Michael Douglas: Greed is NOT good

Dynasty. The word can be thrown around lightly, but not in the case of the Douglas family. Very rarely have both father and son reached the pinnacle of show business. Very early on, Michael Douglas had to wrestle with an important question: what do you do when your father is the hero? Well you play a different kind of hero. A flawed protagonist, like in Fatal Attraction. A greedy businessman, in Wall Street. Michael Douglas has become the champion of moral ambiguity, the symbol of how weak the modern version of the typical Hollywood leading man can be. But in recent years, he’s moved on from playing typical “Michael Douglas” roles. By playing Dr. Hank Pym, in the Marvel hit franchise Ant Man, Douglas is exploring new ground, discovering with glee the world of green screen action films. Well into his seventies, after surviving a bout of tongue cancer, Michael Douglas is far from being done, his passion for his craft as strong as it’s ever been. Even interviews don’t bother his generally sunny disposition, as evidenced by his facetime introduction of wife Catherin Zeta-Jones while talking to us – “say hi to Catherine!” At the end of the interview, he decided to grab a sandwich and stick around, chatting about vintage hotels in New York while reading the Times. Just a regular guy, far away from the Hollywood he grew up in.

Photos by Nigel Parry