tavis: good evening from los angeles. tonight, a conversation with two-time oscar-winning actor and producer michael douglas. later this year he stars in the much-anticipated sequel to "wall street's." can catch him in the new film "terri man." -- "solitary man." >> to everyone making a difference, you help us all live better. >> nationwide insurance proudly supports tavis smiley.

>> nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions by viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] >> i am delighted to have michael douglas today. you can catch his latest project called "solitary man." >> dad. >> don't call me that. and you, don't call me grandpa,

not now. >> what should i call you? >> no, that is what i call my dad. >> where is this one? >> don't look, you will screw things up. she is checking me out. tavis: that you have on the program. >> thanks. tavis: "solitary man" is about? >> it is about a very successful, tristate car dealer who thinks he has a serious medical issue, but rather than really following it up, he says you know what, i am going to live each day like it is my last. he leaves his wife, susan sarandon, and gets together with his girlfriend, mary louise parker. it is beautifully written and very funny.

tavis: this is very different. you have played some characters who come to mind now whose lives have disintegrated around them. what is it about disintegrated lives and michael douglas that goes so well together? >> i try to figure out why my whole career is contemporary movies. i have only done one period movie out of 50. somehow, i seem to love these movies where you put a character in an impossible situation and try to watch him get out of it. for me, is sort of a challenge of flying without a net. you take characters that are not inherently likable and try to win the audience over. why i do it, i would probably have to sit on a couch. i am sure it has something to do with my father. [laughter] tavis: i have been wanting to

ask that question. i can run the list. you like playing these guys who just self-destruct. >> you just say, how is he going to get out of this? if you deal with only contemporary themes in you reach a certain age, then you have to cut out the ladies. tavis: to your point, this is a long way from "the streets of san francisco." how do you navigate this place called hollywood as you get older? >> i am very fortunate to have a great marriage and two young kids. i would wish on anybody if they had to rely on their life just for their career. our business has changed dramatically. it is not a lot of fun. pictures of passion, pictures

you want to do, you have to do for nothing. this picture "solitary man, so we shot on a 20 day shooting schedule. i am very fortunate. i pick my spots now. catherine, my wife is a lot younger than i am, so what ever choices she has, i will follow them. tavis: years workdays or vote the same day, september 25. >> -- your birthdays are both the same day, september 25. >> that was the closure. i looked hurt and we found out it was the same day -- i looked at her and said i am going to be the father of your children. she said i have heard a lot about you. [laughter]

tavis: your father was here some time ago, and we had an absolute field day. your dad is something else. i was telling you before became on camera, i have never seen a guy who has swagger after having a stroke. >> he is unbelievable. he wrote that book about his stroke and everything, but depression, that is the big problem with strokes. he really struggled lot, and he got through it and was so helpful for everybody else. ito did before, not -- i do not want to leave my wife alone in the room with him. he says forget about you, where is your wife? he was 93. he did a one-man show which was put into it dvd. he has a new book he is working on. then he sends me a script of a

movie he wants to do. i said dad, the insurance on you is going to cost more than the movie. [laughter] tavis: this is funny, because i went back and had to read this for myself. the last time, many years ago your dad sent you a script and you did not cast your dad and the script. i will let you tell the story. it has a great ending. we all know the movie. >> i am glad you brought this up. i am going to clear this up. i father originally bought the galley and the rights to "one flew over the cuckoo's nest." it was a play, and he hope to make it into a movie. he tried for years to make it into a movie. alternately, when he was going to selig, i took it over to try to get it made -- he was going to sell it. after five or six years he got

it made with jack nicholson playing the part and all of this. so dad always tells the story that when he was working with the usia during the cold war, he had going into it -- he had gone to czechoslovakia and said he talked to the director about this project. he sent it to him, but he never got it. he has told this story now after we got the moviegoing. now he starts up with me about "son, you did not let me play the part." this is the guy you send the book to 15 years ago and you want to talk to me about casting it. we got along really well. i remind him that with his share of the producing profits, he made more money off that movie that any picture.

it was my first oscar. the reality is, it was a great part. just like in "wall street's" and then this picture "solitary man," the parts are hard to come by. tavis: i want to ask about your dad. i think i have heard you talk about this before. this town does not have a really good track record for second generation stars, and yet you seem so well adjusted after all these years. >> well, thank you. i think two things happened. certainly, the advantage of being a second generation, growing up -- this is my father, burt lancaster, tony curtis, all these people were at the house all the time so you could see

them as real people, their insecurities and foibles. i think it helped you conduct yourself in a better way. having said that, my mother and father got divorced when i was for. i mother remarried and i grew up back east. i mother remarried when i was 12. she married a great man, my stepfather, who kirk would be the first to say was a surrogate father. growing up in a regular household and westport, connecticut, all those years with the really thoughtful stepfather. stepparents never get any credit. you always to the bad stories, but there are a lot of stepparents out there, mothers and fathers, who out of love for their spouse assume the responsibility for kids from another family, and he certainly did that for me. tavis: you talked about growing j@ connecticut, he went back east.

you went to bermuda to live. that experience has been good? >> my mother is from bermuda, so i had a lot of memories when i was a kid. we used to go down to bermuda lot. then when catherine and i first got married, it was all a little crazy. i went down there was with her on the holidays. she said, i like this place, they drive on the left side of the road. the next thing we knew, we moved down and had our children and raise them down there until this year, and then come back up to new york. it was a very nice experience. tavis: i saw something the other night where they caught you somewhere. what do you make of how crazy

the media spectacle is? hollywood has always been under the spotlight and the glare, and some stars like that. what do you make of the craziness now a round any move that you make from your front door, they are on you? >> it is completely out of control. i guess if you are another generation, you are used to it. i am not. even going back to my father's time, there was louella parsons and a couple of gossip writers, but everything was relatively kept under control. in this digital age where everybody has got a camera, and there is an insatiable audience. look at all these magazines. they all look the same, and these shows. they are at a point now where they use the same photographs and clips. i have a tough time with it, and so does catherine. that is why we have tended to live in places slightly away. catherine is now doing a

broadway show, server schedule is really regimented. they know exactly when she is coming out the door. she has been doing it for seven months. you would think every day they would get tired of taking pictures. tavis: she is kind of kid, though. >> she is a real kick. -- she is real cute. she has to walk from the apartment door to the car and get photographed. she gets dolled up every day because you never know when they will get a bad picture. tavis: back to "solitary man" and "wall street." how do you get people to focus? >> it is a very independent little picture, beautifully written, with a great cast.

originally, we were going to have "wall street'" come out in april and we were going to piggyback "solitary man." we are getting a really good reaction. whatever other personal adversities i have had to share, and i am talking about my son, i really rewarded that these 2 pictures are coming out. so the little picture, there is no advertising dollars. there is no money to spend for a commercial on television or even for newspaper ads, so you personally have to go out and beat the bushes and try to share with people how enthusiastic you are an excited about this little movie. tavis: when you are out trying to do that and people will not let you forget about your son, how the process that? >> now is a little easier because he has been sentenced.

he is off, he has assumed responsibility for what he did. he is sober, so i think he has a much better chance of evaluating it. it was a rough time. this is the bad side of celebritydom in terms of when a bad situation are incident happens, people are always concerned about whether you are getting special treatment or not. the reality is, you get creamed on a story which normally nobody else would be interested in. tavis: we think that we ought to have access, we ought to be able to get in your business because we are the ones that by the movie tickets, or for whatever reason, people think they have the right. is this any of our business? >> no. it is nobody's business, but i

understand, because it is free stories. so for the same reason that you have reality television, read do not have to pay writers are actors, if you have a real life story, it simplifies everybody's life in terms of filling up those pages. but i have always spellefelt thi have a right for our family and everything to have a certain privacy. the fact is that people believe that they know you. i have been doing this 40 years, so people think that they know you. they have seen you, and they know you. that was telling me the other day, he said i was watching one

of my old movies on television. he said i could not remember the movie. i kept looking and looking, and i could not remember the movie. then i said wait a minute, that is not me, that is michael. [laughter] tavis: to your point, is a blessing or a curse, a good or bad thing, that you favor so much? >> it was hard in the beginning. obviously have of your genes are your father's, so how do you establish your own identity? i went for the sensitive young man parts when i was younger. ironically, i took a look, and in bad's career, he was the sensitive young man for many pictures until he did "the

champion." that sort of set his persona. i guess for me, to some degree the era of "wall street'" and " fatal attraction" these parts are offered to me. tavis: what the make of the proximity to these blockbusters? >> that was a big year for me. i have been the proposed foprod. being second generation and getting the nomination -- the nomination comes from the acting branch of that academy. to get a nomination from your fellow actors, being second- generation and all that, really was a tremendous thing and really helped by confidence and

help meet step out of his shadow. tavis: i can see on the one hand how it would boost to confidence and allow you to step out of the shadow. on the other hand, you were still relatively young guy. any thought ever given to how you move beyond this moment? you do not want to peak too soon. >> going back to producer of "cuckoo's nest, so that was the first picture i ever produced. it is all downhill from here. people said why are you acting? you should just be a producer. i think i have something to offer. so there you go. just at a point when you think you are in your twilight, now we have "solitary man" and "wall

street." tavis: the timing could not be more propitious. can this thing live up to the hype? >> to your point about it being propitious -- that is a good word. tavis: it is hard to spell on the scrabble board. >> sometimes people think that they saw the movie on television. this happened with "the china syndrome." it happened on three mile island, and people think they saw it on the news. it is a big picture with a lot of dollars behind it. it will be able to do fine. i am not worried about it. tavis: are you generally a fan of sequels?

>> i just did it wants. not really, i have never had these kind of big action adventure things. it is nice to have a little cash cow that you can pull out every three or four years. i am not a real big moviegoer, actually. i love making them. i love working on them, but i am a news junkie and a sports guy. i enjoy seeing you on cnn. tavis: because "wall street" is such a classic now, what was your barometer on whether the script was right to bring this back? >> first of all, oliver was not interested initially about doing a sequel. we did a few tracks.

-- we get a few drafts, then we got a good handle on it. oliver agreed to come on in, and i felt good. it was like bookends. i knew he was angry and hungry. he had been whacked a couple of times the last couple of years. everybody is wonderful in the picture. this young guy, shia labouef, he is 22 years old, and he is wonderful. tavis: the girls like him. >> he was an animal. he knew what he had, and he delivered. there are 22, 23 years old. tavis: since you mentioned that

you are a news junkie, what do you make of the state of our union? >> it is debilitating. i am so proud of the president that we have, the leadership, and i think he does have a link andesque quality -- a lincoln esque quality to be able to see long range. the economics of this, i think we have another three or four years here that will be pretty brutal. hopefully, maybe we can resolve a couple of issues in the world. but i travel a lot. i am outside of our country more than most americans, and they have to really understand the impression that obama has had in

representing this country as to before. with all due respect to president bush, he was running at 17% factor overseas, where the president now is close to 70%. his popularity is much more outside of this country than it is in. tavis: with all this going on, you are hopeful? >> i am on the fence. i am sort of looking about it as, is it true? was the last century the american century, like the century before that was english, in a century before that was the french and spanish, and now is it the chinese this century? i don't know. tavis: every empire eventually falls. >> we have to put a fortune into

our infrastructure. tavis: i just love hearing your political insights. michael douglas commentary. gordon gecko failed, but he is back. prior to that you can see michael douglas n. "solitary man." that is our show for tonight. thanks for tuning in. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org tavis: join me next time for conversation with actor dennis quaid on his role as president bill clinton. >> all i know is his name is james, and he needs extra help with his reading. >> i am james.

>> yes. >> to everyone making a difference, you help us all live better. >> nationwide insurance proudly supports tavis smiley. tavis and nationwide insurance, working to improve financial literacy and the economic and parliament that comes with it. >> nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.