Academy Award-winning actor Michael Douglas has recently revealed that he is likely to retire from his acting career, stating that he has “no real intentions” to return to Hollywood.
While speaking at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic, on Saturday, for the 50th anniversary of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the 80-year-old actor said that unless he got an offer for ‘something special’, he would not act again.
“I’ve had a very busy career. Now, I have not worked since 2022, purposely, because I realised I had to stop,” Douglas said.
“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… I’m very happy with taking the time off. I have no real intentions. But I say I’m not retired, because if something special came up, I’d go back. But otherwise, I’m quite happy. I just like to watch my wife (actress Catherine Zeta-Jones) work,” he added.
Michael Douglas was last seen in the Apple TV+ series Franklin (2024), where he played Benjamin Franklin.
In 2010, Douglas was diagnosed with stage four throat cancer and underwent chemotherapy and radiation. During the film festival on Saturday, he said he was “fortunate” to avoid surgery, which “would have meant not being able to talk and removing part of my jaw … that would have been limiting as an actor”.
Michael attended the film festival for the screening of a newly restored version of Miloš Forman’s 1975 classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which stars Jack Nicholson. Based on the novel by his father, Kirk Douglas, the actor produced the film.
Meanwhile, Michael Douglas’s son Dylan Douglas is all set to make his acting debut in the upcoming thriller I Will Come to You.