Michael Douglas has been in a ton of iconic movies and has given numerous exceptional performances, but his role in Wall Street as Gordon Gekko inevitably goes down among his best to date. Though he was the main antagonist of the 1987 film and the deuteragonist of its 2010 sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the star’s character was widely idolized by fans.
But it seems that Douglas cracked the reason why fans idolized Gekko so much, even though he cheated and even ended up going to jail: Because he basically “had it all.” During an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show back in 2018, the actor talked about the same while discussing the movie with Patrick. He candidly said,
I had nice clothes. That’s all I was. I mean, I had really nice clothes, you should thank my costume designer. [And a nice wife and a nice girlfriend!] Exactly! I had it all. I had money, and I lied, and I cheated, and that was it.
While that’s that, it’s worth noting that even Charlie Sheen‘s character Bud Fox followed Gekko out of his admiration for his wealth and power. As a young and impatient stockbroker, he believed Gekko could mentor him to the top, so he began by providing illegal insider information to get Gekko’s attention. That said, fans can’t really be questioned for falling for that trap either.
Plus, further adding stars to the film was the rest of the unparalleled cast, which included Daryl Hannah as Darien Taylor, Martin Sheen as Carl Fox, John C. McGinley as Marvin, Terence Stamp as Sir Larry Wildman, James Karen as Harry Lynch, Hal Holbrook as Lou Mannheim, Sean Young as Kate Gekko, James Spader as Roger Barnes, and Saul Rubinek as Harold Salt.
Adding to them, also included in the cast were John Capodice as Dominick, Franklin Cover as Dan, Sylvia Miles as Dolores the Realtor, Millie Perkins as Mrs. Fox, Josh Mostel as Ollie, Paul Guilfoyle as Stone Livingstone, Tamara Tunie as Carolyn, Leslie Lyles as Natalie, Adelle Lutz as Janet, Richard Dysart as Cromwell, Andrea Thompson as a hooker, and Michael O’Donoghue as Reporter.
Fans’ Idolizing Gordon Gekko ‘Disturbed’ Michael Douglas
For those who might not know, Michael Douglas’ Gordon Gekko was portrayed as a ruthless and greedy business tycoon, and one of the most talented businessmen in the United States. But he didn’t work in all honesty, cheated, and even ended up being held responsible for his crimes when he was put behind bars.
Despite that, what many viewers focused their attention on was the fact that, irrespective of how he climbed his way to the top, Gekko really had it all. This had numerous fans idolizing the character so much. Yet, this fact never appeased Douglas, who confessed to Dan Patrick how much this reaction from the viewers ‘disturbed’ him. He said,
It’s always made me a little disturbed that people just love that character as much as they did.
But while his concern over people’s love for the character is one thing, Douglas’s exceptional performance can’t be looked past. After all, he even scored an Academy Award for Best Actor for his rendition of the character in the 1987 film!
Michael Douglas Reflected on Wall Street’s Iconic Line
During that same interview, Dan Patrick also emphasized how he felt that Wall Street was built around Gordon Gekko’s iconic line, “Greed is good,” whether that was by design or not. This had Douglas sharing that the line was actually a part of a very long monologue by Oliver Stone, and it stood out so exceptionally that it ended up being used more than the others.
Douglas candidly shared the story behind the same, saying,
Oliver Stone wrote a great screenplay, a great script. Gordon Gekko had a lot to say in it, and ‘Greed is good’ was a line inside of a very long monologue that he gave at a shareholders meeting, in which he incorporated the US of A and a lot of other things. But it did end up standing out. That was the clip of that speech they tended to use more than any other.
Though it was part of a monologue, that one line has really gone down as one of the most iconic lines to have come out of Hollywood’s entertainment industry. Not to mention, the even more epic way that Douglas delivered it further established him as a true icon in cinematic history!
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Wall Street and Money Never Sleeps can currently be streamed on Disney+.
