Michael Douglas Reveals Why His Relationship with Dad Kirk Was Once ‘Not Particularly Good’

The 79-year-old actor also shared why he “measured” his career against his famous father early on.

While appearing on Friday’s episode of Max’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?, the actor recalled how his father’s multiple “acts” of his career affected their relationship, sharing how they went from being “not particularly good” with one another to being “very close.”

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“It was different stages. It was not particularly good in the beginning, probably it was just because of the amount of work that he was doing. He just — career definitely went first before family,” Michael, 79, said of his father, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 103.

“But then in the sort of third act of his career, I think the second act, he was a little stunned that I was having a certain degree of success. … It is a reminder for me now as I’m into my third act that we can change,” he said. “And we were very close. So I’m happy to say that by the time he was ending his life and before that, the last 15, 20 years, were a joy to be with him.”

Earlier in the conversation, Wallace — who is the son of late journalist Mike Wallace — pointed out how he and Michael are both “sons of famous fathers who were foolish enough to go into their dads’ professions,” before asking why he “measured” his career against his famous father early on.

“It wasn’t necessarily that I was doing it, but you’d be working with people [and] they’d go, ‘It’s just like your father. Your father does that, it’s just really like your father,'” Michael recalled. “And, of course, we’re in a career where you’re trying to create your own identity.”

“I said, ‘Yeah, I get from my father half my expressions,'” he continued, adding, “So it took me a long time to sort of create my own identity.”

During an appearance on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show last month, Michael opened up about the “hurdles” he had to jump over being Kirk’s son when he launched his career.

“I think the advantage is that you were able to see your father as a movie star, his friends, Burt Lancaster, Gregory Peck, others, Tony Curtis, all of them coming, Frank Sinatra, and you see them with their own foibles,” he explained. “You see them as regular people who had issues just like everybody else, and it took a lot of that pizzazz out of the thing, and I think helped you conduct your own life in a more practice easier way. You weren’t affected by all the stuff like a lot of people who never come in before, so that was a big advantage. I think the disadvantage is I remember earlier on as an actor where you’re trying to create your own identity and they’re all saying, ‘Oh, that looks just like your father. Oh my God, you sound, you look just like your father.’ ‘Well, thank you very much.'”

“They mean it sort of as a compliment. Yeah, but then you’re sort of feeling like, ‘Well, who am I?'” he added. “So, I think it takes you longer to get your own identity and it took me longer to sort of step out of the shadow of my dad, which I didn’t really feel it until the year of kind of Fatal Attraction and Wall Street together and the commercial success of Fatal Attraction and winning the Oscar for Wall Street sort of finally got me free of that shadow and I think that’s was a big moment.”