‘A Walk Down Wall Street’

Michael Douglas’ Oscar-winning performance as ruthless financier Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone’s 1987 film drama “Wall Street” is credited with inspiring many a callow youth to pursue a career in finance. Yet speaking prior to a January 31screening of the film at the 92nd Street Y in the Upper East Side in Manhattan, as part of the TCM Classic Film Festival, 81-year-old Mr. Douglas confessed he was hardly thrilled with the feedback he has received from fans of the film in the intervening years since its release. “The idea after the movie came out that if I had one more drunken Wall Street guy come up to me and say, ‘You’re the man,’” Mr. Douglas said during a conversation with TCM TV host Alicia Malone. “I said, ‘I was the bad guy.’ That used to scare the hell out of me, just where we’re all going.”In contrast to his inebriated admirers, Mr. Douglas has not seen “Wall Street” since its release in December 1987. “I have not seen the movie fully in about 40 years,” he said of the film which depicts a striving young stockbroker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) who persuades corporate raider Gordon Gekko (played by Mr. Douglas) to be his mentor, to ill-fated effect. As though to underline Mr. Douglas’s famous line in “Wall Street” that, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good,” punters at the 92nd Street Y paid $65 and upwards to watch him talk about the film for a quarter of an hour. He did not disappoint. “I saw an article recently which said that Oliver first went to Warren Beatty, who passed on it, and then to Richard Gere who passed on it,” he recalled. “I didn’t know any of that because you always have to think you were the one that was chosen. But saying that, those poor bastards! How do you think they feel now?”Michael Douglas speaks onstage during TCM Classic Film Festival: New York Pop-Up x 92NY at 92nd Street Y on January 31, 2026 in New York City. Mike Coppola/Getty Images for TCMWhy did Mr. Douglas think that he got chosen by Mr. Stone to play Gordon Gekko? “He was looking for an actor that had some business acumen and because I was also a producer and did grow up in New York City….I had a familiarity with East Coast and that kind of life and I had friends that I’d met from early school that were in Wall Street. I was obviously familiar with it, but I understood the lifestyle.”Together with his director, Mr. Douglas conducted due diligence for “Wall Street”, visiting one of the most renowned investment banks of the era. “I remember going to the Drexel Burnham [Lambert] offices in Los Angeles with Oliver and we were having a nice tour,” Mr. Douglas said. “They were nervous because they weren’t quite sure what this movie was going to be about. I remember Oliver asking,’Where’s the shredder?’ Oliver, you don’t ask for the shredder.”As well as capturing the frenzied financial climate of mid-1980s New York, “Wall Street” is unique in being the only film to win an Oscar (Best Actor for Michael Douglas) and conversely a Golden Raspberry “Razzie” award (Daryl Hannah was awarded Worst Supporting Actress). While some “Wall Street” war stories have become ubiquitous over time, such as Mr. Stone, early on in the shoot, witheringly asking Mr. Douglas if he was taking drugs in an effort to get him to improve his performance, or actress Sean Young, who portrayed Gekko’s wife Kate in the film, openly angling on-set for the bigger role of Bud Fox’s girlfriend Darien, played in the film by Ms. Hannah, one tale has remained under the radar since its release. Oliver Stone (L) and Michale Douglas on the set of ‘Wall Street.’ 20th Century Fox“Michael Douglas…has decided to model his character on Donald Trump,” New York magazine’s Intelligencer column reported in its April 20 1987 edition. “Wall Street producer Edward Pressman’s staff has asked Trump to send them videotapes of his appearances on ‘60 Minutes’ and other television interview shows so that Douglas can study the Trump style.” Asked how he felt about this in the same article, Mr. Trump said, ‘I’ll let you know after seeing the picture.’”Mr. Douglas did not reference President Trump in his talk at 92nd Street Y, but he did cite his former head of Department of Government Efficiency when speculating on how New York finance has changed in the intervening period. “The basic difference between Wall Street now and then?” said Mr. Douglas. “Then it was private equity in that the people running this were not people who ran companies, i.e. Meta, Amazon or Elon [Musk], individuals who actually built companies and stocks. They were [in the 1980s] private equity people putting deals together, almost like an agent. They were getting commissions and making at that time a lot of money. It looks like bupkis now compared to what is going on!” Now in his ninth decade, Mr. Douglas has mostly retired from acting and was on his way to a vacation in Antarctica after his 92nd Street Y appearance. But he said “Wall Street” both paved the way for the anti-heroes he would subsequently play in films such as “Falling Down” and “Disclosure” and echoed the career of his father, celebrated actor Kirk Douglas. “My father played the sensitive young man in several roles, until he did a movie called “Champion,” for which he got nominated for an Oscar, where he played a tough boxer,” Mr. Douglas said. “In a strange way my career after television, in feature films, was playing softer parts until I played Gekko which changed things around.” Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen in ‘Wall Street.’ 20th Century FoxDemonstrating the lingering similarities between Mr. Douglas and Gordon Gekko, he indirectly referenced the ongoing bid by Netflix to buy Warner Bros. Discovery when he mentioned David Zaslav, the CEO and President of Warner Bros. Discovery which owns TCM. “I wanted to give a shout out to David Zaslav, the head of Warner Bros.,” Mr. Douglas said just before he exited the stage. “He’s got a lot on his plate. We’ve all been following the news.”

‘A Walk Down Wall Street’

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