Best known for films such as Wall Street, Basic Instinct and Romancing the Stone, Michael Douglas’ talk at the Red Sea International Film Festival proved to be a masterclass for young actors, as he delved into his personal life and career in Hollywood, spanning over six decades.

Starting at the beginning, from his childhood, he recalled how he resented acting, despite being the son of an actor-couple, Kirk and Diana Douglas.

“I resented acting in my early life as both of my parents were actors. I had no interest (in acting) and never did any acting until university.”

After his parents divorced when he was six, Douglas moved to New York with his mother and would only see his father after long intervals during vacations, as the latter was a busy actor. But later on, as a young man, he was inspired by his father’s many iconic roles and wanted to emulate him.

Douglas studied acting in his third year of university in the early 1960s, thinking it would be easy. “But when I started it, I had a terrible, terrible stage fright. After I graduated I went to New York and started working in theatre, taking acting classes. There was an acting teacher who helped me stand in front of people.”

He spoke about how he started with the TV series, The Streets of San Francisco, back in the 1970s. He suggested that young film actors do TV series if they get an opportunity to because it’s the repetition which would help them in learning the craft. He said he did 26 episodes in the first season and it was a lot of work, that helped him produce movies later in life.

The Streets of San Francisco helped him create his own identity, separate from his father. “The most difficult thing in acting is that you do something and somebody says, ‘That’s just like your father and you don’t wanna hear that as you are trying to create your identity’.”