The 2013 movie that filled Michael Douglas with “revengeful joy” towards Hollywood
Michael Douglas was spiteful towards those who doubted one of his best films.
The early 2010s saw Hollywood beginning to narrow the margins on the types of films that it would greenlight, as studios were sceptical about anything that wasn’t an immediately guaranteed hit. This meant that even filmmakers and actors who had already proven themselves had to fight for their rights once more, leading to many standoffs that felt like a changing of the guard.
Although Douglas had a positive experience working with Steven Soderbergh on Traffic, for which the filmmaker won the Academy Award for ‘Best Director’, the pair were desperate to work together again. Douglas had been given a brief role in Soderbergh’s 2011 action film Haywire, but their intention was to make an epic biopic about Liberace.
Douglas had certainly taken career risks before, but playing a popular culture icon like Liberace was a major liability, given that fans of the late artist had strong feelings about how he should be depicted on screen. The actor was willing to put in the work, but he and Soderbergh were shocked when they couldn’t find any of the major studios to finance the film. The pair found that many studios were worried about making a film that would be seen as ‘too gay’, despite the fact that the duo had been trying to make it for well over a decade.
Although it was announced that Matt Damon had joined the cast to play Scott Thorson, the major studios continued to pass on distribution rights, and ultimately, Behind the Candelabra was picked up by HBO so it could screen on the linear network. Douglas was happy with the acclaim that the film received, but still felt bitter about going through development hell.
“I’m actually taking a sort of joy, a revengeful joy, in the fact that all the studios turned it down,” he admitted, “To me it was just a reflection of how constipated and conservative the studios have become”.
HBO has never been afraid of putting graphic content on television, and thus, Behind the Candelabra was able to fit right at home on the network that was also airing Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire at the same time. While it may have been made for the small screen, the film still felt like a true entry in Soderbergh’s canon.
The film swept the Primetime Emmy Awards with wins for ‘Best Television Movie’, ‘Best Director’ for Soderbergh, and ‘Best Actor’ for Douglas. Since the film played in theatres in Great Britain, it competed at the Bafta awards and received five nominations, including ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for Damon and ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’.
Behind the Candelabra is a strange inflexion point in the industry, as there sadly has not been much progress in getting LGBTQ+-themed films on the big screen. Even if there are films that acknowledge their queer characters, it’s rare to see any that are significant breakout hits outside of the independent scene. It is also the film that helped hook Soderbergh on the idea of streaming as a legitimate route of distribution. After attempting to self-distribute his film Logan Lucky in theatres, he signed up to work with streaming services like HBO Max and Netflix in order to secure an audience for his subsequent work.
