TRAFFIC'S HEAVY

Michael Douglas' New Movie Hits Close To His Family
Life

The subject is a painful one for Michael Douglas, but he doesn't
flinch from dealing with it. From the moment he accepted the role in
Traffic of an ultra-conservative judge who is appointed the U.S.
president's drug czar, he knew people would draw parallels with his
own family history.

And with the movie now arriving in theatres, he knows talk of those
parallels will grow -- because of a crucial plot line involving the
judge's discovery that his teenage daughter is a hopeless drug addict.
So the 56-year-old actor is asked the inevitable question: How did he
tap into this subject matter? There's no hesitation in Douglas's response.

"As a public figure, my personal life and my family's personal life
have been pretty well documented as far as drug abuse in my family is
involved," he says. "So I identify with it."

Douglas' son, Cameron, spent a year in a drug rehabilitation centre
in 1997, but has continued to have problems with narcotics. In October
1999, he was arrested in the lobby of a luxury Manhattan apartment
with more than a gram of cocaine in his pocket. He avoided prosecution
for criminal possession of cocaine after pleading guilty to a lesser
charge of disorderly conduct and was sentenced to two days of
community service. Douglas' brother, Eric, has also had drug problems.

"I always knew it was going to be difficult to do this picture
without people trying to bring up my own son's ways," Douglas says
now. He also candidly suggests that his own celebrity status makes it
more difficult for Cameron, now 20, to cope. "The unfortunate thing is
that if it wasn't for me he would have the right, as every other young
individual does, to work his way through these issues. Unfortunately,
he's been put out there publicly. So certainly ... there are areas
that are close to home."

Nevertheless, Douglas isn't sorry he did Traffic, which has been
triggering a buzz in Oscar circles for weeks because of the unique way
it uses three interrelating stories to examine the illegal drug trade.
Douglas took a big cut in salary to join an ensemble cast that
includes Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Quaid, Amy Irving and
Douglas' wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones. For one thing, he thought the
subject matter was important. For another, he wanted to work with
director Steven Soderbergh. Now that the movie is out and generating
rave reviews, he feels vindicated in taking on the role.

"I think the screenwriter, Stephen Gaghan, made a concerted effort to
pick a father who is conservative and squeaky clean in a drug-free
environment in order to show that it's not only with dysfunctional
parents and liberal families that this disease can hit. I think my
character personifies the absolute furthest notion of someone's only
child succumbing to this disease, and I think that made a more
interesting story than if I was playing a liberal or part of some
dysfunctional family."

The film, which moves from the criminal backwaters of Latin America to
the corridors of power in Washington, shows the insidious way in which
illegal drug trafficking spreads its tentacles. Douglas believes that
U.S. policy is far too focused on incarceration and drug education and
needs to be more concerned with methods of rehabilitating convicted
drug offenders. He questions the harshness of some states in equating
marijuana with heroin and cocaine, but also says that society should
be more concerned with alcohol and prescription drug abuse. He hopes
moviegoers will catch the irony of the scene in which his character --
a man appointed to lead Washington's war on drugs -- attends a
cocktail party with Washington's movers and shakers.

"There was a concerted effort to emphasize that my character drank and
I don't think that irony will be lost on people."

Douglas has been attracted to issue-related stories ever since he
starred in and produced The China Syndrome, a thriller dealing with a
nuclear accident, more than two decades ago. "When you don't have
special effects or wild costumes, then you have to concentrate on the
issues that are in front of you today. But I don't want people to
forget the fact that this is also a pretty good thriller which
beautifully integrates three stories, each with its own dramatic arc.
But you hope afterwards that it will raise some kind of
discussion."

Earlier this year, Douglas received rave reviews for his performance
in Wonder Boys as a pot-smoking academic who discovers the error of
his ways in the course of one traumatic weekend. He considers himself
fortunate that, in a year notable for a succession of dud movies, he
can take pride in the two vehicles in which he appeared. "The thing
I'm most proud of is that both movies are being recognized. It just
reconfirmed my choices and the chances I took."

He also loved simply being one member of a large acting ensemble.
"With Wonder Boys I was in every shot of the movie. So Traffic was a
picnic, a five-week shoot for my section."

Although he and Zeta-Jones are both in the movie, they don't have any
screen time together. In Zeta-Jones' storyline she plays the
resourceful wife of a drug kingpin and, because she was six months
pregnant during filming, her scenes were shot at the very beginning.
"I was there, hanging out as a future husband and father," Douglas
reports. (The two were married in November, three months after the
birth of their son.) "She's a healthy young lass."

He thinks they make an ideal couple. "I like to think I'm a pretty
together 56-year-old and she's a pretty mature 31-year-old."