It might have been a surprise to many when Oscar and Emmy winner Michael Douglas signed on to play American founding father Benjamin Franklin. The Oscar and Emmy winner doesn’t look much like Franklin, but that was certainly fine with co-writer Howard Korder. In a recent Gold Derby webchat, the executive producer of the Apple TV+ limited series reveals, “It’s Michael’s gifts and his charms and his willingness. I think you want to see the persona through that as opposed to a full on impersonation, which would always be questionable.”
Co-writer and executive producer Kirk Ellis adds about the very famous actor in this Emmy spotlight, “For me, it’s the fact that you’ve got essentially a historical superstar being play a modern superstar of film and TV.”
Douglas won an Academy Award his first time as a producer, for the Best Picture champ “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” at the 1976 ceremony. He then won for Best Actor in “Wall Street” at the 1988 Oscars. He prevailed at the Emmy Awards in 2013 for “Behind the Candelabra” among his nine career nominations, which also included “The Streets of San Francisco,” “Will and Grace” and “The Kominsky Method.”
Noah Jupe also joined us for a recent interview. He plays grandson Temple Franklin for the limited series, which has the duo in Paris as the elder statesman negotiates with the French government during the American Revolution in the 18th century. He adds that Michael Douglas being the son of the legendary actor Kirk Douglas could have certain fame parallels: “I’m sure Michael felt similar to Temple in the sense of it’s insane and there’s a lot of pressure. Michael really forged his own path and created his own name for himself. He will go down as one of the greats along with his father.”
For another recent chat, director and executive producer, Tim Van Patten reveals that both of them decided against heavy prosthetics. He says, “I felt like it created a layer between the audience in terms of accessibility to the character and Michael’s spirit. It was really Michael — his spirit sort of embodies Franklin.”
Regarding the cast he adds, “We wanted to approach it as an ensemble. Michael was all for it. I think it blew him away the level of talent in the cast with our English actors and our French actors, right down to the day players and the background. Very often we would even pull background actors and give them lines. They were on the spot and they never failed. It was really amazing.”
All episodes of “Franklin” are now streaming on Apple TV+.
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