“The disappointing thing is that politics now seems to be for profit,” the actor says. “People are going into politics now to make money, and we maintain an idealism in the U.S. which does not exist now.”
Michael Douglas may have been at the Kolovy Vary Film Festival in Czechoslovakia for the 50th anniversary screening of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but the Wall Street star took the opportunity to lambaste the direction of the United States, and “precious democracy” in general.
He also took a moment to talk about his personal life, including a frightening battle with throat cancer. “Stage 4 cancer is not a holiday, but there aren’t many choices, are there,” Douglas said on stage, per Variety, noting that he was “fortunate” that radiation was successful as surgery “would have meant not being able to talk and removing part of my jaw.”
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While the Fatal Attraction star said that such an outcome would have limited his abilities as an actor, it sounds as if the 80-year-old isn’t all that concerned about it, either way. He said he stopped in 2022 because he realized he had to.
“I had been working pretty hard for almost 60 years, and I did not want to be one of those people who dropped dead on the set,” he explained, per The Hollywood Reporter. “I have no real intentions of going back. I say I’m not retired because if something special came up, I’d go back, but otherwise, no.”
“I’m quite happy to watch my wife work,” he quipped, referring to Catherine Zeta-Jones. “Catherine is 25 years younger than I am. She’s very busy right now. And I think in the spirit of maintaining a good marriage, I’m happy to play the wife.”
While most of the press conference following the screening focused on the long and storied history of the film’s production, the media did finally asks Douglas his thoughts on the current state of politics in the United States.
“Let’s just say that our president’s name has been mentioned enough,” Douglas replied. But while he resisted the urge to talk about Donald Trump directly, he did weigh in on what he calls the “vulnerable” state of democracy in the U.S. and around the world.
“I look at it generally as the fact how precious democracy is, how vulnerable it is, and how it always has to be protected,” he said, adding of the United States, “Right now, our country is flirting with autocracy, as [are] some other democracies in this world.”
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“I hope what we’re struggling with now [helps us remember] all the hard work that the Czechs did,” he continued. “Democracy is not to be taken for granted.”
“The disappointing thing is that politics now seems to be for profit,” he asserted. “We maintained an idealism in the U.S. which does not exist now. The news speaks for itself. I am worried, I am nervous. And I just think it’s about the responsibility not for someone else to look out for us but for us to look out for each other.”
Paul Zaentz, the nephew of Cuckoo producer Saul Zaentz, was on the stage as well and, as detailed by IndieWire, offered his own thoughts — and even connected the conversation to the Oscar-winning film, based on Ken Kesey’s novel.
Recurring themes in [director Miloš Forman’s] movies are individual freedom, and the struggle against oppression. Cuckoo’s Nest is about rebellion.”
“It is one of the reasons why when I showed ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ to the ‘Amadeus’ crew in Prague in 1983, the next day I had a visit by the Czech secret police asking me, ‘Please don’t show movies that are banned in Czechoslovakia,'” he continued.
“It’s ironic that 42 years later, Cuckoo’s Nest is getting honored here on its 50th anniversary, and I’m afraid that Ken Kesey’s brilliant book may be banned in the USA,” he emphasized. “We know what Nurse Ratched represents.”
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Zaentz went on to blast Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which he signed into law on Friday: “Yesterday, July 4th, the malignant, narcissist, want-to-be dictator that occupies the White House signed a bill that was passed by his cruel heartless followers to make the rich richer and take food and health care away from the people who need it. A very sad July 4th for the USA.”
He ended his passionate message with a plea to everyone in the world, asking them to not “give up on America.” He reminded everyone that when Kesey’s book was written in 1962, the protest slogan for the Vietnam War was, “We shall overcome.”
Making a marked comparison to now, Zaentz said, “We shall overcome the totally corrupt, morally bankrupt, treasonous evil thing and his cronies. I’m certain that Miloš would agree with me that Trump is a stain on my country and his presidency would be looked upon as the greatest moral failure in the history of the U.S.”
In news that appeared to come as a surprise to Douglas, Zaentz also revealed that he has been working with Kesey’s family with the intention to launch a series adaptation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Next, shifting the focus to the book’s Native American narrator.
“It’s based on the book and the book was told through the eyes of Chief Bromden,” Zaentz explained. “At the end of the first [season], the Jack Nicholson character would die. And then the second year would be what happens to the Chief after he escapes. That I’m ok with, but never a remake of the movie.”
