Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Michael Douglas

Episode Date: May 23, 2021

The son of a Hollywood icon, Michael Douglas made a name for himself in the 1980s with a string of hit movies, from Wall Street and Fatal Attraction to Romancing the Stone. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with the Oscar winner to talk about his successful career, including the final season of his award-winning Netflix series The Kominsky Method.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks, as always, for clicking and listening along. And this week, I'm proud to tell you, I have Hollywood royalty in my presence. He is Oscar winner Michael Douglas. I won't bore you by walking through the entire expanse of his IMDB page, his illustrious career. You know the movies. You know romancing the Stone. You know the China Syndrome.

You know fatal traction. You know Wall Street. You know traffic. you know, the American president. The list goes on and on and on. Very excited because Michael agreed to do our interview in person. I'm happy to say we're getting back to a lot of that with everyone vaccinated. And we got together near his home in Westchester County, New York, just north of New York City where he lives with his wife, fellow Oscar winner, Catherine Zeta Jones. They have two children and they decided they made the choice to live outside of Hollywood, outside the glare of the spotlight, and really outside of the of New York City too. You'll hear him talk about that a bit. Great guy. He was happy to sit and walk through his career talking about being the son of Kirk Douglas and what that was like and escaping his father's shadow when he finally felt like he did that. So much to talk about, including the latest and final season of the Kaminsky Method, which you'll hear Michael say was a bit of a surprise to him.

Remember, he had about 11 years ago announced he had tongue cancer, stage four tongue cancer. He came through that came back, acted as Liberace in Behind the Candelabra, where he won an Emmy and a Golden Globe. And then here comes the Kaminsky method, this great comedy for which he's also won a Golden Globe. He stars opposite Alan Arkin, hilarious show on Netflix, if you have not yet seen it. So a lot to talk about, of course, with Michael Douglas, he is every bit as charming and personable as you want him to be, as you think he is, as you imagine he is. Just for reference, we're sitting in a restaurant right along the Hudson. River, not far from where he lives, a favorite spot for he and Catherine to go have dinner. And man, just great to talk to somebody who's lived so much life and had so much career.

So I hope you enjoy as much as I did my conversation right now with Michael Douglas on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. It feels nice to be out in a restaurant and for one of my first times out in a restaurant to be with Michael Douglas. It's pretty cool, too. Thank you, really. Appreciate it. How of these, we were just talking a minute ago, how of this last year or so, has

has been for you as a guy who's worked probably every month of every year of his life on a film or a TV show some kind. What's it been like? Testing. Certainly been nice to bring the family closer. You know, our kids are both away, sort of in college and our daughter, Karras is away at school. So to have them back at this wintertime was a treat.

You know, we were just kind of adjusting to being empty nesters and making those things that all of a sudden, there they were. We had them back, and we were happy to have them back. So that part was nice. I can't say it was a stimulating time. It was sort of like you just sort of like we're coping, and I'm happy to realize that I still have some marbles left as we're coming out. You kind of had kind of frozen.

Everything got kind of ming, yeah. I'm numb and kind of just, you know, you don't want any issues or problems. Everything got soft. So it was the toughest year I think I've had in my lifetime. I can remember this is in terms of the pandemic and everything else going on in the world, the difficult world seems to have tried and tested us and hopefully we've come through. Yeah, I think we have. You're right, though.

You step back out from this bubble of a year and you wanted to. or can I still talk to people? Do I still have it? I mean, people have that sort of... You cherish your friendships. Yeah. And you really miss them and you realize it's giving the time. But when you come back, you're sort of like,

it was so weird with some friends. It was like, I was like, almost insecure. Like, I didn't know how to reach them. Then, you know, immediately, you sort of pick it up and you're doing fine. But there's an awkward moment about what do I say and how we get along. So hopefully. everything is moving along in a positive direction and we've gotten over this

major speed bump. Well, I think the fact that we can sit here vaccinated without masks on talking is a signal that hopefully we are moving in the right direction. You also were busy working on the third season of the Kaminsky method. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you very much. What was that like to work under these circumstances, different than you've ever worked, I imagine? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. No, the procedural

work was very hard. We did this third season of Kerminski method from October, 2020 to December. I had to come back a little bit into January of 21. Procedures are incredible within a bubble. Basically tested every day with a rapid test and then doing the other, the 48-hour test like twice a week. double masks, screens, and then things like your crew

was broken up in division. And you had different code numbers. So like when cast would come on to set, if we were the actors onto the set, there would only be the director and maybe the cameraman. And all the crew would be offstage and there would be a camera like that one up there,

showing them what the movement of the scenes would be. And then when you think you'd first the scene and finished it, you leave and the crew comes on. And that separation, then when you get ready to shoot it, they light it and everything, they get to shoot it, then the crew all leaves. And then you're there. And then you have COVID inspectors,

predominantly young women, walking around, watching, making sure everybody gets their masks on properly. And we had a couple of little bumps along the way, but did surprisingly well. And I think we were one of the few industries that got going as early as we had. What does that do to you as an actor, though, just in terms of how you get ready for a scene? Or you've got a mask on and a shield. Does it change your process? Actors, you know, actors are used to, or they have to be in, certainly in screen and television.

Theater is a little different because the stage is yours and you own it. But we're sort of used to going into new environments, a new scene, a new setup every day. So we got used to it. Also, the digital world, which has been really the biggest phenomenon change from analog, from celluloid film to digital. And digital makes it much easier. It used to be you'd have a thousand-foot magazine, a film of celluloid, it was about 10 minutes, and you'd shoot that, and then we can't finish this.

All right, finish it, right, get a new, new thousand-foot mag. Now with the digital, you just keep on going, so you can pick it up a lot faster. It makes it a little easier. It slowed things down a little bit, but it wasn't terrible. We got used to it. It doesn't show up in the show at all. You never know.

Yeah, I don't think so. I mean, we made a clear decision about as far as this show and for longevity. This is really our producer and creator, Chuck Lurie's decision. I think he was right not to play into the COVID or the masks to really make this a timeless thing with the idea that it might be around for a little while longer than the COVID thing. So I said, okay, I agree with you, Chuck. That's a good idea. You don't want your show to be a time capsule entirely.

Exactly. With the time to come back with us. What are they doing? What happened? Wonder what you guys were doing. It is, as you know well, the final season of this show that we were talking a minute ago has been this amazing gift, unexpected gift in your life. What does it feel like to be sort of at the end of this run?

Well, I'm happy. I mean, originally the run was only like two seasons. Netflix and a lot of these shows rather than just one season, make it like two seasons. And I was having such a good time. I didn't really read my contract well. And I said, well, this is good. Well, I really enjoyed this. I like this format.

You know, I originally came out of the streets of San Francisco in television, 1970. 74. And I hadn't been back to this, but this, especially this half-hour format with a new episode every six days, different guests are, I liked it. So I pushed for a third season. Alan was ready to call it. Alan Arkin was ready to call it a day, which I certainly respected and understood. He's a little older than I am. And so he did the third, and it was a really enjoyable time. It helps because the writing is so good. Chuck Lorry was involved with all of the episodes that we did.

He was there every day from beginning of the day till the end. And so you've got what you dream for is a lot. actor. You got great writing, really, really good cast, ensemble. And, well, I shouldn't say it. And no dickheads. So that really makes it a pleasant

experience. Is that a Michael Douglas policy on set? It has in the last 10 or 15 years. As I've gotten older and realized, how fortunate I am and I make my living pride to entertain people when there's a lot more serious work going on that I do not have much patience with any talent that doesn't work

ensemble together with everybody else. So we'll post that up on all of your sets. I do. I put that little, like a little flag that came in. It's no dickheads. Oh, that's amazing. So we were, you know, the Golden Globe that you won a couple of years ago really put a stamp on the show as, you know, one of the great.

shows on television or streaming or whatever we're even calling it anymore. What did that award mean to you to have, again, this project that maybe you didn't see coming in your career to have been so well loved and respected? Well, it meant a lot because I'm not particularly known for my comedic abilities. And one of the reasons why I wanted to do the Kaminsky method was to sort of learn and stretch them just so fascinated about comedy, about timing, about timing, and how people create humor. I think comedy is really underappreciated in our business,

particularly when it comes to award seasons. I mean, when you look at the Oscars, you hardly ever see an actor nominated for comedy, for best actor, when in fact, comedy is much more difficult than drama. I mean, we just have to look around at our friends. We cherish our funny friends.

We don't have that many. Drama is always easy to come by in this world. Comedy is not. So I love the opportunity. And, you know, this year to work with Paul Reiser, who's wonderful, a fantastic group of actors, Kathleen Turner. It was a wonderful opportunity for Kathleen and I to get back and play husband and wife kind of brings back a little bit of a War of the Roses, you know, to us.

So it was enjoyable. And at this point in my career, my life, I'm just trying to find different types of things. You know, like I had never done an action, big green screen movie until Atman. And we're going to do another one of those. And so Comiskey Method was a chance to do some comedy and some things that I had not done before. It's interesting to hear you say that comedy is more difficult than drama, because comedians all say that. What we do is much harder than dramatic acting.

You've been in the dramatic acting world for most of your life. What is so much hard? Is it just that it's harder to make people laugh than do anything else? Yeah, well, being funny is a talent and along with technique. The easiest way to explain is if you go your acting classes and you're doing an improv, an acting class, the first thing that everybody does is create conflict. It's conflict and they think it's dramatic and conflict.

It's that one person in the class who has a twist to find something absurd is who's funny. And it's a, it's a unique talent. Whereas, you know, dramatic straight actors, I think of as more of a craft than an art form. Comedy is, is something very, very special. And so all are you out there, appreciate your funny friends. Well, you're very good at it. And the opening scene, I was talking, we don't want to spoil too much about this people are anticipating it. But I'm told that because this will be in the trailer by the time this air. We can talk about this.

It opens at a funeral. And it's one of the funniest scenes I've seen on television in a long time. Beginning with your speech and just sort of escalating from there to this wild scene that takes place. So where, for fans of the show, where do we sort of leave off with Sandy as we enter season three? Well, Sandy is teaching. and Alan, who was his best friend, and was the owner of a large agency, has recently deceased.

And I don't know if Netflix is to shoot me with a blowgun in the back of the neck. They're very paranoid about giving information away. But I think we're okay. I'm told we're okay with that. We're okay. So basically it was the fact of dealing with Alan,

Arkin, not being in our third season. And God bless, God bless Chuck. So he says, right forward. I said, what do you mean is we're starting our third season with a funeral? I said, you can't start a comedy with a funeral of the guy who was, whether you're leaving the last year. He said, no,

we've been dealing with it right now. And so that kind of gives you an idea where we start from. And it takes off in some wonderful directions tied in with the last two years, and it tracks fairly well. There's so much I want to say, but I guess

I'll save it for them to see. The lost puppy leads to an encounter that's just amazing. There's a lot there, but we don't have to... The show is coming out, I think, very soon after this is aired. It's all there and don't miss it, I guess, is because all I would say about that. Alice, it was it? May 24th? May 28th. So, when this show is coming, the show is coming out on May 28th. And we'll be there. I just... There you go. Nice insert. We'll drop that right in

there. A lot of the fun of the show and the theme of the show, the first two seasons, you and Alan, and then you again in season three are sort of dealing with these questions around aging and laughing about them. Sometimes it's poignant, sometimes it's heartbreaking as well. What do you see in those themes? What's funny about that? Well, what's funny about getting old? I mean, this is what I love so much, you know, is this part of your life? And, you know, you know, You know, you're so hard to find anything attractive about getting older. And so as a result, I think Chuck has dealt with most every medical issue and every other issue for both men and women and has found humor in them.

And I love our following, and it's been surprising the first two seasons, there's a lot of young people, which I still can't quite figure out, who get the show. And I think maybe it's because the show helps them understand their grandparents, parents, right? But their parents a little better. But yes, we go through the litany of things that are of issues of getting older and have been able to find humor in them too. Yeah. Again, there's some scenes in this first episode that speak to that. A back injury comes to mind. Right. In that first episode. Prostate issues. Yes, a little bit of that. We're all over the body.

Touching all the baby. Yes, right. Great stunt casting, if that's the right term, on the show where Patty LaBelle will turn up. Yeah, yeah. Some big star will be there, which is these chestnuts are part of the fun of the show. It was really an honor and a treat that so many leading stars and actors came in for little guest shots. And we enjoyed it. And I'm not going to give away.

We've got some good surprises for this third season. But it's a treat to see. And what was really fun is, I play an acting coach, acting teacher in the show, and I have a regular group of the students that have been with me for the last two seasons and the third season. And I guess we're sort of getting used to each other

because every time another star comes in, they're like, wow, can we take pictures? I said, well, yeah, okay, guys, but, you know, what about moi? I said, hey, we've seen enough of you. I haven't asked for your picture yet. Yeah, no. Did you ever have, in your early days, an actor? acting coach at all, and if so, one that resembled it anyway, Sandy?

Yeah, yeah, I did. I had a wonderful teacher named Win Handman in New York. We lost him last year, and he was still teaching, I think, about 94, 95 years old. He was still teaching classes, and he was a wonderful support. I, well, I guess acting eventually took acting, got into acting because my father is an actor. Of course, my mother was also an actress. And I was in college, I was early 60s. I was a hippie, you know.

I was just going through my classes. And finally, my junior year, they called me into the office at my cousin. You've got to take a major. You got a major in something. You can't keep taking your junior year. You have to have a major. Oh, far out. Okay, man.

So I said, theater arts, theater arts, man. You know, I thought it'd be easy. I knew a little bit my mother was in theater and all of that. But I never acted before. And I started and was painfully shy and awkward and had terrible stage fright and all of that. And somehow, I guess it's the challenge of trying to overcome it, just stayed with it. And finally got to a point where I enjoyed what I was doing, but it took a while. It's interesting to hear you say you didn't start acting until college when you'd moved west for.

college because the sort of mythology around you is that you know you're the sion to this you know this royalty in Hollywood which you are but it wasn't your thing you didn't live out there you were on the East Coast living like a teenager for most of your life well I love the Hollywood royalty story my grandfather was a junk man right my grandfather was a junk man with a horse and wagon and my father who had to change his names and everything when he was married to my mother from like 1944 to

1949 when they were married together we were living in a one-room apartment in Greenwich Village, New York. And it wasn't until maybe I was like six when dad finally went out to California

and that was at the same time when he was out there for about a year in California, in Hollywood. When her mother said, we're heading back east. We're getting out of. here. So I never saw that big royal life that people talk about. And I basically grew up with my mom in New York City on the west side, not facing Central Park west. And we go out in summers and see my father. And yes, I think that's probably the biggest advantage of being second generation

is just seeing how people operate or function when they're known as celebrities. and how you conduct yourself and able to go on sets and get a sense of what the protocol was. I think it was a big advantage for a second generation. We were talking a little bit about your father being out in Hollywood and you growing up on the East Coast having some semblance of a more normal life, but you did go back and forth. What did you learn from that?

How to be an actor. I learned best how to be an actor because in divorce families or separation when you're moving back and forth, you don't want any trouble. You know, you just want everybody, you don't know about guilt, about how guilty your father might be, because, you know, one thing he promised himself because his father never gave him a pat on the back,

so he wanted to be there for his kids and they're separated. And you don't know anything about that. All you want to do is make nice. So I've noticed that about a lot of kids from divorced families who are actors. I use that in the play, plural, who are used from childhood to learn to adjust.

A little bit like a camellia would change its colors to whatever household you're in. Hey, guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Michael Douglas right after the break. Welcome back to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Now more of my conversation with Michael Douglas. You actually, you've said it before, got your started movies almost by mistake. one of your father's films. I think you'll remember the title, Driving a Jeep.

That's true. I would start working on summer jobs. Wherever my father was working on a picture, I would go over and work as a gopher, you know, as a production assistant and all of that. And on this picture called Cast a Giant Shadow, which was being filmed in Israel. And so I was, what, 16, 54, so about 59, 1960.

And we had a scene in the military about they were driving a Jeep and the kids that in Israel that time didn't drive very much everything versus Americans. So dad turned to me and he said, Mike, come on, just go drive that thing and put it up there on the mark and right there, said, okay. And I did it and dad took great credit to the fact, see that, he hit his mark, just like that, take that car there.

And that was, the rest is history from there? The rest is sort of history. a lot of work and 55 years later, yeah. Was there anything about watching your dad that made you not want to get into that business or was it just, boy, that looks like a fun life. That's something I want to do too.

In other words, was there ever a time you considered not being an actor? Once I started, I didn't. But I think I was put off, my father was a pretty intense dynamic man and people deal with pressure. There's a lot of, in the spirit of trying to calm and relax in front of a camera, and particularly if you're producing the movie as well as acting, there's a lot of, excuse me, there's a lot of pressure. And I think I was a little nervous about the intensity that existed in all of that

and was not inherently a showman, was not comfortable with standing in front of it. with people. But on the other side, it looked like a lot of perks. It looked pretty good. And I eventually, you know, got into the flow of things. It took a while. And you actually, you mentioned streets of San Francisco, successful series, but you actually won your first Oscar. People think of Wall Street, naturally, with one floor of the cuckoo's nest as a producer. And there's another tie in there with your dad who had optioned the book. Right, right. And you produced it.

Dad had, at the height of his career, 1960, he'd just done Spartacus, and he had acquired this book, one flew over the cuckoo's nest, and he went back to Broadway and committed minimum of six months, including rehearsal and all of that,

to do the show, and the idea was when it received that kind of patina to then develop it into a feature film. And the show wasn't received was mixed reviews. I think it was the subject matter of mental health and the cuckoo's nest. He was a little ahead of its time. And so he tried to get it done. He couldn't get as a movie. Meanwhile, I had read the book in college and started my career but loved it. And I heard he was trying to sell it. And he said, just give me a chance, see if I can try to get this

going. And the rest was history after a few years. And it was only very great. grateful that it turned out as well as it did because it was a wonderful piece of material and a great part for my father, which was the really difficult decision that we both settled and resolved over the years. But he had gotten older, his career had changed, and Jack Nicholson was the right guy for the part. Well, the obvious question is, was there ever a moment where you were going to play the Jack Nicholson part?

No, no, no. I was thinking about no, no, I was a young guy that. was thinking about the Billy Bibbitt part. But then Brad Dorff came along to this extraordinary audition. I said, we'll forget that. You know, as you look sort of at your extraordinary career and everything you've done, it looks like you're sort of a TV actor and you're doing a bunch of producing very successfully until around 1984 with romancing the Stone.

You mentioned Kathleen Turner. Did that feel like the breakthrough movie moment for you? Yeah, I mean, the China Syndrome came a little before that, and I was producing that, and it was more of a supporting role with Jane Fond and Jack Lemon, and then China Syndrome, then romancing this don't happen, but still it was, as a producer in films, I was constantly in a situation where I could produce a movie, but I was not approved by the studio as an actor.

So I had pictures like Starman that Jeff Bridges was approved by the studio, but I was producing. But it was a part I would want it to do. So that would happen. But actually, it was not until like 85, 86 with the year of fatal attraction in Wall Street in the same year that I finally felt like I stepped outside of the shadow of. of my father and had kind of created my own career. And you won the Oscar for Wall Street? Yeah. A lot of people say, yeah, it's just an award or, you know, it's an honor to be nominated.

But what does that really mean to have that trophy in your hand and then forever to have Oscar winner Michael Douglas? It's a period. It's the end of a statement. And for me, it particularly meant a lot because of being second generation and trying to establish because the reality is, You is an act you're trying to create your own individuality, your own sense of your identity, but you are half your genes are your fathers.

So therefore, every expression that you might be, it reminds it's just like your dad. Oh, it's just like you're dead. That's a love for the dad by dad. So you kind of get a little change. So you just kind of get used to that and have to make adjustments. Yeah, and people say, well, he is where he is. because of his father until you reach that moment, I guess.

You can't get cast being second generation. You know, doesn't work that way. Now, are you the kind of guy, Michael, who, if you're flipping around, will watch if Wall Street comes on or Fatal Attraction, you see yourself walking on the beach with the big brick cell phone and Wall Street? Do you watch your old stuff? I don't, I never, I can't say ever, hardly ever watch my films.

I mean, I'll see them in the process of the final cut. or I'll see them before you're starting press at a theater or something, but I don't dwell in them. But I do like if you skimming through and you'll see something and you just, I'll watch the hold of a little bit, I'll watch it for a minute, and for the hope that seeing it will bring back some memories. Because so many times, I've had things now,

where you're going and looking at it? I don't remember that, even when I'm watching it. So, yeah, I like to do that sometimes and catch back. Are you critical of yourself when you watch? I am. I am. So that was why I stopped watching dailies, because dailies are all of the rough film that you shoot

because I would constantly see the things I didn't like, which were never going to be in the movie anyway, but still would bother me. So, yes, I'm generally kind of very critical. Is it amazing to you in some way that a phrase like greed is good has endured as long as it has and in fact became sort of the motto of the 80s of a generation that you can't ever imagine that when you're shooting it in the scene for a couple of weeks on set, but that if I use that phrase out on the street, somebody to know exactly what I'm talking about today.

Yeah, no, I was, well, I mean, you're picking Wall Street for one, which is a weird thing about Wall Street was, Gordon Yekow was a villain. He was a bad guy. But if I tell you, Willie, how many people come up to you on Wall Street, usually after they've had a couple of pops, hey, Reed is good. You're the man. You're the reason why I'm on Wall Street. I saw that movie. I said, guys, I was the bad guy. No, no, no, no, no. So it was a little crazy with that role in particular, but just a tribute to the writing, Oliver Stone, how well it was written, and then how well Oliver directed me. He was tough, but he really helped me deliver a good performance. It is an amazing, again, just looking through in preparation for the interview, your start to finish,

if you want to go to streets in San Francisco, up to Kaminsky method. It's amazing. Do you allow yourself, maybe even in this last year of downtime, to stop and say, wow, maybe I have. I have had a pretty good run. Yeah, both in the downtime and before. I'm really proud of my batting record. I mean, it's not home runs. There's a lot of singles and doubles in there. And, you know, yeah, I'm proud about it.

I think that's the big advantage is being a producer, really, which keeps you level-headed as an actor and reminds you what the most important things are, which is the material, the script, it doesn't matter who you have as director or actors, unless you have a really well-structured, formulated script. And then if you have a good director, and then you cast it right, you're off and running. So it made me much more aware of all the other elements outside of my own performance. So I enjoy producing a lot because that's sort of being the adult in the room

having to be aware of 360 degrees around you, or I enjoy acting, which is selfish, and just dealing with the person in front of you and not having to worry about anything else. But every time I've done them together, it's not a lot of fun. One or the other. It's too much. Yeah, one or the other, because one is about being aware of everything,

and the other one is being aware of nothing, except what's right in front. I don't know how people do that. If you're directing a film, and then you have to go sit in that chair and do the scene. I don't either. I don't either. I'm sure they have replay. That helps.

I'm sure they go stop. Let's take a look at that. The Kaminsky method, to me in your career, is in a category of the last decade or so of work you've done since your cancer diagnosis. Right. The candelabra, of course, beyond the candelabra being another one. How difficult was it to come back to work after that and gratifying to succeed after that? Both. You know, I was stage four, you know, so one does not know. But I was fortunate enough, I'm so eternally grateful to Stephen Soderberg because in my, in my recovery, after I finished the radiation and stuff, he had, he and Jerry Weintraub had submitted behind the candelabre the Liberace script, which was just great.

And I'm so excited, so I had something to look forward to. And then Stephen came to me and says, you know what, we're going to have to push this. I said, I've got something else I have to do. And Matt Damon, who was in the show, he's got something. So we're going to push this for a year. And my heart sank, and I went, oh, man, this is never going to happen. And the reality was, Willie, that. because I was just so happy to be alive,

I really didn't recognize the thought that I lost about 40 pounds. And I was like out of Auschwitz, you know? And Lee was a hefty kind of guy, and they really knew that I needed that time for recovery, but rather than putting it on me, Stephen and them put it on themselves. And sure enough, a year later,

we were able to get going. And I remember we had kind of a party at the beach in California before we started. My children were out there. And Stephen was there. We were having a little thing. And I could see Stephen was wondering, you know, how I was, the music stuff and all of that.

And my son, Dylan, was there. And all of a sudden, he started doing an imitation of me. Thank you very much. And I think... And after hearing me, we've rehearsed. and rehearsed at home all the time. And Stephen always says, I knew we were going to be in good shape

when I saw your son, imitating you as well as he did, gave me some sense of how hard you've been rehearsing. And he could hear the accent and everything else through that. So that sort of kept you going in many ways, I have to imagine, during your treatment and your recovery, which must have been an incredibly difficult time.

Well, the thing with chemo, you know, and radiation, it's one thing, as you build up through your weeks and weeks of dosage. And then you think, but they don't want to tell you is when you think you're done, when you're finished. Then you just don't, then that point that you were so sick from all the chemo and everything else.

Now you start going down the other side, but it's another six or seven weeks before you're, you can shake the cobwebs out and get going. But nobody really wants to tell you that because the first few weeks are tough enough without knowing that you still have that much time to finish. You look great. You feel good? Yeah, I'm feeling great. Yeah, I mean, voice has changed a bit since that. But other than that, you know, it's better than not having a tongue or losing part of your jaw. So I'm, so you can keep going.

Yeah, good. Well, that leads me to my last question for you. You've shown that you can continue to do it with the Kaminsky method. What's next for you? What are you looking at over the horizon? You tried comedy this time? Is there anything else out there for you? Well, we're going to do another Ant Man. Work on that this summer. I've got a really interesting thing after that.

I don't think I can announce yet. They're probably going to be doing. And then I'm going to go. I'm going to travel some more. I'm going to go around the world, but places I haven't been. for a while. You have to pace yourself.

You know, I'm 76. God bless my dad was 103. But I think, you know, all of a sudden, I'm so happy for Tony Hopkins, 82, the oldest guy. But all of a sudden, I look and I say, you know, 76, 20 years, 96? I'll take that.

I'll say, 20 years, 20, you do you? So then, not to get too crazed about the whole. thing, but you want to pick your spots, really. You know what I'm saying? You don't want to choose what you want to, how you want to spend your time. And that leads me to my stunning wife, Catherine, and my three wonderful children, Cameron, Dylan, and Karras, so I'm looking forward to spending more time with them. Catherine may want you out of the house after this last year. That will travel the world.

You may be alone. She's getting really busy and active now. It's such a pleasure to talk to you, Mike. Thank you so much. Congratulations on the final season of this wonderful show. Well, appreciate it. My big thanks again to Michael for a great conversation and for agreeing to do it in person and a spot he loves. Had a great time.

You can catch Michael in the third and final season of the Kaminsky Method premiering May 28th on Netflix. And my thanks to all of you for tuning in this week. If you want to hear more of my conversations with all of our guests, every week, be sure to click subscribe so you never miss an episode. And of course, don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.