Kirk Douglas Thought ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ Would Flop After Michael Douglas Cast Jack Nicholson

Actor Kirk Douglas hoped to star in an onscreen adaptation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest after doing the stage version. But his father Kirk Douglas didn’t think much of the casting decision, especially when he wanted Nicholson’s starring role for himself.

Kirk Douglas had no idea who Jack Nicholson was

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was a film that both Douglas and his son Michael were extremely passionate about. Douglas famously starred in the Broadway play of Cuckoo’s Nest back in the early 1960s as Randle McMurphy. He also owned the rights to the play, and had hopes of translating it to the big screen. But he had a hard time finding a studio that was willing to make the movie.

Eventually, he handed over the rights to his son Michael, who was able to secure funding for the feature. Michael would then cast Jack Nicholson in the film’s starring role, much to his father’s disappointment.

It didn’t take long for Michael to nab Nicholson. He eyed the actor after a strong recommendation from the filmmaker who almost directed Cuckoo’s Nest. But Nicholson’s casting immediately came with problems that actually helped Cuckoo’s Nest in the end.

“Hal Ashby, who had been in the early running for director, suggested Jack Nicholson for McMurphy. It was difficult to see at first, because he’d never played anyone like that before. We were delayed for about six months because of Jack’s schedule, but that turned out to be a great blessing: it gave us the chance to get the ensemble right,” Michael once told The Guardian.

When Douglas heard who his replacement was, he had little faith in the movie’s success.

“So I said: ‘Who’s playing my part? Jack Nicholson? Never heard of him. Well, at least it will be a flop,’” Douglas said in a separate interview with The Guardian.

Kirk Douglas felt Michael Douglas destroyed him over ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’

Although Douglas felt his son rejected him for the role, Michael claimed the blame was on the film’s director.

“It was about 20 years since Dad did the play on Broadway, his career’s changed a little bit, and our director Milos Forman was like, ‘Kirk’s a little old for the part.’ I said ‘Yeah’,” Douglas once recalled according to Hindustan Times. “Dad’s version is that I rejected him. I said, ‘Since when did the producer have casting control? That was the director.’ It was my first time out.”

In a joint interview the two conducted with Gainesville, Douglas told the Ant-Man star that he was still bothered by the snub.

”That’s the picture where you destroyed me,” Douglas told Michael.

Michael Douglas called his father a film star first and father second

Douglas was every bit the A-lister that his son was back in the day. This meant that the Basic Instinct star and his brothers had a taste of Hollywood life at a very young age.

“Joel and I would go off to Hollywood to see Dad during the holidays, and we had some great times. We would visit him on set,” Michael once wrote to The Guardian. “I had my 16th birthday in Los Angeles. Hayley Mills was my date. Or we would go to Kirk’s house in Palm Springs where Joel and I became the Desert Rats, riding horses out into the countryside. People such as Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra and Tony Curtis would drop by.”

But although there were some nice perks that came with having a celebrity dad, there was one major drawback.

“All of that left a lasting impression although, looking back, I can see that Dad was film star first, father second. We were much more emotionally attached to our stepfather,” Michael said.