Michael Douglas

A calmer and happier Douglas is reflected in his latest screen role. After building a career playing dark, flawed men in box office hits like Fatal Attraction, Wall Street and Falling Down, he has taken a gentler role in Wonder Boys which is his first comedy for 15 years.

It's a mellow comedy-drama about a creative writing teacher, Grady Tripp, played by Douglas who is struggling to complete his follow-up to his successful novel. Tobey Maguire plays a talented student poised to overtake Tripp while Katie Holmes is an infatuated student.

Just to complicate matters, his mistress, who also happens to be the wife of a colleague, announces she's expecting his child.

The film is based on Michael Chabon's novel and is set in and around a university English department. It's directed by Curtis Hanson of LA Confidential fame.

"To play Grady Tripp I asked Michael to gain a lot of weight and generally look dissipated. This shows he's one of the least vain people in the business," says Hanson.

The film looks at the paralysing fear that often accompanies early success - of being a wonder boy. In this case the success is a hit novel written seven years before. The film is set over one crazy weekend when his character is forced to turn his life around.

Douglas, the son of screen legend Kirk Douglas, remembers the time when he was a wonder boy after the winning critical acclaim for producing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975. "I remember all of us saying, 'Well, it's all downhill from here'," he laughs.

What he liked about Wonder Boys was it was a distinct change of pace. "It was a chance to do comedy again and stop playing all those nasty old guys. I really feel blessed that there are people who give me these chances."

It's certainly different from playing the victim of a predatory woman in films like Disclosure, as this time round he's a pot smoking intellectual. "I loved the whole degenerate part of the character. It has this early 60s Five Easy Pieces feel.

"One nice thing I started thinking about with this role was liberal arts colleges. They haven't really changed very much. They have this sort of isolated, sanctuary feel and you have this unique relationship between faculty members."

As an actor he's not in the Tom Cruise and Bruce Willis league, and to some extent Douglas regrets that. "I'd like to have made more films. There's no better gig than being a major star."

But he has always been busy as a producer. Recently he bought the rights to Art Con Of The Century, a film based on a major art-forgery scandal. His production company Further Films will also release the comedy One Night At McCool's soon.

But his next appearance on screen is certain to have a certain frisson about it - he'll appear alongside Zeta Jones in the drugs drama Traffic.