Michael Douglas has revealed that he is considering starring in a television series because new online outlets such as Netflix offer better opportunities for him than the film industry.
The 72-year-old Hollywood actor said there were a “limited” number of his kind of movies being made, and was contemplating making a return to the small screen.
Michael, who was speaking at one-off evening in conversation with Jonathan Ross at London’s Drury Lane Theatre on Sunday, said he had “never, never” thought he would return to television but was now “considering looking at a series”.
The actor made his name on the TV show The Streets Of San Francisco but quit to move into the film industry where he won Oscars for both his acting and producing.
Michael Douglas and Jonathan Ross (David Jensen/PA)
He told the sold-out audience he did not believe his career would “come full circle” but said: “The quality of the work going on in television now and the limited number of my kind of movies that I made in the 70s and the 80s that are so difficult to do now, but when I do them I get paid nothing, and the minimalist, tiny audience in the theatrical area.
“Whereas in the streaming or this independent Netflix or HBO … it’s a real opportunity to do good work.”
In a wide-ranging interview with Jonathan at the theatre where his wife, Catherine Zeta Jones, 47, had her big break while acting in 42nd Street as a teenager, Michael also spoke about how he had hoped nuclear disarmament would happen in his lifetime.
Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones (Evan Agostini/AP)
He said filming the 1979 thriller China Syndrome prompted him to have “an epiphany” about the weapons.
“That picture has had an amazing personal effect on me because when that movie came out … it was 10 days later that Three Mile Island happened.
“That has now become my lifelong cause which is eliminating nuclear weapons. It was something I really hoped in my lifetime would happen.”
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