- Acting is believing lies.
That's all I'm doing.
I'm a liar.
(soft orchestral music)
My name is Michael Douglas.
I'm an actor and I'm gonna try to share with you
my 50 years of acting experiences
with a couple of suggestions and thoughts.
Early in my career I did a television series
called "The Streets of San Francisco,"
which was all over the world.
And there was some German television awards
for best actor, and I went over to receive the award
and all of a sudden I noticed the audience going
(speaking German)
and I didn't quite know what was going on.
Until I learned that American movies,
English-speaking movies, your voice is dubbed.
And so in Germany,
my German voice for "Streets of San Francisco"
was this great bravado deep (foreign word)
and I had a pretty tinny, thin voice.
But it finally came to a point
where I really worked on my voice for "Wall Street."
and "Wall Street" was where my vocal range changed a lot.
"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.
"Thank you very much."
(audience clapping)
I was not ready for a critical acting teacher.
Getting up for me, I had terrible stage fright.
I used to act with a wastebasket offstage
or I'd get sick in it.
An acting coach, and the ones that I had,
were supportive and built you up.
Research on a character
really depends upon how little you know about the character
and or how close the character is to you.
When you play real characters like Liberace,
then you're really looking at film.
Obviously period pictures,
there's more mannerism involved,
accents involved, and that's the fun part.
I'm not really known for comedy,
but the chance of working with Chuck Lorre
and Alan Arkin was a chance to learn from the best
about comedy, to learn about timing.
- They said they'd keep you in mind
for a recurring role or maybe a guest spot.
- Please don't sugar coat it, I'm a grown man.
- I'm not sugar coating.
I'm, I'm lying.
- Silence just...
Pacing.
- How's Mindy?
- This was a real eye-opener
because I thought green screen was kinda silly.
It's really, really hard.
I became part of the Marvel world with "Ant-Man."
And watching all the other green screen actors,
I have the greatest respect now
in terms of creating this believability
when there's nothing there
and you just have to believe.
(thudding)
- [Ant-Man] Ow.
- I'm also doing an animated series.
"Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham."
And that is a whole other acting experience
because in voiceovers, in playing the character,
you have to really exaggerate.
You are so much larger
than you think you should be.
- No, no more inventing.
I'm a paint watcher now,
so you can all stop feeling sorry for me, all right?
- Number one: Be on time.
One of the things I've learned when I'm number one
on a call sheet is to be the first one there
to set the tone for everybody else.
Be supportive of your fellow actors.
So, too many actors that I know
tend to turn the pages 'til they get to their part,
read about what their part's doing,
and have really not a whole lot of knowledge
about what it's all about.
Listening.
The other terrible fault that actors make
is they do not pay any attention
to what the other person is saying
and then their line comes out
and then they go back to sleep again.
So that's really the important
because in the end,
when I'm acting, I wanna be surrounded by good actors.
And you have to keep reminding yourself,
some people are good at it,
some people get good at it,
and it's probably the best exercise
for committing yourself
to believing in what you're doing.
(audience clapping)
- Thank you for being my teacher.
- Good job.
(soft orchestral music)