Michael Douglas Claims He 'Had a Very Middle-Class Life' Despite Dad Kirk Douglas' Stardom

Michael Douglas said growing up with a famous father did not mean he enjoyed a Hollywood lifestyle, recalling his childhood while Kirk Douglas built his career in California.

"My life was very middle class back East," the Hollywood veteran explained during a recent episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience."

The actor's parents met at acting school before moving to California to pursue their careers. "My mother was an actress who did soap operas, and my dad was continuing to grow his career," Michael recalled.

He was three years old, and his younger brother, Joel Douglas, was 18 months old, when the family moved west.

"My father began his career in California, and in less than a year, although he was married to my mother, he was caught up in everything that came with Hollywood," the Wall Street actor narrated.

The fast-paced lifestyle eventually proved too much for his mother. "This is not working out," Michael remembered his mother deciding.

"So I moved back East and grew up there with my mother, while my dad was in California," he explained. "Over the years, I'd go out to California, and I had a lot of experiences between these two lives."

Joe pointed out that movie stardom was still relatively new when Kirk began making his name in Hollywood.

"Well, of that generation, yeah. I mean, he was a little after Humphrey Bogart," the two-time Academy Award winner replied.

Despite his father's growing fame, Michael continued his education on the East Coast. He attended private all-boys schools through high school before facing the question of where to go to college.

The Fatal Attraction lead remembered looking through brochures for Ivy League schools with his college adviser when another option caught his attention.

"I was looking at these brochures of Ivy League schools when I suddenly stopped. 'Wait, wait a minute. What's that?'" he recalled.

The brochure was for the University of California, Santa Barbara. Its cover showed a man carrying a surfboard along the beach, with two women in two-piece bathing suits.

Kirk assumed his son wanted to move to California to be closer to him. The future Basic Instinct alum, however, was drawn to the college and the lifestyle it represented.

"So I go out there, and in one year, boom, '62, '63, I go from a preppy to a hippie," Michael said.

The Romancing the Stone performer also discussed his experiences with psychedelics and the lasting impression they made on him.

"I found that hallucinogenics were an extraordinary experience and an important part of my life," he told Joe.

As his schedule became busier, the seasoned actor no longer had time for them. Still, he remained grateful for the experiences, crediting them with shaping "the rhythm they taught me, the visualities, and their pace."

Michael went on to establish himself as one of Hollywood's most accomplished actors and producers. He won a Best Picture Oscar as a producer of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and later earned the Best Actor award for playing Gordon Gekko in Wall Street.

His film credits also include Romancing the Stone, Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct and Traffic. He won a Primetime Emmy for portraying Liberace in Behind the Candelabra.

The Hollywood icon recently released a memoir, One Helluva Ride, that shares candid stories about his fractured childhood, legendary career, high-profile marriages and drug-related struggles with his son Cameron.