Michael Douglas on Becoming Benjamin Franklin, Being Asked to Run for California Governor and Throwing Up Due to Stage Fright
variety.comMarc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events When Michael Douglas was invited to play Benjamin Franklin in Apple TV+’s “Franklin,” he immediately took out a $100 bill. “I looked at Ben and thought, ‘I’ve got a long ways to go,’” the two-time Oscar winner tells Variety.
Douglas didn’t just worry that he’d have to spend hours in the makeup chair — the series took more than 160 days to shoot. He was also nervous that heavy prosthetics would hurt his performance. “Your persona has gotta come through,” he says.
But Douglas’ fears were groundless. Director Tim Van Patten and producer Richard Plepler had no intention of hiding his face under a rubbery nose and jowls. “They looked at me like, ‘You schmuck.
We’re not going to do that to you,’” Douglas recalls. Based on Stacy Schiff ’s “A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America,” the show follows Franklin’s 1776 trip to Paris, where he hopes to persuade the king to fund America’s fight for independence.
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