Michael Douglas told reporters at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival that, after nearly six decades on screen, he has “no real intentions” of returning to acting. The two-time Oscar winner, who turned 80 in September, said he has deliberately stayed off sets since 2022 because he “did not want to be one of those people who dropped dead on the set.” Douglas framed the break as open-ended rather than a formal retirement, noting he would consider an exceptional offer but is otherwise content to focus on family and watch his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, work. The actor’s most recent credits were Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” in 2023 and Apple TV+’s 2024 miniseries “Franklin,” in which he played Benjamin Franklin. He remains attached to one independent feature, “Looking Through Water,” now in post-production. Health and longevity weighed heavily in the decision. Douglas, who survived stage IV throat cancer in 2010, said the illness—and the prospect of surgery that could have impeded his speech—prompted him to reassess the pace of his career. “Stage 4 cancer is not a holiday,” he told the press, adding that he was fortunate treatment did not curtail his ability to act. Appearing in Karlovy Vary to mark the 50th anniversary of the Milos Forman classic “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” which he produced, Douglas also used the platform to warn that the United States is “flirting with autocracy.” But on the question of his own future, he reiterated that the past sixty years were “a very full career” and that, barring an extraordinary script, audiences should not expect to see him back on set.