Michael Douglas: The movie business sucks

Michael Douglas has hinted he’s ready to retire from Hollywood — because he doesn’t enjoy acting. The actor — who’s battling throat cancer — says the movie business “sucks”.

“The movie business sucks. I’ll be the first one to tell you that our business is really in the toilet,” said Douglas, who’s married to Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones.

“Whatever your age, it’s not like you’re handed so many great choices as an actor. So you go, ‘God forbid I didn’t have a wife who loved me!’ Thank God, I do!’

“I can’t say I enjoy acting. I had terrible stage fright when I first began. I used to need a wastebasket off stage in the theater because I’d throw up before I was to go on. In the early years of acting, it was solely about just overcoming my fear, trying to wrestle this demon, the absurdity of being so damn scared — which probably shows you a man who lacked of a sense of identity.

“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.”