Michael Douglas' dad Kirk Douglas still holds a grudge against his son for not casting him in his Oscar-winning film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
The Wall Street star won an Academy Award for producing the 1975 film, which picked up five Oscars, but he reveals his father was originally set to bring it to the big screen after starring in the 1963 Broadway production. However, the project fell apart and the role of Randle Patrick McMurphy went to Jack Nicholson.
"(When he sold the rights to it...), I said, 'Let me run with it,' and he said (to himself), 'Help your kid out, yeah you can run with it'," Michael told U.S. chat show The Talk. "I was able to get it set up, it was a few years later and he got a little older..., but it wasn't my decision, it was the director's decision (who he wanted to cast)."
"I looked at dad and he said, 'Yeah you didn't let me, you didn't let me do the part'," he added. "I said, 'Dad, it wasn't my decision,' (he said), 'Yes it was...' Every once in a while when he's looking to get a load on, he'll remind me of that."
Douglas also drove Nicholson crazy in real life during production after failing to tell him the actors he was starring alongside had worked with real mental patients to get into character and they were fully immersed in their roles.
"The first thing that happened was we had two weeks of rehearsal in the mental hospital and our doctor who ran the mental hospital helped the other actors by giving them certain patients that had similar symptoms to hang out with them," he said. "Then they immersed those actors in group therapy sessions that were going on."
"Jack arrived later...," he added. "So he came in, we would start rehearsals and then we would break for lunch. I was nervous to produce the first table read with Jack, I see him looking around and he ran outside and said, 'Geez,' (while rubbing his hands through his head). I said, 'What's wrong?' (He said), 'Who are these guys?' I said, 'They're actors.' (He said), 'They don't break character, it's lunchtime.' And it was actually actors who were so immersed in their roles that he couldn't tell (who was in the programme and who wasn't)."
