While recent photographs of 66-year-old Oscar-winner Michael Douglas showed him to be gaunt and pale from his treatment for throat cancer, his “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” director Oliver Stone (pictured above on Wall Street) praised the star for his public display of bravery fighting the cancer.
According to London’s "The Sun," Stone said he thought Douglas benefited from attending the film’s New York premiere and doing publicity work on its behalf.
“It was courageous, but at the same time I think it lifted his spirits,” Stone said. “I don’t think it is easy, he can’t go out, people see him. It is also very painful and uncertain, the worst two things. But he is fighting hard and it is recoverable, but you never know.”
Stone, 64, credited Douglas for the success of “Wall Street.” He also added that bringing back "Wall Street character Gordon Gekko to tell a story about Gekko bouncing back after serving time in prison turned out to be successful way to tell the story of the financial crash of 2008.
“The banks betrayed us and became like Gekko was in the 1980s,” Stone said. “Gekko was a pirate. They were pirates. They did not break the law but they sold junk. They should have known better.”
"Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" from director Oliver Stone, continues to play in theaters. Stone’s next project is the 12-part TV series “The Untold History of the United States” to air in 2011.