Oliver Stone did not soften his approach when he wanted Michael Douglas to sharpen Gordon Gekko. During filming of Wall Street, Stone told Douglas that he looked like he had “never acted before in your life,” a line Douglas later said helped push him toward the performance that won him an Academy Award.
The insult was part of a deliberate strategy. Stone wanted Douglas to dig deeper into the role, watch the dailies with him, and bring more darkness and anger to the character of the ruthless financier at the center of the 1987 film.
Douglas was already a major figure in Hollywood
By then, Douglas was not a newcomer trying to prove himself. He had been producing films since the mid-1970s, including One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and had also become a star in his own right thanks to Robert Zemeckis’ 1984 hit Romancing the Stone.
Stone, meanwhile, was making a film about the moral rot of high finance in lower Manhattan. The movie famously introduced the phrase “greed is good,” and Douglas’ Gekko became one of the defining screen villains of the era.
Stone used tension to get the performance he wanted
Douglas later recalled that Stone came to his trailer after the second week of filming and asked if he was okay and whether he was doing drugs before delivering the cutting remark. Stone was younger than Douglas at the time, but he was determined to unsettle him enough to improve the performance.
Douglas said Stone was willing for him to “hate his guts for the rest of this movie” if it meant getting that extra push. According to Douglas, that approach worked because it forced him to examine his own work more closely and adapt to what the role needed.
The result was an Oscar and a lasting film legacy
The gamble paid off. Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Wall Street, and the film became a major hit despite its critique of financial greed. Far Out Magazine notes that the movie also had the unusual effect of making some viewers want to work in the very world it was condemning.
Stone and Douglas later reunited for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps in 2010, with Shia LaBeouf taking on the role once played by Charlie Sheen. The sequel earned more money than the original but was less well received by critics.
Stone has not released a feature film since Snowden in 2016, but another collaboration with Douglas is still ahead. The two are set to work together again on White Lies, a drama spanning three generations and also starring Willem Dafoe.