Michael Douglas Blames Social Media for Emasculating American Actors

While the use of social media has been linked to depression, anxiety, narcissism, and a slew of other negative mental and emotional health problems, legendary actor Michael Douglas says it’s also hurting the careers of American actors, and it’s time they man up.

During a conversation with the British publication Independent Wednesday, the star lamented the amount of American acting jobs currently being dished out to British and Australian actors and cited America’s obsession with its social media persona as a possible cause.

“There’s something going on with young American actors—both men and women—because the Brits and Australians are taking many of the best American roles from them,” Douglas said.

The 70-year-old then asserted he might have the problem figured out.

“Clearly, it breaks down on two fronts,” Douglas said. “In Britain they take their training seriously while in the States we’re going through a sort of social media image conscious thing rather than formal training. Many actors are getting caught up in this image thing which is going on to affect their range.”

According to Douglas, while there are still a few guys stateside willing to embrace their masculinity (e.g. Channing Tatum and Chris Pratt), Australian actors are beating America’s overly sensitive younger men at life.

“With the Aussies, particularly with the males it’s the masculinity,” Douglas said. “In the US we have this relatively asexual or unisex area with sensitive young men and we don’t have many Channing Tatums or Chris Pratts, while the Aussies do. It’s a phenomena.”

Perhaps the Romancing the Stone actor was referring to Chris and Liam Hemsworth, who were both born in Melbourne, and are currently making a pretty good run at the dominant roles in American cinema.

Douglas also said he understood actor Dustin Hoffman’s comments regarding the state of the movie industry.

“I think right now television is the best that it’s ever been,” Hoffman told Independent on July 3. “And I think that it’s the worst that film has ever been – in the 50 years that I’ve been doing it, it’s the worst.”

Of that comment, Douglas said films like Kramer vs Kramer are still being made, but for outlets such as Netflix and HBO, where directors have more freedom.