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Three generations of the Douglas clan
come together for "It Runs in the Fam4"

JN: What is important to you now in choosing projects?
DH: Well, the important thing to me here was I wanted to
work with Jamie Foley, because I liked Glengarry Glen Ross.
And I wanted to work with Ed Burns. He's interesting to
me because he's a writer, director, actor and producer. Yet
he's also this guy from New York and his father's a cop and
he retains his roots. He has a gift, I think.

JN: How do you keep the balance between your love of
meticulous preparation, and the need to improvise on
the set?
DH: It's never the same. On this film, there wasn't that
much time so I didn't do any research.
I mean, I would have loved the opportunity to go around
to strip houses. I haven't actually been to a strip club, I don't
think, ever in my life. My son goes to these places and he
reported to me.

JN: How much research do you usually do for a role?
DH: With something like Rain Man, I researched that for 2
1/2 years. I found it fascinating. But I had that time
because we couldn't get the picture made for that long.
Tootsie allowed me 3 1/2 years, because we couldn't get
the script right. I like research. I never went to school, so
this is an opportunity to educate myself.

JN: You are getting older yet obviously still going strong.
As time goes on, are you interested in exploring the aging
process on screen?
DH: What am I going to do? I'm getting older. Am I going
to pretend that I'm not? I'm 65, and I thank God for the fact
that I still have acne, because that goes hand in hand with a
high testosterone count, heh. May I say that modestly?

JN: Do you feel powerful in Hollywood because having
your name attached to a film can help get it funded?
DH: Honestly, I don't think my name today will have that
much to do with funding a film. From the way I under-
stand it, there's a very mechanical way that the money peo-
ple go about funding a film.
They look in a computer and they get the grosses of your
last few pictures, and that's how they determine someone's
box office value. It's not by a career, but the last few pic-
tures. That seems to be the game today.

JN: How was it to finally work with Gene Hackman on
your next film, Runaway Jury?
DH: We had never worked together before, and we had
known each other since 1958! We admitted to each other
how nervous we were, practically shaking, thinking that the
other one was going to judge us because we used to have
arguments when we started out as actors.
We trained with different acting methods, and he used to
defend his method, I defended mine. So we were meeting
up decades later, and it was a wonderful experience. ❑

Confidence, rated R, opens in Detroit-area theaters today.

Entire Bill

TOM TUGEND

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

n his 86th year and his 86th movie, Kirk Douglas
I has fulfilled a long-cherished dream by uniting his
clan in the film It Runs in the Family.
The picture's Gromberg family, for whom the
word "dysfunctional" could have been invented, consists
of, patriarch Alex (Kirk, naturally), son Mitchell (Kirk's
son, Michael Douglas) and grandson Asher (Kirk's grand-
son, Cameron Douglas).
Rounding out the family is Diana Douglas, Kirk's ex-
wife and Michael's mother, who plays the patriarch's
wife, Evelyn.
The Grornbergs of Manhattan are over the top in every
conceivable way. They are gratingly Jewish — Kirk sprin-
kles his comments with Yiddish vulgarisms, he screams
out the Kaddish as he sets fire to a boat carrying the
corpse of his senile brother and, for good measure, there
is a family seder from hell.
Adding to the stereotypes, the Gron -ibergs are obscene-
ly rich, thanks to
the patriarch's
successful career
as a corporate
lawyer.
At the seder,
when the
youngest grand-
son, Eli (Rory
Culkin), finds the
itfIkomen, Kirk
whips out a
Michael, Kirk and Camemn Douglas in
$1,000 bill ---
It Runs in the Family"
and has another
greenback of the
same denomina-
tion for the 24-year-old grandson, Asher, who didn't find
the afikomen.
There is almost constant intramural bickering between
the crusty Gromberg patriarch and his son; between the
son and his wife, Rebecca (Bernadette Peters); and
between this couple and their children. Ultimately, the
family rallies around one of its own when Asher is busted
for growing and selling marijuana.
Relief comes occasionally, as in the warmly portrayed
relationship between the Grornberg grandfather and his
wife, and the brotherly bonds between the two grand

Sons.

But most of the time, the film is as dysfunctional as
the Grornberg family, running off in a dozen different
directions and with a convoluted plotline that defies
description.
Hollywood veteran Fred Schepisi directed the film,
with co-star Michael Douglas doubling as producer. ❑

It Runs in the Family, rated PG-13, opens today at
Detroit-area theaters.

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DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

1111 # 11

4/25

2003

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