Against all odds – Michael Douglas on the making of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

How Michael Douglas won his father’s approval – and an Oscar – by making the acclaimed independent film. Here he reveals the backstory behind the 1975 hit.

From left; Saul Zaentz, Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher and Michael Douglas at the 1976 Academy Awards. Picture: Getty Images

Jack Nicholson starred in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but a future leading man of Hollywood put the film together. Michael Douglas produced the 1975 box-office hit before his own movie career took off. In his late 20s, Douglas got the rights to adapt Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel from his father, Kirk Douglas, who originated the lead role of Randle McMurphy, a maverick who up-ends a psychiatric ward, in a 1963 Broadway production. The film won five Academy Awards, including best picture and Oscars for Nicholson, Nurse Ratched actor Louise Fletcher and director Milos Forman. For the film’s 50th anniversary, Fathom Entertainment is releasing a restored version this week.

The book made a tremendous impression on me in college and I saw my father in the stage production. He had bought rights to the book when it was in galley form. After the play he tried for about five years to set the picture up. I said, “Let me try to run with it.” Dad said, “Sure, give the kid a chance.” I would try to get him the money he wanted and the part of McMurphy in the movie.

In my dad’s files on the project I found this company, Fantasy Records in Berkeley, California, run by a gentleman named Saul Zaentz. In the 60s, Fantasy had a band called the Golliwogs, which became Creedence Clearwater Revival. It was the profits from Creedence that would pay for Cuckoo’s Nest. John Fogerty from Creedence later had a pretty substantial lawsuit against Saul over music profits.

We put together a deal where I would share half of my back-end profits with my father. Our budget was a couple million when we started and ended up at about $4m, which was more than most independent movies. Saul’s partners thought I was railroading him and taking all the money out of Fantasy.

To this day it’s an acting lesson. I can show you a 1000-foot roll of film, 10 minutes of Jack saying nothing, simply doing reactions to the group therapy meeting, and you’ll be mesmerised, says Douglas. Picture: Getty Images

At the time I was on a crime show called The Streets of San Francisco with Karl Malden. It was a hit and I had Emmy nominations and a five-year contract, but I asked to leave early to produce this picture.

Saul and I made mistakes but we also trusted our instincts. Instead of using a stage in Hollywood, we decided to shoot the film on location. In Oregon. In January. When it gets dark at three in the afternoon. In a hospital ward. For verisimilitude.

But it was one of those fateful decisions because we found the Oregon State Hospital and the superintendent, Dean Brooks, became an extraordinary collaborator. He ended up playing the part of McMurphy’s doctor. He also allowed the actors into group therapy sessions and he suggested patients to actually be part of our crew. We had an arsonist working in the art department.

I remember walking through these empty wards of the hospital. It was a very isolated, lonely place that we were able to bring all this life to. We had two weeks of rehearsal before we started, and several of the actors were sleeping at the hospital.

Did I consider trying to play McMurphy? No, I was 29 years old. McMurphy had to be a little bit over the hill. Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando had turned it down. For a while Milos was seriously thinking about Burt Reynolds. I always felt bad about my father not getting the part. But Jack was such a good choice to be our guide into this world, with that sly angle that it was going to be easier than jail time for him. It did cross my mind that maybe I could play Billy Bibbit. Then Brad Dourif came in for an audition, and I just said, “Well, that’s our Billy.”

Will Sampson, who played Chief Bromden, was one of those casting dreams. I got a call about him from a used-car salesman I had met on an aeroplane. Will was working as a forest-fire ranger in Yakima, Washington, and he flew down to Portland to meet us for the first time. So we’re down there at the gate waiting, and Will comes through the gate with his cowboy hat and boots that made him close to 7 feet tall. Jack goes, “Oh, my god, it’s the Chief!” Will flew back with us in this twin engine plane that was very small. So he sat in the front seat and Jack sat in his lap. He just kept saying, “It’s the Chief, man, it’s the Chief!”

Douglas between scenes during filming of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, in 1975. Picture: Getty Images

We had some trouble because at first Milos wasn’t showing footage to the cast. And our cinematographer, Haskell Wexler, didn’t like what Milos was doing and that was beginning to leak into the cast. So I had to fire Haskell. I felt like an idiot going up to this super-talented man who was old enough to be my father but it had to be done.

We also had a big drama with William Redfield, who played Harding. We discovered he had leukaemia and we had to gamble on whether he could finish the picture. He passed away a couple of weeks after the picture was over. His performance was just magical.

We kept pushing Milos to get out of the hospital, but he was resisting the idea of shooting the scenes where McMurphy steals the fishing boat. We finally did it and the cast was violently seasick. I remember Danny DeVito on the morning of the third day crying, “I can’t go out!” At first we didn’t really know what the purpose of the fishing trip was but then it became about the patients coming together as a group and recognising McMurphy was the leader.

On set, we were rocking. Jack improvised a lot to McMurphy calling the imaginary baseball game because Jack knew his sports, but everything was pretty scripted.

To this day it’s an acting lesson. I can show you a 1000-foot roll of film, 10 minutes of Jack saying nothing, simply doing reactions to the group therapy meeting, and you’ll be mesmerised.

A still from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Picture: Getty Images

The film is a star vehicle for Jack, but it’s an ensemble film at its heart. What we’re seeing on the screen is camaraderie and I think that’s why it stood the test of time. It’s also a funny movie. Yes it gets sad, but when the Chief breaks out and Christopher Lloyd is triumphant, it ends on a very positive note. I think that’s partly why it succeeded.

When the picture was finished, we went looking for distribution but could not make a deal with anybody. The studios saw the exact same movie that would get nominated for nine Oscars but they all turned us down.

United Artists, respectfully, was like your last choice in those days but they made us a decent deal. Then they went on a run. They won best picture three years in a row starting with us, then Rocky, then Annie Hall.

‘If I knew Michael was going to be so successful, I would have been nicer to him!’, said his father, Kirk Douglas. Picture: News Corp

Saul Zaentz won three best picture awards in his career, including Amadeus in the 80s, and The English Patient in the 90s. I don’t think he’s ever given proper credit, probably because he was from the outside.

It was an independent picture that was signed, sealed and delivered to the studio. It certainly brought in a lot of money for us in the first 25 years, and now we have receipts for 50 years. For Jack in particular it was a very financially rewarding film.

I used to tease my father that his half of my back end was more money than he ever made for any picture in his career. For him the money helped ease the pain, but not by much, of not getting the role of McMurphy. Now I’m old enough to understand that you get maybe four really good parts in your life if you’re lucky, and that certainly seemed like one of those parts to my father.

Thank god the movie wasn’t a turkey! That was probably the most nervous I was when I invited Dad up to see our first cut of the movie. He was a fan. He complimented Jack and what a beautiful job we did. His running joke after that was, “If I knew Michael was going to be so successful, I would have been nicer to him!”

I was recently in a picture with my older son Cameron, and my younger ones are just starting in the business. I really take offence to this term “nepo babies”. It’s a nasty slap. Oh yeah, I know how it feels. My dad would say, “Son, you have it much harder than me. I had the rags-to-riches story, but people think of you as a kid with a silver spoon in your mouth.”

The Wall Street Journal