Steven Soderbergh on Liberace Biopic: 'For a Lot of People It’ll Be Hard to See Jason Bourne on Top of Gordon Gekko'

In an interview from Cannes, Steven Soderbergh talks about how and why he got Michael Douglas and Matt Damon involved with his upcoming Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra:

For the life of me I don’t know why I was standing on the set of Traffic in Cincinnati, Ohio, and I looked over at Michael and asked him if he would ever consider playing Liberace. I really don’t know where this came from. I’m old enough to have seen him on TV at my parents’ place, and found him very entertaining. I was kind of intrigued by the incredible technical skill being masked by this flamboyant persona.

On how Matt Damon got involved:

He was in Spain doing his cameo in Che, and I gave him the book. I can only imagine what was going through his mind five years later before we started shooting. But Matt doesn’t have anything to protect. That’s not how he makes his decisions. He makes his decisions based on whether he’s engaged by the piece or not. If it turns out to be something that’s really gonna push him as a performer, even better. And Michael, he was just fearless. They both are. The movie just doesn’t work if they don’t both literally join hands and jump off the cliff. It’s intimate stuff, even if it was a guy and a girl. But for a lot of people it’ll be hard to see Jason Bourne on top of Gordon Gekko.

And how it might resonate:

There’s certainly an undertow to the movie that comes from the knowledge that they could be married today, like Elton John.

Soderbergh also talks about his planned retirement and his past remarks about the film industry.

Read the full interview here.

Check out the trailer HERE and a featurette HERE.

Michael Douglas on Sex with Matt Damon: 'Once You Get That First Kiss In, You are Comfortable'

Michael Douglas talks about playing Liberace  in the upcoming HBO biopic Behind the Candelabra, in a New York magazine cover story.

Says Douglas, of his love scenes with Matt Damon (who plays his younger lover Scott Thorson):

“Once you get that first kiss in, you are comfortable. Matt and I didn’t rehearse the love scenes. We said, ‘Well—we’ve read the script, haven’t we?’  The hardest thing about sex scenes is that everybody is a judge. I don’t know the last time you murdered somebody or blew anyone’s brains out, but everyone has had sex and probably this morning, which means everyone has an opinion on how it should be done.”

Douglas says the sex is not shied away from:

The sexual content—the gayness of Behind the Candelabra—made it a tough sell to the studios. It was originally conceived as a feature film rather than an HBO movie, but none of the major movie companies wanted to finance the film, which cost only $23 million and featured two major stars. “Everybody loved the script [by Richard LaGravenese, based on Scott Thorson’s memoir of his life with Liberace],” said Jerry Weintraub, the veteran producer who worked with Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra and knew Liberace. “The party line was that Behind the Candelabra would not appeal to anyone who is not gay. Interestingly, they forgot that Liberace’s own audience in the fifties and sixties was not gay. It was purple-haired ladies who loved his act—he knew how to take the audience upside down, sideways, and backward. He was an artist, and yet, when I saw him at his house, he was free and open with his sexuality. There were men in every room! I didn’t care—it just meant there were more women for me!”

Douglas adds, later:

“Liberace worked hard. When Scott Thorson became a drug addict and Liberace’s work was imperiled, their relationship cratered. When I watch the movie, I forget it’s Matt and me pretty quickly. And soon after that, I forget it’s two guys. The fights, the love—it’s a couple. There’s always that moment in a relationship where somebody has gone too far or they’ve done something that can’t be forgotten, and, suddenly, a little tendon is popped, and it never comes back. The only people you can forgive after something like that is your family. Lee tried, but he couldn’t forgive Scott until he was about to die.”

The film premieres May 26 on HBO. Here's the trailer if you missed it.

Behind the Scenes of HBO's Liberace Biopic with Matt Damon and Michael Douglas: VIDEO

HBO has released an excellent featurette on the upcoming Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra starring Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Rob Lowe, Debbie Reynolds, and Dan Akroyd.

The filmmakers discuss how they and the actors recreated Liberace's world and his life.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

It you missed the trailer, it's HERE.

Matt Damon and Michael Douglas Sparkle and Sex Up the New Liberace Trailer: VIDEO

The upcoming HBO Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra featuring Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as his young lover Scott Thorson just dropped a new trailer and it looks amazing.

It's got intimacy...

and satin...

and Speedo beefcake...

and drama...

and crystal-studded tuxedos and pianos...

and bathtime fun...

and Dan Akroyd...

and chauffeur outfits

and Debbie Reynolds...

and Rob Lowe in a fantastic wig!

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

It's on its way on May 26 on HBO.

Matt Damon Did His Doggie-Style 'Liberace' Sex Scene with Michael Douglas in a Single Take

Michael Douglas and Matt Damon's Liberace and Scott Thorson, respectively, come to life on the cover of the new Entertainment Weekly this Friday:

EW writes:

Damon and Douglas give a frank, funny interview about filming one of the weirdest, glitziest gay love stories ever put on film, one that required both actors to do things they’d never done before onscreen. Like, say, wearing a metallic thong — and nothing else. “Every Sunday night, this girl would come to my house and I would stand in my garage and I would hike my boxer briefs up into the crack of my a– and she would give me a spray tan,” explains Damon, who spends plenty of the movie in tiny swimsuits, and wasn’t too excited about his real-life wife seeing his bronzed backside. “We’ve been through three childbirths, we’ve been in the trenches, there are no secrets. But I really wish she didn’t see that. That’s too much.”

And this:

As for their sex scenes together (and trust us, the movie has plenty), Damon and Douglas both say that shooting a moment of passion is always awkward, no matter who’s involved. “The scene where I’m behind him and going at him, we did that in one take,” recalls Damon, laughing. “We do it. Cut. There’s a long pause. And then you just hear Steven go, “Well… I have no notes.”

The film this week got a teaser that didn't show any of that, of course.

Check it out, AFTER THE JUMP...

Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as His Lover Scott Thorson: First Look

Though we have seen some preview pics and paparazzi shots, here's the first 'official' shot from HBO's Behind the Candelabra, which Liberace biopic starring Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as his younger lover Scott Thorson, via the Hollywood Reporter:

"The couple met in 1977, when Thorson was just 18 and Liberace was 57. They remained together until 1982...Director Steven Soderbergh told journalists at TCA in January that he had sought out to tell the story of a 'real' relationship. Damon echoed the sentiment, saying: 'We weren’t giggling about it. These were people's lives. We wanted to get it right.'"

Coming to HBO in May.