Kirk Douglas On His Temper and Near Death Experiences | The Dick Cavett Show

talking to

kirk

douglas

we haven't been very personal tonight do you ever get really depressed through me? I sure think I'm going out, I mean, don't you Eddie? Do you know a human process? I think everyone goes through different periods in your life where you take inventory and wonder what I'm doing. Am I doing what I want to do? I think the really happy person in life is really doing the work you want to do and I think someone who does it. To be working on what he wants to do is very lucky, so in that sense I think I'm more aware of how lucky I am now than before.

I think a lot of things that I used to take for granted I appreciate now because I think I'm lucky to have been able to do what I want to do in life and that's make movies. I think it's a great contribution because I think the greatest contribution of cinema is not the statement that a movie could achieve it, it's okay for a movie to have a statement, but I don't think there's anything more important than the fact that if you make a movie for four and a half or two hours, millions of people around the world are taken out of their problems, the reason why a person goes to the movies is to forget the problems of their life, so if you allow them to forget their problems and getting involved in what you're doing on screen, I think that's the most important contribution and I think sometimes there's a tendency to be pretentious with films and worry too much about making a statement.

I've been guilty of the same thing myself, which is why in Light at the Edge of the World I wanted to make it pure entertainment if that were the case. It could entertain someone for two hours. I think it's great, so you have no doubt that your life is wasted. Some actors say that I met a man in the acting profession. He always wonders if it is a truly manly profession. Should he be an engineer? but he has a manly profession, he is a childish profession, you can't be a complete adult and be an actor, you have to have a childish part of yourself.

I mean, after all, if I were a sophisticated adult, how could I say here? I am fighting the evil represented by Yul Brynner. You have to have a childish part. We are making a t-shirt as my children grew up. I have observed them. You know, children are natural assets. They pretend to be cops and robbers. I think all actors keep a certain amount of that within themselves the half door that they couldn't function as actors and I think that's why they become self-deprecating they think well it's not enough I have the feeling that knocking they are capable of doing great evil genius, okay, so you're saying I have no idea, I have that and it's probably what any zoo is one of the many things we have in common.

Well I do not know. I wonder if you are abrupt. Can you understand it? Yes I believe. That's actually been a healthy thing for me, yeah, I don't think it's given me a very nice reputation often, but I think it's been a good outlet. I think very often I'm too quick to express myself in anger or Whatever it is, it's healthy for me because it lets the steam out, but very often, if people don't get it, you know, yeah, but he made an impression. very favorable if you exploit someone, that makes you feel terribly sad, yes, I know.

Everything bothers me, I think why did I say this, what a bully I was and I shouldn't have said it's horrible, yes I have tears, but with them they come, let's see how much sleep you need, how much sleep. I need five six hours we have nothing in common No, I can sleep literally 24 hours a day, there will really be no, that's one, no, no, I'm not deterred if I have five, six, seven hours, reveal that you read a newspaper every the days, oh Yes, well, yes, right?, yes. I mean, don't you think actors are also concerned about what's going on in the world?

Maybe sometimes a little too consumerist, but I don't think they have to be. I mean, I don't think so. everyone has to be. I don't see why they should apologize if they don't, for example. I mean, some actors don't need to, they should just act or do whatever they want. No, you mean they don't read the newspaper. I mean you are still part of the world you live in. You don't divorce yourself from the world you live in. You are interested in knowing what is happening around you. I think everyone should be aware of the world they live in.

I live to be part of it yes, no, I think it's good that they do it. I don't insist on it. I mean, I think a man could just write poetry if he wanted to and I wouldn't care if he ever read a newspaper. no, oh, that doesn't worry me, I just think they'd be missing something by not caring about what happened to your world, just isolating you from the world, it would be, you know, depriving you of your environment, so to speak, I can see. Why would an artist who likes Maher Bergman, for example, say that she isolates herself from all life the entire time she makes a film because she just wants that tunnel vision of her work?

Well, she might. I'm sure I can understand why when you're making a movie you tend to block out the rest of the world. I understand that I think that happens to all of us. I think me too. I think all actors tend to focus only on what they are doing, but that is only for a temporary period. of the good time, then you have to go back to the world you live in oh yeah, what's the closest you came to

death

? mm-hmm well, in fact, I'm telling you, I'm telling you very honestly, in this image there was a light on the edge of the The world tells you a very real story.

We are filming this movie. It has very sharp jagged rocks everywhere and in one scene I did a trick myself and I thought I was being very careful and asked my stuntman to be on top. off a roof and I had to jump off so I put a platform under the roof because the rocks were on the other side and I put the specialist there just to check it and hold me down. It was in a rehearsal. I jumped off the roof onto the platform and went to him for support, he fell, we both went straight off the platform onto the rocks and I think for me I was very lucky because the rocks there, if they just hit a jagged rock, were about 15 18 foot drop, you could easily open your head and I think the accidents that you know have happened when accidents happen in the pictures very often, it's usually nonsense, it's something that you never anticipated and I try to anticipate, people very He often says that I had a sense of danger.

People very often say Kirk, how does this smell? Because I think I'm not a I don't do things stupidly. I've done a lot of my own stunts, but I try to carefully work out what He walked with. I wouldn't have done that if I didn't trust Woody. I knew we could both work together. Spartacus and yes, you.