The 'Wonder Boys' actor believes British and Australian actors are taking American jobs because Hollywood stars are too 'asexual or unisex' for most movie roles.
- Jul 9, 2015
AceShowbiz - Michael Douglas is speaking out against American actors obsession with social media. Michael thinks British and Australian actors are taking American jobs because current Hollywood stars aren't masculine enough for most movie roles.
"There's something going on with young American actors - both men and women - because the Brits and Australians are taking many of the best American roles from them," the "Ant-Man" actor told The Independent. "Clearly, it breaks down on two fronts. In Britain they take their training seriously while in the States we're going through a sort of social media image conscious thing rather than formal training."
He added, "Many actors are getting caught up in this image thing which is going on to affect their range. With the Aussies, particularly with the males it's the masculinity. In the U.S. we have this relatively asexual or unisex area with sensitive young men and we don't have many Channing Tatums or Chris Pratts, while the Aussies do. It's a phenomena."
In the interview, Michael also discussed how British actress Carey Mulligan managed to star as a New York school girl, a role which would have traditionally gone to American actress. "There's a crisis in young American actors right now," he said. "Everyone's much more image conscious than they are about actually playing the part."
The "Basic Instinct" actor was then asked if he agreed with Dustin Hoffman's view that the film industry is the "worst it has ever been." He replied, "I understand what [Dustin]'s saying, but I think you have to look at the delivery system. There's a lot of good stuff being made in the cable area, good writing there. Kramer vs Kramer, those great mainline films he was in aren't being made anymore [for cinema] but are in a different delivery system."
"Most of the great screen writers have gone into the cable area because that's where they can also produce. The problem in making a film for cinema is the cost of distribution. People can scrape together money for a movie but not the advertising," he continued.
When asked about a possible "Falling Down" reboot, Michael said, "That's never really come about because [the film] was about a particular time. It was a story about the end of the cold war, and I think it was a time warp, it needed that particular time."
