Michael Douglas has revealed that his now Oscar-winning performance in Wall Street almost fell apart from the start after director Oliver Stone openly questioned his acting during filming.
Speaking at the recent TCM Classic Film Festival in New York, Douglas recalled a tense moment just two weeks into production on the 1987 film, when Stone made an unexpected visit to his trailer.
“Okay, we were finishing the second week of filming and there was a knock on my door. ‘Hey Mike, it’s Oliver. Can I come in?'” Douglas said. What followed, he admitted, took him completely by surprise.
Once inside, Stone asked if he was okay before bluntly asking if Douglas was doing drugs.
Douglas told the audience he denied it, but the director later delivered a scathing assessment of his work. “Because you look like you’ve never acted before in your life,” Stone told him.
At the time, Douglas said, he hadn’t viewed footage of his scenes daily, something he generally avoids.
He told Stone that he doesn’t watch daily shows because he tends to focus on flaws and what might not make the final cut.
Still, the exchange forced him to reconsider his decision. “So I said, ‘I guess I better take a look,’ and he said, ‘Yeah, you better,’” Douglas recalled.
After examining the footage more closely once filming resumed, Douglas felt reassured rather than alarmed. He said the performances seemed solid and repeatedly told Stone he thought the work was solid.
Ultimately, the director came to terms with his protagonist.
Douglas then played Gordon Gekko, the ruthless corporate raider at the center of Wall Street, opposite Charlie Sheen and Daryl Hannah.
Looking back, Douglas said he never took Stone’s harsh words personally, believing them to be part of the director’s process.
“He was willing to have me hate him for the rest of the movie to get that little extra boost,” Douglas said. He added that Stone’s history with actors speaks for itself and credited him with pushing the performance further.
“So I’m deeply, deeply grateful for the fact that it gave me a role and the fact that it pushed me to another level.”
The result was career-defining.
Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role, as well as a Golden Globe and the National Board of Review’s Best Actor Award.
He then returned as Gekko in Stone’s 2010 sequel, Wall Street: money never sleeps.
What began as a moment of doubt and degradation ultimately became one of the most famous performances of Douglas’ career, proving that even an Oscar-winning role can begin with a knock on the door and a brutal reality check.
