Exclusive: Michael Douglas on the Legacy of 'One Fle...

By James Brizuela

Contributing Writer

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Michael Douglas is a well-known and renowned actor and producer, with credits spanning decades. What people may not know about him is that he served as a producer for one of the most important films in cinema history, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

The 1975 classic stars Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Will Sampson, Danny DeVito, William Redfield, Brad Dourif and Christopher Lloyd. Not only did the film star an All-star cast, but it won all five of the major Academy Awards (Best Picture – Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz; Best Actor – Jack Nicholson; Best Actress – Louise Fletcher; Director – Miloš Forman; and Screenplay – Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman).

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" just celebrated its 50th anniversary, and the film has been released on 4K and Ultra HDR for the first time ever. It is available now.

The 4K release of the film also includes extras like:

Conversations on Cuckoo: Group Therapy (NEW)

Producer Michael Douglas leads a star-studded conversation with Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd and Brad Dourif on the unorthodox casting process that launched the careers of the famous ensemble fifty years ago.

Conversations on Cuckoo: Moviemaking Memories (NEW)

Memories of working with Jack Nicholson and director Miloš Forman and filming the Academy Award-winning film are shared by Producer Michael Douglas and cast members Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, and Brad Dourif.

Completely Cuckoo

A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the making of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, tracing the path from Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel to the 1963 Broadway play starring Kirk Douglas to the 1975 film that would sweep that year’s Academy Awards ®.

Deleted Scenes

Pecking Party (2:17)

Where are your Clothes? (1:50)

Meet Nurse Ratched (1:39)

First Group Therapy (2:36)

Shaving Chief (0:49)

To celebrate the film and talk about its legacy, Michael Douglas sat down with Newsweek to discuss the history of the film and its cultural impact.

What was your reaction when you saw the 4k version of the film for the first time?

"It was, it was sort of unreal. I mean, it was just the detail and the quality and just the memories, the memories came back, and it's wonderful to see in this in this time, the change over from film to digital to see the quality that's created. So I mean, the picture stands up. Let's just say that the picture stands up.

"The other thing is, I realized there's a whole bunch of people at 50 years as much of a classic as what I'm trying to do is get to those younger people who don't even know about the movie. Hadn't seen it. That's always the joy I get when people go, 'Wow, man. What a movie.' You know that just kind of a classic, well-written, well-directed, well-acted film."

As the film's producer, did you have any idea at the time that this would become one of the only handful of films to win all five major Academy Awards?

...

"We thought it was pretty good. You know, we thought the irony was that my partner, Saul Zaentz, was the owner of a record company, you know, was mostly jazz and labels and all of that. But their biggest successes with this, with Creedence Clearwater Revival. So we really have to thank them for the financing, you know, of the picture, but we made it up in Berkeley, California, at Saul's company, Fantasy Records. So all the post-production was done up there. And so it was really kind of a secret, in terms of Hollywood, what was going on. So it kind of came out from nowhere, but blew everybody away. And I felt that when we had finished the whole picture before he brought it down for distribution, it looked pretty special."

This film is based on Ken Kesey's novel and Dale Wassermann's play. Were there any kind of big challenges in adapting the story for film?

"Well, there was. Initially, when we developed it with Ken Casey, we gave him a chance to write a screenplay. And although a lot of times it's very hard for the novelist, the writer of a book, to transfer that into a screenplay, and unfortunately, we just felt in a different way. Ken held on to the idea of telling the movie through the Indian, the big Chief's eyes, is sort of almost a psychedelic formula. And we just kind of went a different way. So it didn't work out. And, you know, it was the one, it was the one bad taste, I think, in everybody's mouth, unfortunately, that we had with Ken. Ken was not happy about it. It eventually got itself resolved, but that was that was about it.

"But other than that, we then went with our writers, both Bo Goldman and Lawrence Hauben, and worked through the drafts, and Milos was a director. It was a tremendous help, because Milos was truly a logician. He reduced everything to his lowest common denominator; he had a very good way. And so when you see the film, there's nothing showy about it. Just sort of really focuses on these characters and telling the story, but you just get so sucked into this and so enamored with a bunch of crazy guys in hospital."

As a producer of the film, was there any decision more than others that you're proud of that you made for the film?

"Yeah, the decisions I think we're proudest about was, was keeping it at shooting at the Oregon state mental hospital in Salem, Oregon. In January, when people were telling us, 'Why aren't you on a sound stage?' All the movie takes place in one ward of a hospital be so much easier, and everybody just can go home at night from Los Angeles. We thought, you know, we had this opportunity to work in this actual functioning mental hospital, we had the cooperation of Dr Brooks, Dr Dean Brooks, who ended up playing the doctor, who's the director of the hospital, who allowed our actors to take part in group therapy sessions with real mentally ill patients. So there was a verisimilitude. There was a quality you can't really put your hands on it, which just gave it kind of a reality and a comfort quality for all the actors that I think audiences just sort of settled in and were taken away on this trip."

Jack Nicholson's performance as McMurphy earned him his first Academy Award. At the time, what made him the right actor for that role?

"Well, it's interesting. We did not think of him. And people now say, 'Oh, who else could have played R.P. McMurphy?' But Jack was sort of known for Five Easy Pieces and Easy Rider, sort of, you know, the young, intelligent kind of, well-to-do, kind of characters, not this kind of R.P. McMurphy. But we then saw days of a movie called The Last Detail, with Hal Ashby, and you saw elements that, you know, you can see about R.P. McMurphy. And then also both Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando had turned the part down, and so that was how Jack worked out.

"And with Louise Fletcher, who plays Nurse Ratched, we had like, five well-known actresses who turned it all down because they didn't want to be villains. I mean, in that day and age, in the women's movement and everything, they were trying to aspire to equality. They did not like the idea of playing a villain was not politically correct. Actors, male actors, love villains. Villains are great. You know, you get to do all the things that you're not supposed to be doing, and but we gave the opportunity of having Louise Fletcher, and she won an Academy Award too."

Brad Dorff and Christopher Lloyd, this is the first time, the first feature films from both of them. Did you sense at the time that you were witnessing the beginnings of their major careers?

"Yes, I did, if the world is fair at all, you saw such talent from these two guys. And yeah, I thought everybody, you know, everybody was just was everybody was so good. I remember Jack, we had two weeks of rehearsal up at the hospital, and the actors are shuttling off these different group therapy sessions or working. We had many of the patients, criminally insane, actual mental patients that are working on the film too. Anyway, Jack came up in the second week of rehearsal, and the first day he was there, we broke for lunch, and we were eating in the little commissary in the mental hospital. And I see Jack looking around. He's getting kind of edgy, and then he throws his chair back, and he gets up and he walks out.

"He's like, pacing around. 'Oh, I got a problem with my star. Jack. You all right?' He goes, 'Who are these guys?' I said, 'What do you mean?' 'They don't stop at lunch. They don't break character. Who are these guys?' He didn't know, because none of them, most of them, were not well known. So he thought maybe many of them were actually mentally ill, mentally ill patients, rather than actors."

In 1993, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry. What does that recognition mean to you, personally?

"Well, it means that historically, there's a legacy. There's a legacy that, you know, movies are there for relatively forever, but for it to be pointed out like that. I mean the idea that you and I are talking 50 years after the release of a movie is something you cherish. You know? It's definitely food for thought. You know it's, you feel like you've done something that's lasting."

50 years later, you know, why do you think "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" resonates so powerfully with new generations?

"Well, I hope it does. This is why I'm so excited about this, this release, this 4k release, and for a lot of people that haven't seen it, but I think it just is a good reminder, particularly in our country right now, on the importance of the individual, the importance of individuality. This is what makes our country so special, and the struggle against conformity, by the system coming down. And so, I think it tries to remind us of our democratic rights and our rights of independence that are so crucial to us as individuals and our country, absolutely."

To see the full interview, watch the video above. For more movie news, head to Newsweek Movies.

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