Hollywood Studio Magazine (1977)

to wait for a good part. As a producer or director, I can create and develop projects. So I want to have a choice. Sure, the dream or goal, would be wonderful to be a big success in all three areas. I mean, win an Oscar for direction and an Oscar for acting. But I just like having a choice and not having to have my life controlled by anybody else. Q: How did you distribute your film? Douglas: ... All we did was hire United Artists as a distributor. So they only have a little percentage. It’s much less than 50%. Q: In some magazine there was a report about that and they said it was amazing that you have an Artists cut of this % and a producer’s cut of this Tee *-s Douglas: German article or American? Q: German. Douglas: What they may have been talking about was the deal that United Artists made with the exhibitors. The theater owners. Where maybe United Artists was getting 70% from the theater owners, rather than 50%. But the reason they were getting 70% was that they had to pay us so much percentage. You understand what I mean? That may have been where the confusion came in . where they were demanding from the theater Owners a much larger percentage than they normally get. Q: You said something of having taken over hippie parts and seeing friends from the university ... what’s your education? Douglas: My education is Eastern. ?m New York City and Connecticut. Private schools, boarding schools. I was going to go to Yale University but at the last moment I decided for a tremendous change. And the biggest change I could think of was going to school in Santa Barbara, California. So I went to college there. Francoise went to college there, too, that’s where we met. And I graduated from the university. It took me a few years more. I was undeclared. I had no major until almost my senior year. Then I went into drama. Q: We just talked about the fact that in Germany you are sometimes known through the name Douglas ... have you ever stood in the shadow of your father? Did you ever feel that sometimes or not? Douglas: Oh, naturally. You feel that. You know, I did. I felt that a lot when I first began acting. I haven’t been used to that in America for maybe 4 or 5 years, but it’s true, when I visit Europe or Germany, the first questions are always about my father and me. This always surprised me, for many years I didn’t have to deal with that in this country. But I guess it’s natural. It’s like getting to know some body else, you know. In the shadow ... 1 don’t know. I’m very proud of my father. I feel very lucky, fortunate ... I’ve had a good deal of success. Knock on wood. So I don’t have any problem about it at all. It could be tough if I entered the same business as my father and did not have any success, but it’s been very good to me. My father hasn’t won an Oscar, yet, you know. Q: Myself, ’'m a journalist from a third generation. My father and grandfather have been journalists. Maybe my father is in a special group—he’s quite well known in Germany. And it happens to me all the time also. When they hear my name in Germany they ask immediately, am I some relation to ... SOI personally have lived with this question also. It’s a great experience for me. For example last year I did a film on Saudi Arabia ...a documentary ... after the assassination of King Faisal. Douglas: You mean on the cousin that killed him? Q: Yes. Douglas: That’s fascinating. Q: And we have been the first team actually of the world that has been into the palaces, so it was sort of an extraordinary documentary, at least for Europe. I don’t know the American market. When do you expect you will reach the stage when you can say you’re sort of totally independent of your father’s popularity and fame? Douglas: I can say that now. My father was a major star for 25 years, so I'll never try to pretend to compete with that popularity, but as an individual I am now ... I happen to be in a business where people know who you are, and so I'll deal with that all my life. ’'m thirty. But it doesn’t bother me. Q: Do you think that the fame and popularity of your father influenced ... ina positive or negative way your career? Douglas: Well ... I don’t know. I think first of all, you don’t get a job because your father is a star. But movies and television, they cost too much money, so they hire you because your father’s famous. So it helps you maybe once, in the beginning, but after that, no. You have to work. So in the beginning you could say, yes, but the area that it helps you more importantly is just like in your head and emotionally. You don’t go crazy. And people always come up to me and say, “Gee, you seem so natural and well balanced,” and this is the area where it’s the biggest help. Where you realize as a child when you were growing up, watching your father, having all the stars over to the house, you know, and seeing these people and they’re just normal people. And this is the area A scene from ‘‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” where you treat it as a business. It just happens to be a very well known business. So it slowly gets into your blood and when you have a lot of success it doesn’t make you totally crazy. Q: Did you receive support from your father? Douglas: I’m sure indirectly. My father made a tremendous effort to stay away from my career because he was very sensitive. We talk about it now. I would not say he encouraged me to get into this business. Rather, he took a deep breath because he knew how much of a gamble it is. But now I think he’s very happy. Q: Do you think you once had difficulties because of the name of your father? You know, that some people said... Douglas: Well, a little bit. I can remember at a very early age being introduced as so-and-so’s son. Just as now I can be introduced as the producer of “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest,” or the star of “The Streets Of San Francisco,”’ you know, the handle ... This is so-and-so, the son of the producer, you know. You always have a problem then of how interested somebody is. You know, are they really interested in you or are they excited? You know, there’s more to it. They show more interest than usual. Like with a girl or something. You say, “Gee, am I really this nice, or is she just being. . .?” But again this is part of the advantage ... this is the area of having the advantage of being second generation. You get to have a good instinct about what people are doing and what their intention is. So ends the informative interview with Mike Douglas who has been a success in his chosen profession as the TV star of the series ‘“‘Streets of San Francisco” and producer of the award winning movie “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.” HOLLYWOOD STUDIO Magazine 31