Michael Douglas opens up on 'Wall Street' role; Says other actors passed first

Hollywood star Michael Douglas, who played the iconic character Gordon Gekko in the Oliver Stone-directed 1987 crime drama "Wall Street", later learned that two actors had turned down the role before he was even approached.

The role was a big moment for him

Speaking at the TCM Classic Film Festival New York Pop-up x 92NY event, the 81-year-old actor said: "I must say, we were talking just before, while doing a little preparation for this, since I have not seen the movie fully in about 40 years ... but I saw an article recently that said that Oliver first went to Warren Beatty, who passed on it, and then to Richard Gere, who passed on it.




"I didn't know any of that because you always like to think you were the one."

The acclaimed movie served as a sharp critique of greed and excess in the US in the 1980s, reports femalefirst.co.uk

Douglas was acutely aware that it was a great career opportunity for him.

He said: "I was really happy, excited to bring the heart. You don't get many good parts in your life."

The actor thinks Oliver Stone recognised that he was particularly well-suited to the role, too.

He explained: "I guess when Oliver was asked, he was looking for an actor that had some business acumen and because I was also a producer, and because I did grow up in New York City, went to Allen Stevenson School, and then I went to prep schools.

"So I had a familiarity with the East Coast and that kind of life. And I had friends that I met from early school who were into Wall Street, so I wasn't closely familiar with it, but I understood the lifestyle. I guess that's why he chose it."

Meanwhile, Douglas had previously accused tech firms of "dumbing down" the movie business.

The actor has enjoyed a decades-long career in the film industry. The star bemoaned some of the changes he's witnessed in recent years, suggesting that so-called big tech is having a detrimental impact on the movie industry.

He said at the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: "The biggest change in my lifetime and career has been digital. It's gone the other way in terms of both studios or in this case streaming services and now this latest chapter is the advent of Silicon Valley dumbing down and just taking over what we thought was this big industry."Get the latest entertainment updates from the Times of India, along with the latest Hindi movies, upcoming Hindi movies in 2026 , and Telugu movies.”