Michael Douglas has revealed he might be retired from acting, as he has “no real intentions” of starring in any more projects.
During an appearance at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic, the two-time Oscar-winning Hollywood star, 80, said that he would only perform again if “something special came up”.
Douglas said he has been on a self-imposed acting hiatus after realising he needed a break, having performed solidly for more than five decades in the industry.
“I’ve had a very busy career,” the actor, who is the son of Spartacus star Kirk Douglas, said at the 50th anniversary screening of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which he won an Oscar for producing.
“Now I have not worked since 2022 purposely because I realised I had to stop.”
He continued: “I’d been working pretty hard for almost 60 years and I did not want to be one of those people who dropped dead on the set.”
The actor, whose last role was President Benjamin Franklin in Apple TV+’s Franklin, said he is “very happy with taking the time off” and has “no real intentions” to take on another performance.
However, he refused to conclusively say he was “retired” as the actor would “go back” if “something special came up”.
“But otherwise, I’m quite happy. I just like to watch my wife work,” he added, referring to Welsh Oscar-winning Chicago star Catherine Zeta-Jones, to whom he’s been married since 2000.
Zeta-Jones will next be seen as Morticia Addams in Wednesday season two on Netflix.
Douglas was one of the most bankable stars of the 1980s, appearing in Romancing the Stone, Fatal Attraction and Wall Street, for which he won his second Oscar. His biggest film in the 1990s was erotic thriller Basic Instinct.
The actor dedicated the last 10 years of his career to Marvel, playing Hank Pym in three Ant-Man films as well as 2019 blockbuster Avengers: Endgame.
He is also a producer behind films such as Starman, Flatliners and Face/Off, and he hopes to develop more indies behind the camera as part of his company Further Films, which was founded in 1997.
In 2010, Douglas was diagnosed with stage four throat cancer, undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
He was able to avoid surgery, which he said “would have been limiting as an actor” as it “would have meant not being able to talk and removing part of my jaw”.
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