Michael Douglas has "no real intentions" of acting again.

The 80-year-old actor has taken a step back from his career but refuses to declare he is now retired because if a "special" project came his way, he'd be open to getting back in front of the camera again.

Speaking at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic, Variety reports he said during a press conference: "I have not worked since 2022 purposefully because I realised I had to stop.

"I had been working pretty hard for almost 60 years, and I did not want to be one of those people who dropped dead on the set. I have no real intentions of going back. I say I'm not retired because if something special came up, I'd go back, but otherwise, no.

But Michael admitted he has "one little independent movie" he is "trying to get a good script out of.

However, "in the spirit of maintaining a good marriage," he is "happy to play the wife" now and let the career of his spouse Catherine Zeta-Jones take centre stage.

In 2010, the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest actor was diagnosed with cancer and he feels "fortunate" that he didn't need to undergo surgery, which would have been "limiting" for his career.

He said: "Stage 4 cancer is not a holiday, but there aren't many choices, are there?

"I went with the programme, involving chemo and radiation, and was fortunate. The surgery would have meant not being able to talk and removing part of my jaw and that would have been limiting as an actor."

The Wall Street star also spoke of his fears for the US under the presidency of Donald Trump, noting the country is currently "flirting with autocracy" and "idealism" has been lost.

He said: "I look at it generally as the fact of how precious democracy is, of how vulnerable it is and how it always has to be protected.

"I hope that what we're struggling with right now is a reminder of all the hard work the Czechs did in gaining their freedom and independence. Politics now seem to be for profit. Money has entered democracy as a profit centre. People are going into politics now to make money. We maintained an ideal, an idealism in the US, which does not exist now."

Michael prefers "not to go into too much detail" because "the news speaks for itself."

He added: "I myself am worried, I am nervous, and I think it's all of our responsibility to look out for ourselves."

here near that kind of quality of movies there?"