece of shit.' I don't want a good part in a lousy movie. I'd rather have whatever part I can in a movie I think is good. Then again, talk is cheap although it's been a thin year."

True enough, but the end of the year and beginning of 2001 heralded an unexpectedly strong slew of contenders. Douglas looks like being one of the few to challenge Russell Crowe for the Best Actor Oscar; two Romeos whose recent romantic endeavours may or may not endear them to those crucial voters. Unlike his career, his personal life would win him few awards.

Take The Wedding, for example; middle-Americans in particular were appalled on hearing that in lieu of wedding presents, guests should endow baby Dylan. Stories have emanated of nervous guests at the wedding asking others how many zeros their cheque boasted. Unsurprisingly, Douglas thinks the subject is "nobody's business".

"It's made very clear that the money we got from Dylan's pictures is going to be put into a trust for our son growing up. And whatever money we got from the wedding pictures, some has been given away to charities. I have a long history with The Michael Douglas Foundation and of giving to people."

So why not all of the money?, I wonder silently. And why the Plaza Hotel in New York?, I ask aloud.

"We too would have liked to go out on some point somewhere and have a beautiful wedding."

We too? Is he referring to the Pitt-Aniston nuptials which took place under marquees on a point above the Malibu coastline and resulted in fabulous PR when the couple released one stunning black and white photo?

"We knew from the past that we didn't want to listen to helicopters. The noise of a helicopter destroys the whole environment. And we picked New York because it's between Los Angeles and Wales, and it's an easy place to go to on a Saturday night."

When I ask about the wedding photo debacle which resulted in the couple taking Hello! magazine to court, Douglas asks why I use the word "debacle" as if the experience were a good advertisement for auctioning off wedding-photo rights. He says they made the decision to "go with OK!" after talking with "the other magazine. But the magazine that lost decided to be a poor loser and say 'since we didn't get it, we're going to try to sneak in and get pictures'. So we put out an injunction and we stopped those pictures, at least for a period of time."

Douglas, a remarkably affable and charismatic man, speaks with utter conviction; he seems to see nothing vulgar in the couple's tactics. Their thinking is logic-based; that with high-quality pictures printed on nice paper, there will be no market for grainy paparazzi snaps of either wedding or baby.

"It is hard for someone like you who works in the legitimate Press to know just how crazy some of this paparazzi tabloid journalism has become."

Such is not the only contradiction in the well-documented life of Michael Douglas. Lest we forget, Douglas won his first Oscar aged 31 for producing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. In more recent times, he has produced the likes of John Woo's Face/Off, one of the most violent films to emanate from Hollywood in recent years. Douglas is also a special ambassador to the United Nations, specialist subjects - disarmament and small arms control.

"Oh, you can always find contradictions," he says. "I am one of those people who doesn't believe the media is the victim. Face/Off was a tremendous success in Japan, which loves violent movies. But nobody is getting shot because they don't have guns. It's a good election campaign discussion and it takes the issues away from the arms companies. The real issue is the fact that for $1 million you can buy a whole load of Kalashnikovs. You have civil wars in Uganda and Rwanda and all these countries, and for a million dollars you can kill 12 million people."

Of the much-dissed incumbent US President, Douglas says drily that Bush has "the full support of the National Rifle Association. And he believes strongly in the missile-defence system. If you talk to people around the world, you understand that this is only to create an arms build-up, and a missile-defence system will not protect you from a terrorist suitcase bomb. So I don't think there's a lot I can talk to Governor Bush about."

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