'Behind the Candelabra' stars Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as his companion and romantic interest Scott Thorson. 'Behind the Candelabra' airs on HBO May 26.
'Behind the Candelabra' stars Matt Damon (l.) and Michael Douglas (r.).
Claudette Barius/HBO/AP
EnlargeThe idea of Michael Douglas playing Liberace might seem nearly as outrageous as Liberace himself.
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Liberace, forever hailed as Mr. Showmanship, was the excess-to-the-max pianist-personality whose onstage and offstage extravagance were legendary and who wowed audiences in Las Vegas and worldwide to become the best-paid entertainer on the planet during his heyday from the 1950s to the 1970s.
He was the forerunner of flashy, gender-bender entertainers like Elton John, David Bowie, Madonna and Lady Gaga even as he kept a tight lid on his gay private life, which he feared could have ended his career had it come out. (His fans never seemed to get wise.)
By contrast, Michael Douglas is a 68-year-old movie star known for he-man performances and morally ambiguous roles. And he was no piano player.
But Douglas now dazzles as Liberace in the new HBO film "Behind the Candelabra," including lavish musical numbers in which he tinkles the ivories and flourishes his jewel-and-ermine finery. The film (executive-produced by showbiz veteran Jerry Weintraub, a Liberace friend) premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. EDT.
Douglas' co-star is Matt Damon, who, in a casting choice almost as counterintuitive, plays Scott Thorson, a dreamy, strapping teen who in 1977 met Liberace in his Vegas dressing room and almost instantly became his personal assistant, live-in companion and top-secret lover.
"Candelabra" (whose title cites the trademark prop ornamenting Liberace's onstage piano) also features Dan Aykroyd, Scott Bakula, Paul Reiser, Debbie Reynolds and a hilarious turn by Rob Lowe as Liberace's on-call plastic surgeon.
It was the film's director, Steven Soderbergh, who brought together the two lead actors, helped shape their splendid performances and masterminded this portrait of a loving but bizarre and tempestuous affair.
This showbiz saga may be over the top, but there's plenty of depth and it dives deep.
"We played the script and tried not to wink at the audience," said Douglas. "It's a great love story. I watch it and I forget about Matt and myself. Then, pretty soon, I practically forget it's two guys: The conversations and arguments sound like any ol' couple."
Adds Damon in a separate interview: "The question for us was how do we make this look like a marriage that we recognize. Most of our scenes we could relate to because we're both in long-term marriages. It was a male-female story with two guys."
Well, maybe. But that doesn't override the risk factor for Douglas and Damon as they tackled roles dramatically at odds with their images and past work.
"I looked at Matt and thought, 'Man, this guy's brave,'" said Douglas. "It's one thing for me at my age to stretch a little bit and try different characters. But 'Bourne'! A man in the prime of his career going this route?! I was in awe of Matt's courage."
"He's being nice," said Damon, 42, with a laugh when told what Douglas had said. "He would've done it in a second! He'd never turn down a great role."
Why did Damon say yes to man-to-man pillow talk?
"I've never said no to Steven," he replied, noting he had worked with Soderbergh before in "The Informant!" and the "Ocean" trilogy. "It doesn't get any more fun than working with Steven."
Douglas, too, had been in Soderbergh films, including the 2000 thriller "Traffic," during whose production the director first proposed Douglas playing Liberace.
Why did he agree?
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