In the movies, Michael Douglas has escaped the clutches of ice pick-wielding killers, Yakuza gangsters, and corrupt Colombian treasure hunters.
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But on a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Doulgas said he almost became the victim of a cult in real life.
Michael Douglas Was Almost "Eliminated" by a Cult
The 82-year-old Douglas said the cult tried to "create a cathartic moment, being all together, kind of an emotional moment."
He said, "They invited me for dinner, and then they said, 'Well, with a lady friend,' they said ... 'We've been trying to reach you.'
"We got to dessert, and they said, 'We've been trying to reach you, and you just don't get it. You don't get it. So, you're going to have to be eliminated.'"
When Rogan asked what the Wall Street actor "didn't get," Douglas said that "they wanted ... to join, to give yourself up, to be part of it."
"They were going to whack me," he then recalled. "I remember there was a long silence, and I said, 'Well, you've done it, haven't you?' And they said, 'Yeah,' ... and a big, long pause. My girlfriend just started falling apart, peeing in her pants and all that.
"Then I said, 'I'm going to leave now,' and they said, 'Yeah, you better.'"
Douglas added there was a moment when if he had made "any sudden movement," he could have been killed.
"It's strange," he said. "I've never had many experiences, but there's numbness... Kind of this whole numbness just comes over you, or it did in my case. Just was frozen."
Which Cult Was It?
Rogan then asked Douglas which cult the actor escaped, and Douglas said it was led by Mel Lyman, a musician, writer, and founder of the Fort Hill Community in Boston.
Douglas has been making the rounds lately to share stories from his new book, One Helluva Ride. In the memoir, he revealed that he and Kathleen Turner had an affair on the set of Romancing the Stone and that he had to break up with the five women he was dating before he began his relationship with Catherine Zeta-Jones.
"I told her, 'Wait here, I have to make five quick calls. 'Five? You have to make five calls?'" he wrote.
At the time, Douglas had just separated from his first wife and was seeing five other women.
"They knew I was recently separated and in the process of getting a divorce," he said. "I made sure they all lived in different cities, which felt like a respectful way to be non-monogamous."
He also added, "None of them asked for a commitment or even asked what else I was up to. I am sure they were seeing other people, too."
You can watch Douglas' interview with Rogan below.
