"She bit my arm": the improbable casting of Michael Douglas in a Mexican restaurant

In the 100th episode of the “Literally!”

Hosted by actor Rob Lowe, Michael Douglas looked back on a milestone in his career: the day he turned down Debra Winger for a role

in the 1986 film

. rising to fame through her role in the

series , was favorite to portray Joan Wilder's character in the film, a novelist who falls in love with Jack Colton (Michael Douglas) a bird-hunter living in the Colombian jungle.

To discover his partner on the screen, the 77-year-old actor then went to meet him, with the director of the feature film Robert Zemeckis.

The two men had joined the actress in a Mexican restaurant in Texas, where she was filming.

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“We were having dinner, we were talking and drinking tequilas bottoms up,” he recalled in the episode, posted Thursday, April 28.

Somewhat tipsy, he explains that all three had left the establishment to get some fresh air.

"We were walking outside, and laughing (...) and there she reaches out her hand to me and takes the opportunity to bite my arm," he continued, remembering having screamed in pain.

star

recalled staring at him in amazement.

And to continue: "She was like a joke, I looked at her and I said to myself 'well it could be more serious', she seemed interested in the role, so I stayed."

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Michael Douglas nevertheless explains that after returning to Hollywood to speak with his collaborators at 20th Century Fox, the production company, he would have burst into tears.

“I can't go into the jungle with her, she bit my arm, he would have explained to them.

I said I couldn't do it."

An episode that will get the better of Debra Winger, ousted from the film and replaced by actress Kathleen Turner, who will win the following year, in 1985, the Golden Globe for best actress for her performance.

The latter had spoken of this most unlikely story in her autobiography

, published in 2008. “He had originally planned to have Debra Winger for the role of Joan, but they did not seem to get along as well had hoped.

They met to discuss it.

In a Mexican restaurant and she bit him, or so he said,” she explained.