Soon afterwards, she got her first movie role: a small part in Scorsese's segment of New York Stories.
Scorsese and Douglas eventually began a long-term relationship. The group bonded over discussion of old films, which was a long-standing interest. In this way, Douglas met Scorsese, his editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, as well as filmmaker Michael Powell, and provided many ADR of crowd sounds.
The editors needed a sound effect to convey Mary Magdalene screaming, and asked her to help out. At that time, Scorsese was editing his film Last Temptation of Christ in an office down the hall from Siegal's offices. Through this position, she tried to send her headshot to Martin Scorsese's casting director, but was not successful. ĭouglas began working for a well-known publicist, Peggy Siegal. She did not like the raw comedy style then in vogue, and did not enjoy the lifestyle of a standup comic. Douglas worked briefly at Stand Up New York, and found the writing and acting easy, but found the performing difficult. While she was working in a sketch comedy group called Manhattan Punchline, one of the troupe members suggested she try stand-up comedy. While there, Douglas decided to reinvent herself, and began attending Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, where she studied with the acting teacher Richard Pinter. When she was 18 years old, Douglas went to work for Steve Rubell at the Morgans Hotel. Following their first year, Mustillo and Douglas were not invited back to the school. Douglas attended American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she was a contemporary of Elias Koteas and Lou Mustillo. She stayed with relatives in various temporary arrangements. Having been interested in movies from her childhood, Douglas wanted to be in show business. Career Early careerĪfter graduating from high school, Douglas moved to New York City. She identifies more with the Italian side of her family, and has said that she developed more of their "rhythms and ways" due to the amount of time she spent with them in Queens. Douglas has said it took her a long time to reconcile the different lifestyles she was exposed to in her youth. Famous people including Myrna Loy, Gore Vidal, Gloria Steinem, politicians, writers, and others were often present, in a salon-like environment. ĭouglas notes the contrast between her working-class Italian roots and the glamorous Hollywood world of her paternal side of the family. It was the first time she was on a film set. During high school, Douglas visited the set while they were shooting on location in Asheville, North Carolina and met Sellers, whose work she admired greatly. In the 1960s, the two men reconnected in London and talked about their time together in the war. In the 1940s, Douglas' grandfather and Peter Sellers both served in the military during WWII and met in Burma. ĭouglas has said that her grandfather's performance in Being There was influential on her own career. Douglas said that during her summers with her grandfather, he introduced her to his interests, which included theater, elocution, reading, art, and history. Īs a child she would visit her paternal grandfather, the actor Melvyn Douglas, in his apartment in Manhattan on the Upper West Side as well as at his home in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles. She instilled in Douglas a love for the movies, which they attended together frequently when she was a child. Douglas said that her maternal grandmother, a former Rockette, had wanted to be an actor. Her maternal grandmother worked in the restaurant at Gertz department store in Astoria her maternal grandfather was a welder. ĭouglas's mother's side is Roman Catholic -Italian and Romanian from Astoria, Queens. They would put on dramatic interpretations and performances. Comedy albums were popular in her family. They had a loose parenting style and did not pressure her to go to college. Douglas said that her parents were heavily influenced by the 1970s hippie culture-her father especially by the movie Easy Rider. During her childhood she spent time going back and forth between relatives during the summer. ĭouglas grew up in Connecticut, in the Old Saybrook area, and has said that she was also raised in many other cities, in Massachusetts where her father lived, Connecticut where her mother lived, and New York, where her extended family lived. Douglas had two older brothers, the late Stefan Gregor Hesselberg, a technician in the histology laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who also trained racehorses in Verona, Italy, and Erik Hesselberg, a journalist. Douglas's father was the son of Hollywood actor Melvyn Douglas and his wife, the artist Rosalind Hightower. Douglas was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, the daughter of Joan Douglas (née Georgescu), a schoolteacher, and Gregory Hesselberg, a painter.
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