Michael Douglas shares brutal note he received from “Wall Street ”director: 'You look like you've never acted before'
- - Michael Douglas shares brutal note he received from “Wall Street ”director: 'You look like you've never acted before'
Wesley StenzelFebruary 7, 2026 at 11:07 PM
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Michael Douglas in 'Wall Street'
Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty
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Michael Douglas said that Wall Street director Oliver Stone shared scathing criticism of his performance two weeks into shooting.
"You look like you’ve never acted before in your life," he recalled the director telling him.
Douglas said he's "deeply, deeply appreciative" that Stone gave him the role of Gordon Gekko, which ultimately won him an Oscar.
Making Wall Street wasn't all fun and games.
Michael Douglas, who portrayed menacing businessman Gordon Gekko in the 1987 film, discussed his memories of working with director Oliver Stone during a conversation with Alicia Malone at the TCM Classic Film Festival in New York City on Jan. 31.
"Okay, so we were finishing the second week of filming, and there was a knock on my door. 'Hey Mike, it;s Oliver. Can I come in?'" the Fatal Attraction actor remembered (via PEOPLE). "I say, 'Yeah, come on in.' He comes in the trailer and sits down. He says to me, 'You okay?' I said, 'Yeah, I'm okay.'"
Douglas said that Stone didn't mince words as the filmmaker confronted him about the quality of his performance.
"'Are you doing drugs?'" he called Stone asking him. "I said, 'No, I'm not doing drugs.' And he said, 'Because you look like you've never acted before in your life.'"
Michael Douglas attends TCM Classic Film Festival: New York Pop-Up x 92NY in New York City on Jan. 31, 2026
Mike Coppola/Getty
The actor explained that at that point in his career, he usually opted to avoid watching dailies, which are the pieces of raw footage captured on a given day.
"I said, 'Well, I don't like to look at the dailies, because I'm one of those guys that always sees what's wrong or what's not going to be in the film'… so I don't pay attention to the dailies," he remembered telling Stone. "So I said, 'I guess I'd better take a look,' and he said, 'Yeah, you better.'"
Douglas then acquiesced to Stone's wishes and watched two scenes that they'd already shot, one of which involved him riding in a limo with his young costar Charlie Sheen.
"And I'm looking at them really hard, and critically, and they seemed pretty good. So I keep saying, 'I think it's pretty good," he recalled, noting that Stone ultimately agreed, despite his prior harsh words.
"[Stone said], 'Yeah, it is, isn't it?'"
In retrospect, Douglas appreciates that Stone prioritized the quality of the movie over polite direction.
"He was willing for me to hate his guts for the rest of this movie to get that extra little push," said the actor. "His record of successes with actors is quite impressive. So I'm deeply, deeply appreciative of the fact that it gave me part and the fact that he pushed me to another level."
Stone reflected on Douglas' performance in an interview with Matt Zoller Seitz in his book The Oliver Stone Experience.
"I think he was more comfortable [playing a villain], but I think Michael struggles for comfort levels," the director said. "I mean, he's not comfortable per se, he's always looking. If you notice, he moves his shoulders a lot. When he's misused, which he sometimes is in films, that cockiness of Gekko can be irritating, smarmy, in the wrong roles. But I like Michael when he's doing it in good movies, with good material. I liked him in Wall Street very much."
Oliver Stone and Michael Douglas in Cannes, Frances, on May 15, 2010
LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty
Douglas went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his turn as Gekko. While Stone did not receive a nomination for Best Director, he'd already won the award at the previous ceremony for Platoon, and would win it again two years later for Born on the Fourth of July.
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In the same interview, Stone shared his perspective on Wall Street's Oscar performance in general.
"There was no respect for the movie. Michael Douglas did get a bump from it, because film industry people liked the performance, but they didn't really look at the movie," the filmmaker opined. "Why was Wall Street ignored, except for Michael Douglas? No Oscar nominations for anything, including the writing or anything?"
Stone also noted that he thinks Douglas won the Oscar because his performance as Gekko marked a departure from his previous screen roles.
"In the part, in the movie, he surprised people," the director said. "There's no question that in the first one, the surprise is partly what led to the Oscar, I believe. It was so against what they expected of him."
Stone and Douglas later reteamed for 2010's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, for which the actor received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
on Entertainment Weekly
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