Michael Douglas: Globes Trotter
This Sunday at the Golden Globes, Michael Douglas collects the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement. How does it feel? The actor — who turns 60 in September — admits to having some mixed emotions.
"I guess I gotta use a little more Grecian Formula in the hair," he cracks. "It's always a lovely honor. On the other side, you're never quite ready for it. You feel like someone's starting to put you out to pasture, at a time when you're still feeling pretty frisky.
"But it's very nice," he adds. "It takes a moment for you to do a little inventory and look back over the past 30 years at what you've accomplished. I'm relatively satisfied with what's there and how it's all turned out."
It bears noting that the Hollywood Foreign Press also DeMilled his dad, Kirk Douglas, back in 1968. "I guess it's the first time that people of the same family have won the DeMille award," Douglas says. "I'm beginning now to appreciate it a lot more. You spend a large part of your life getting out of the shadow of what your father's accomplished, but you can't. He's extraordinary. Between the two of us, we've made approximately 110 movies. I think I've had nine nominations at the Golden Globes, and won three of them in different categories over the years... There's a certain kind of continuity."
Having a young family with wife Catherine Zeta-Jones leaves Douglas little time to rest on his laurels. Although, he jokingly admits, "it's interesting how you change your workouts into increasing strength in your lower back. You do a lot of picking up [of kids] and running around. I think starting a family when I have now is very joyful and keeps you young."
Any chance Mr. and Mrs. Douglas will make a film together anytime soon? "We've flirted around with it," he says. "We'll find a picture to do sometime in future, simply for the enjoyment of working together and being together. We have a couple of ideas, but we haven't made any definite decisions yet."
What of talk that the couple is considering a big-screen version of Guys & Dolls? "I'm very short on the hoofing and the singing part," he laughs. "I wouldn't [do it]. But we're actually indirectly involved, because I own a literary company, which has the underlying rights to Guys & Dolls. I know musical comedy is one of Catherine's loves, and hopefully, she'll do another one."