It wasn’t until his junior year in college that Michael Douglas decided to follow in his parent’s footsteps and pursue acting. But unlike his father, Kirk Douglas, and mother, Diana Douglas, it took the Ant-Man Star a while to get the hang of it, and the initial years in the field were not pleasant.
From following bad advice regarding acting, which left him struggling in front of the camera for years, he had a rough time acting, and his fear of performing onstage didn’t help soothe the matter. As a result, the Oscar winner spent his initial acting years fighting his demons, which resulted in him developing a habit of throwing up before performing.
Michael Douglas Developed a Habit of Throwing up Following His Stage Fright
After taking theatre in his junior year, Michael Douglas had a hard time enjoying acting following his terrible stage fright, which pushed him to get sick before getting onstage. Following this, he had to store a wastebasket offstage as he used to throw up before performing. Per Contact Music, he was quoted saying,
“My junior year in college they said, ‘You have to declare a major, you can’t keep taking general education courses.’ So I said, ‘I guess I’ll take theatre. My mother’s an actress, my father [is an actor].’ I started acting [and] I was the worst actor you ever seen. I had the worst fear. I used to have a wastebasket offstage, where I could get sick before I go on,”
On top of that, the advice that pushed him to become a method actor for a while only worsened the situation for the Basic Instinct Star, and it wasn’t until Fatal Attraction, he would figure things out.
Fatal Attraction Marked the End of Michael Douglas’ Acting Struggles
Despite struggling in his initial years as an actor, the ’80s would eventually propel Michael Douglas to stardom, and Fatal Attraction played a major part in revamping him as a performer. While making Fatal Attraction, Douglas realized that acting is all about lying, and he was no longer worried about finding the truth, which significantly improved things for him. He told Parade:
“One day, like 1985, I’d made Fatal Attraction and I realized that acting is lying, rather than trying to find the truth. That’s the freedom it gives. Then I understood the actors that I admired, Marlon Brando or Jack Nicholson, whoever. When I realized that, I broke out with a maniacal kind of laugh that didn’t stop.”
Not long after Fatal Attraction, Michael Douglas would garner an Oscar win for Best Actor for Wall Street, and he was no longer struggling in front of the camera.
Fatal Attraction is available to stream on Paramount Plus.
