Michael Douglas
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for years, noting that once you’ve won the gold in Hollywood, the risk is that “it’s all downhill from there.” Then
came Wall Street’s meltdowns in 2008, and Douglas—a
producer of Wall Street 2—decided the time was right to
revisit Gordon Gekko.
While making the sequel, the actor came to realize that
bulletproof bravado may still rule, but the financial sector of 1987 and today’s gazillion-dollar global markets
are worlds apart. “The monies we were talking about
then—tens of millions of dollars—are a drop in the bucket
compared to the hundreds of millions invested today,”
Douglas says. He took a major hit himself when the market tanked in late 2008, catching him off guard and leaving him wary of the capriciousness of Wall Street. “Look,
capitalism is part of our system,” he says, “but it’s not for
the faint of heart.”
Re-creating life in Wall Street’s fast lane required that
Douglas rekindle a professional adrenaline rush, so it
helped to have a wife who knows how the business works:
“We have a deep understanding with each other rather than
having to worry about fulfilling one another’s expectations.
She knows what it’s like to come back at night wiped out.
And it’s all right to have silences.”
And does his pulse still quicken the way it did in that
darkened screening room watching Zorro “Oh, yeah,” he
laughs. “At least in your head, your fire burns as brightly.
Let’s not kid ourselves. But God bless her that she likes
older guys. And some wonderful enhancements have hap-
pened in the last few years—Viagra, Cialis—that can make
us all feel younger.”
Douglas stays fit and energized by hiking, diving, and
taking family skiing trips near his Quebec farm. But he
admits that age has its limitations, in particular when
he goes to the gym. “It used to be you got that 30-minute
cardio workout and that great sense of euphoria. Now
you finish and go, ‘Phew, I’m glad that’s over.’” One
problem this could pose down the road: “I wince when
I think I’ll be close to 75 when my daughter is 16. I’m not
going to be able to physically chase the boys away!”
Luckily, that’s not yet a problem. These days, the
Douglases’ social life often amounts to hanging out
with the kids or catching up with friends at a local res-
taurant. “Catherine’s a bit of a loner,” notes Douglas.
“I guess historically I have been, too.” He adds: “You’ve got
these few years of unequivocal love when Mom and Dad can
do no wrong. So we’re a tight family unit.”
It’s a different domestic scene from the one Doug-
las grew up in. His father, Kirk, according to Michael,
didn’t handle parenting well. “I was the product of a di-
vorced family,” he recalls. “My dad was always torn; he
was working really hard and would want to see us. But
