Michael Douglas says his long and celebrated acting career may be over, at least for now. The 80-year-old Oscar-winning actor recently revealed that he hasn’t worked since 2022 and has “no real intentions” of going back to acting, explaining that he realized he had to stop after nearly six decades in the film business.
Douglas made the comments during a press conference at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic in early July 2025, where he was discussing his career and current projects. He said he took a purposeful break from acting because he had been working so hard for almost 60 years and didn’t want to “be one of those people who dropped dead on the set.”
While Douglas stopped working intentionally after 2022, he didn’t completely rule out the possibility of returning if something truly special came along. “I say I’m not retired because if something special came up, I’d go back,” he said, but he also acknowledged that otherwise, he’s quite happy not acting and focusing on other parts of life.
He also joked that he’s “happy to play the ‘wife’” to his longtime wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, in the “spirit of maintaining a good marriage,” showing his sense of humor about the shift in his priorities.
Douglas’s last on-screen roles include his appearance as Hank Pym in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) and portraying Benjamin Franklin in the Apple TV+ miniseries Franklin (2024), both filmed before he stepped away.
He’s also attached to one more project, an indie film shot in 2022 called Looking Through Water, in which he stars opposite his son, Cameron Douglas — though that film has not yet been released.
Douglas’s decision reflects a mix of self-care after a long career and a desire to enjoy life beyond the set. While he hasn’t formally declared retirement, he’s clearly comfortable with this chapter of his life and content to remain selective about any future work.
Michael Douglas turns 81 in September 2025.
