Michael Douglas: Tells All Pt 1

Michael Douglas (0:01)

The irony was, I was in this hit television series, Streets of San Francisco with Carl.

I get permission in the fifth year of my contract to leave the show. Everybody thought I was crazy to produce One Flow of the Cuckoo's Nest. Now, One Flow of the Cuckoo's Nest becomes a big hit. I win the Oscar as a producer, and I've left the show. And then my next four movies as a producer, Romancing The Stone, The China Syndrome, Jewel in the Nile, they're all hits. So I'm a big, successful Hollywood producer, but as an actor, I'm still not allowed or approved by many of the studios.

Kelly Ripa (0:48)

Somebody gonna cue me or do I cue myself?

Michael Douglas (0:50)

Cue yourself.

Kelly Ripa (0:52)

Okay, everyone, welcome back to another episode of Let's Talk Off Camera.

So I, I don't know. To me, this is as big as it gets.

Michael Douglas (1:04)

It's huge.

Jan Chalet (1:04)

It's huge. I had a crush on him my whole life.

Michael Douglas (1:07)

Me too. My whole life. My whole life.

Kelly Ripa (1:10)

Yeah, for sure. I know.

Michael Douglas (1:12)

Go ahead. Go ahead. Let's hear it Albert.

Albert Bianchini (1:15)

Listen, when he, when I have to say, when he came in and they were, he was announced as going in to play Liberace, everyone was like, what, really? And then watching him do it really just like took my breath away.

Kelly Ripa (1:27)

He can play anyone.

Albert Bianchini (1:29)

Anyone.

Kelly Ripa (1:30)

Yeah.

I think, you know, we forget because like I, I mean, I used to watch him in the streets of San Francisco. I mean, he was, I mean, not that he's still, he's still, he is still, but that's my introduction. And I was young, but that was my introduction to Michael Douglas. And I was fully aware of Michael Douglas in a very early age.

Jan Chalet (1:54)

Was it, is that a movie you guys watch all the time?

Michael Douglas (1:56)

Oh my God.

Albert Bianchini (1:58)

Well, the behind the candelabra, Kyle's joke is that I'm constantly watching it. And then if he hears the beginning love to love you baby, which is in the opening scene, he screams from the other room, again.

Michael Douglas (2:09)

Have you seen it?

Jan Chalet (2:10)

That's the only movie I haven't seen.

Michael Douglas (2:12)

Oh, you've got to see it. Oh my God. It's the only one.

Kelly Ripa (2:14)

It's a revelation.

Albert Bianchini (2:15)

Liberace as we, I mean, let's just talk Liberace for two seconds and then we can move on. My grandmother, Edith Santoro, may she rest in peace, as we always say.

She was in love with Liberace.

Kelly Ripa (2:26)

All of my aunts were in love with Liberace.

Albert Bianchini (2:28)

Right?

Kelly Ripa (2:28)

Every single one.

Albert Bianchini (2:29)

And couldn't understand why he hadn't found the right woman.

Kelly Ripa (2:32)

They always said, like, oh, you could just introduce him to your cousin, Debbie.

Jan Chalet (2:36)

Debbie!

Kelly Ripa (2:38)

There was always like a cousin that just needed to meet Liberace.

Albert Bianchini (2:41)

And it was always to me, like, well, I always knew, but like, how do you break it to Nana that this is the case?

Kelly Ripa (2:46)

Right.

Albert Bianchini (2:47)

And then he just came. So then you cut to the movie and you see all these women that are there in the audiences of the shows that depict all of these ladies, like all of them. It's just, it's, it's miraculous. And then all of the little isms that he has in the movie, too, like he hails the poodle and he calls the poodle baby boy. So Kyle and I call Freddie baby boy.

Like, it's just, I don't know, there's the way he embodied that. And I also know that it was at a very, you know, scary time for him that came out of that health scare and went into that. A very time in his life. And then of course the best was, as you know, the Emmy Awards, where he goes to win the Emmy and then he says to Matt Damon, you deserve half of this. And what does he say?

Kelly Ripa (3:29)

Do you want the top half of the button?

Albert Bianchini (3:34)

It's so good.

Kelly Ripa (3:35)

That was such a great movie. I'm going to watch that.

Albert Bianchini (3:37)

You got to watch it. There's so many great parts to it.

Kelly Ripa (3:40)

Yeah. It's, I mean, I've, I've loved him in everything. And you know, we, it's funny. Once in a while, Basic Instinct will be on here. And I have a little bit of a text friendship with Sharon Stone.