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Michael Douglas said that he doesn't have any "real intentions" of returning to acting, because at 80 years old, he doesn't want to be someone "who dropped dead on the set." The veteran actor said this during a press conference at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic on Saturday, July 5, 2025.
The Basic Instinct star explained that he had been out of the acting game since 2022, and he said that he "purposefully" left the Hollywood spotlight.
"I had been working pretty hard for almost 60 years, and I did not want to be one of those people who dropped dead on the set. I have no real intentions of going back," Douglas said.
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However, according to the actor, he draws the line at calling himself a retired actor. Despite having no real intentions of returning to the acting world, Michael Douglas explained that he's not closing any doors, although he would be more discerning in choosing projects if he ever decides to come back to acting in the future.
"I say I'm not retired because if something special came up, I'd go back, but otherwise, no," he said.
According to his IMDb page, the two-time Oscar-winning actor was last seen in Apple TV+'s docudrama Franklin, where he starred as the titular Benjamin Franklin. He also starred as Dr. Hank Pym in Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Michael Douglas recalled his cancer battle from over a decade ago amid news that he's not returning to acting
Actor Michael Douglas was diagnosed with cancer in 2010, after experiencing throat discomfort and receiving a misdiagnosis for it for around a year. He told David Letterman's Late Show in September of that year that his doctors told him that he had stage four cancer, and he had an 80 percent survival rate.
While his type of cancer was rare, his doctors reportedly had an optimistic prognosis. After treatment, Douglas revealed in an interview with NBC, per Good Morning America in January 2011, that he had finally beaten the cancer. While the health struggle happened over a decade ago, the actor recalled it during his July 5 press conference.
"Stage 4 cancer is not a holiday, but there aren't many choices, are there?" he said.
The veteran actor explained that he was fortunate that he beat the sickness with chemotherapy and radiation. Otherwise, he would have had to undergo surgery, which would have had serious consequences that would have affected his acting career.
"The surgery would have meant not being able to talk and removing part of my jaw and that would have been limiting as an actor," he said.
Since 2010, Michael Douglas has worked on over a dozen projects on the big and small screen. He was in the Ant-Man film series for Marvel, Behind the Candelabra, and The Kominsky Method TV series. Speaking of projects, Douglas said at the press conference that despite taking a step back from acting, he still has "one little independent movie" that he is trying to get a "good script" for.
Michael Douglas is currently married to actress Catherine Zeta-Jones.
