Mike Yarish/Netflix(NEW YORK) — Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin play an acting teacher having trouble finding acting gigs and his agent, respectively, in the new Netflix comedy The Kominsky Method, from The Big Bang Theory creator Chuck Lorre, debuting Friday.
Douglas tells ABC Radio that the veteran actors have great chemistry, despite the fact that they’d “never been in the same room” together before.
“I never even seen any of his movies, says Douglas. “I haven’t either,” adds Arkin. “I said yeah, he’s the guy that did [the 2017 dirt bike drama] Champion. I’d like to work with him.”
The Kominsky Method marks Douglas’ first regular TV role since the 1970s cop drama, The Streets of San Francisco, but he thinks this one’s a completely different animal.
“It’s streaming, there’s no commercials,” he explains. “I mean what separated TV or always made it seem secondary to doing movies was you had commercials every three or four minutes. This, first of all, you can be 25 minutes long, 35 minutes long, any subject matter, any language you want to say and there’s no commercials. So it’s like a mini movie.”
While many older actors find it harder to get work, Arkin — who celebrated his 84th birthday back in March — is busier than ever.
“It’s hard to believe, if anybody told me this was happening I’d say you were lying. I’m getting more offers now than I’ve gotten in years and years,” he says.
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