I needed to live my life away from the industry.
I'm interested in the world.
I had a relationship with a Spanish woman, and I love being in Europe. I like fishing in Argentina and hiking in New Zealand and taking care of my horses in California.
I had reached a point when I looked at some of my work and thought:
'What are you doing?
You're not very good in that.
So why are you doing it?' It wasn't worth it to not feel good about myself, and to have to look at the screen and go. . . urgh, so I had to be honest with myself and do things for the right reasons.
I love being a father and working on my garden.
And just sitting around doing nothing in particular.I actually love being a dad and that's that. No regrets.
This business becomes consuming. To be really successful you do have to be around it all the time.
Unfortunately, I didn't know if it was that important to me, and I'm driven when I want to do something. I worked hard to become successful, but it gets harder to be really, really good.
I had to change my name.
Another Michael Douglas was doing quite well making cheap porn movies. . . like Basic Instinct.
I probably didn't embrace movie stardom like some because I always knew there was more. I didn't want to be defined by it, because it's a big-ass job. There are bigger jobs that are more important, like being a head surgeon of a hospital . . . but in society no one cares.
My dad wasn't making a lot of money.He was raising chickens for extra cash, so I guess we were kind of hillbillies. From the time I was two until six I ran around barefoot and in my underwear. I've always had this unpredictability, which probably doesn't make living with me easy.