Emmy Award nominee Michael Douglas said he has no plans to retire as he reflected on 50 years in showbusiness.
The 74-year-old Hollywood star – who has won Oscars as both an actor and a producer – revealed he is enjoying his work now more than ever after suffering badly with nerves during his early career.
Speaking at an event in Los Angeles on the eve of Sunday’s Emmys, he told the PA news agency: “I was not an actor growing up, I had a lot of stage fright early in my career. I’m enjoying myself (now) more than I have.”
Douglas is best known for his dramatic roles, including as “greed is good” banker Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, a part which won him the best actor Oscar in 1988.
However, it is a comic turn which has earned his Emmy nod. He is up for lead actor in a comedy series for his portrayal of an ageing acting coach in The Kominsky Method, a role which bagged him a Golden Globe earlier this year.
Douglas, the son of 102-year-old Hollywood star Kirk Douglas, said it “means a lot” to be recognised for comedy, in a category also including Bill Hader, Ted Danson and Eugene Levy.
He joked: “And I’m really savouring the fact – because my father doesn’t think I’m very funny – I’m really enjoying the fact he can’t get over this when he looks at the other people I’m with.”
Douglas also revealed Kirk – one of the last surviving members of Hollywood’s Golden Age – is a fan of mixed martial arts sport and is doing well as he approaches is 103rd birthday.
Speaking at the Bafta Los Angeles Tea Party, where he was joined by wife Catherine Zeta Jones, he said: “I just had lunch with him, he’s doing great. He’s going to be 103 in December.
“He loves a good laugh, I do my best but I’m not going to be winning any award from him. He’s fantastic – I never anticipated this.”
Douglas, who has starred in films including 1987’s Fatal Attraction, 1992’s Basic Instinct and 1995’s The American President, won his first Oscar in 1975 for producing best picture winner One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
He put his success and longevity down to his background as a producer.
“Because I’m a producer I’ve never thought a lot about the part, I’ve thought more about the piece of material”, he said.
“And the fact I love to have a small part in a good movie rather than a big part in a bad movie.
“I have a pretty good sense of what’s good material and I have a pretty good batting average. Fifty years now, in the biz.”