Another Hollywood veteran speaks out on the current state of the industry. Michael Douglas, who recently starred alongside Paul Rudd in Marvel's "Ant-Man" film, shares his two cents on the growing concern regarding the film industry's dependency on maintaining a seemingly unattainable image for its stars.
In an interview with The Independent, Douglas discloses how social media looms over the lives and actions of Hollywood's finest and takes over the industry, thereby causing young American actors to lose focus on what is truly important in terms of portraying and landing iconic 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," Douglas points out, referring to the lackluster performance of stars from the United States to snag lead roles in the past years.
Aiming to shed light on the matter, the actor shares how this could have been the result of loss of focus. He says, "Clearly, it breaks down on two fronts." Douglas continues to explain, "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 then notes one of the greatest distractions of American actors: their image. The 70-year-old shares, "Many actors are getting caught up in this image thing which is going on to affect their range." He adds, "There's a crisis in young American actors right now. Everyone's much more image conscious than they are about actually playing the part."
Apart from blasting the tendency of actors from the United States to veer away from the mirrors and concentrate on their acting chops, Douglas points out yet another problematic aspect hounding the stars of today. "With the Aussies, particularly with the males it's the masculinity," he says, referring to the competitive edge of the actors from the said country compared with those in the United States. He further elucidates, "In the US, 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."
Douglas recently graced the red carpet with his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones and their two children, Carys and Dylan, according to Mirror UK. The actor's family accompanied him to the premier night of "Ant-Man" where he plays Hank Pym, the mentor of Rudd's superhero character. The film will hit theaters on July 17, 2015.
