09 February 2016
Newsdesk
Actor Michael Douglas doesn't think he'll ever retire, with obligations only seeming to increase as he gets older.
The 71-year-old Fatal Attraction star, who battled and won a bout with cancer in the past, received the Career Achievement Award at the 15th Annual AARP Movies For Grownups Awards ceremony held in Beverly Hills on Monday 8 February (16).
And although he is considered elderly, his age isn't stopping him from taking on fresh ventures.
"(I'll) never retire," he declared to Variety. "I love what I do. That’s the funny thing about the AARP and the over-50s. So many of us are ‘retired,’ but the reality is we’re busier than ever.”
Douglas played legendary pianist Liberace in 2013 HBO drama Behind the Candelabra and his portrayal of the musician won him a Golden Globe accolade, an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
But although he credits acting as being his "first love", many of the projects he's working on currently sees him taking on production roles.
“I have a first-look deal with HBO and we’re working on a number of things over there,” he shared. “I’m also developing some movie projects, including remakes of Starman and Flatliners, which I produced years ago, over at Sony.”
Even though he has his hands full with work, Douglas makes it a priority to spend time with wife Catherine Zeta-Jones and their two children - son Dylan and daughter Carys.
His triumph over throat and tongue cancer has put things into perspective when it comes to interpersonal relationships.
“I’m five years clean now, I’m happy to say, from the cancer, so my priorities are much more geared toward my family and hanging around these years before they (his children) take off," he told Extra. “There’s no question about that, you go through a whole period in your life and your career is probably the most important thing. We're in a business where we're gypsies we travel around the world and your family suffers to some degree. Now I’m at a unique age where I got a 15-year-old boy Dylan and my daughter Caris is 13… that keeps you young right there and you just love spending that time with them and you know how quickly it goes.”
