#2565 - Michael Douglas

Michael Douglas was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1944 not because his family lived there, but because his mother went into early labor while visiting an aunt who had married into the Johnson & Johnson fortune and lived in a castle. That accidental birthplace is one of many unlikely turns in a life that spans 80 years, two generations of Hollywood royalty, and a career that includes producing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, starring in Wall Street and Falling Down, and surviving stage-four throat cancer. In a wide-ranging conversation with Joe Rogan, Douglas moves from the personal to the political, covering the making of his memoir, the persistence of the themes in Falling Down, the corruption he sees in politics and philanthropy, and his long-standing obsession with eliminating nuclear weapons.

The memoir and the burden of legacy

Douglas resisted writing a memoir for years, but after his cancer diagnosis about sixteen years ago, his priorities shifted. He initially planned a handbook about producing, taking twelve of his movies and telling the stories from conception to completion, inspired by David O. Selznick’s Memo. But as he got into it, he realized he had to talk about the personal stuff too. “It’s kind of scary,” he said. “Do I really want to share all this shit with everybody?”