Liberace biopic
Douglas, Damon attracted to legendary performer’s glamour
Actor Michael Douglas wanted deeper, insightful portrayal of flamboyant entertainer.
PASADENA, CALIF. — Michael Douglas looked back on the moment when, while making Steven Soderbergh’s Academy Award-winning 2000 crime drama Traffic, the filmmaker turned to him and said, “Have you ever thought about Liberace?”
“I thought, ‘Is this guy messing with me?’ ” Douglas recalled, with a rueful laugh.
Little did he know it then but more than 10 years later Soderbergh would again approach him with the idea of playing the late piano player and entertainer, whose career spanned four decades and won him a prominent regular place in the tabloid headlines of the time, thanks to his lifestyle of flamboyant excess.
This time, Douglas realized Soderbergh was serious. Behind the Candelabra, in which Douglas plays Liberace opposite Matt Damon as Liberace’s longtime live-in companion Scott Thorson, is the result.
Candelabra premières Sunday on HBO, after its world première at the Cannes Film Festival earlier in the week.
Liberace and Thorson’s relationship, which began as a financial arrangement and developed into a five-year romantic relationship, ended badly, with Thorson filing a $100-million palimony suit in the early 1980s. The suit was eventually settled out of court and the two later reconciled, shortly before the entertainer’s death of an AIDS-related illness in 1987.
Veteran screenwriter Richard LaGravenese adapted Soderbergh’s film version in part from Thorson’s 1988 autobiography Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace.
Soderbergh’s Candelabra is the filmmaker’s vision, based on Thorson’s source material and LaGravenese’s script.
When any detail or story point was queried, it was the director who made the final decision.
Douglas was determined that his interpretation of Liberace be deeper and more insightful than a straight impersonation of the legendary entertainer, despite the wealth of archival material, audio recordings, taped interviews and concert footage available to him.
“Basically, it’s a process of repetition, of looking at a lot of material and finding that balance between performance, and knowing you’re not an impersonator,” Douglas told reporters at the winter meeting of the TV Critics Association.
“You’re not going to ever be exactly like Liberace, so it’s about trying to find that balance that makes you comfortable, makes (the director) secure, and makes myself attractive to Matt.”
Damon, for his part, quipped that he found Douglas-as-Liberace to be attractive.
“Very,” Damon replied, straight up. “Very attractive.”
Douglas credited Damon with talking him into doing the role.
“I want to commend Matt because I don’t think I would have had the courage at that point in my career to take this on,” Douglas said.
When his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones saw him dressed as Liberace for the first time, her first words, Douglas recalled, were, “Where have you been all my life?” Zeta-Jones has seen the finished film. “She was really excited, really proud about the picture when she saw it,” Douglas said.
“You don’t get this many chances to have a great script and a wonderful actor like Matt to work with. … We obviously worked together closely,” he added, deadpan.
Inevitably, Behind the Candelabra dwells on a messy breakup.
“All those things are in play,” Soderbergh explained. “One of the aspects of the book that appealed to me was that, at a certain point in the film, the discussions that they’re having are discussions every couple has at a certain point. What’s unusual about this, obviously, is the context and background in which these conversations are happening.
“We take the relationship seriously in the film, because my feeling, based on the research we did, indicated that it was a real relationship. And it was, up to that point, the longest relationship Liberace had had. I was anxious that we not make a caricature of either of their characters, or of the relationship.
“There’s no question that it’s uncomfortable to see the movie through a contemporary lens and know they weren’t allowed to be as open back then as people are today. And that definitely put pressure on them and their relationship.”
The clothes don’t make the man, but in this case the clothes helped the performance, Damon said.
“I’ve always been somebody who goes into wardrobe fitting and tries to get out as fast as I can,” Damon said. “When they ask me what kind of shoes, at this point I just look for the most comfortable shoes. I look for the most comfortable clothes. I can’t be bothered with it.
“This was a very specific project, though. I probably spent more time in wardrobe fittings on this than I had in the previous 15 projects combined, literally. Days and days and days and days. And I really enjoyed it. Reading Scott Thorson’s book, I could see he was really taken with the glamour of this lifestyle. Even when writing the book, Thorson talked about how impressed he was and how exciting it was to be involved in that kind of glamour.”
It’s only natural to be seduced by glamour and the materialism of fine things, Soderbergh added. At its core, Behind the Candelabra is about seduction, in all its forms.
“I guess I just feel these are very common feelings,” Soderbergh said.
“We all get up in the morning. We put clothes on and we look in the mirror and we make a judgment about how we feel about our appearance. Not all of us have the opportunity or resources to indulge in plastic surgery or an incredible wardrobe.
“(Producer) Jerry Weintraub once referred to this movie as La Cage Aux Folles on steroids, and that’s kind of true. These issues get exaggerated because of this crazy environment this takes place in.
“I’m fascinated by Liberace’s wardrobe. I mean, that stuff’s pretty fascinating to look at. It’s quite extraordinary to imagine someone wanting to put on that appearance. Michael and Damon had to wear some of this stuff but, speaking for myself, I can’t imagine going to work in these outfits.”