In the name of the Fathers

ACTORS MICHAEL DOUGLAS AND NOAH JUPE TELL PRUDENCE WADE ABOUT BRINGING THE STORY OF FOUNDING FATHER BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S BID TO GET FRANCE ON AMERICA'S SIDE TO THE SMALL SCREEN

MICHAEL DOUGLAS might be a veteran in the movie industry, but that doesn't mean he is not intimidated by new roles.

Oscar-winning actor Michael, 79, has portrayed real-life people before memorably pianist Liberace in 2013's Behind The Candelabra - but he says he was daunted by the prospect of playing Founding Father Benjamin Franklin.

"I was very intimidated by it," he admits. "Especially the more reading I did about what he accomplished in his life." Franklin was a noted polymath a scientist and inventor as well as a statesman and Founding Father.

The Founding Fathers were seven men, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who helped found the United States as an independent sovereign state, no longer under British rule.

But that wasn't the only concern Michael had about starring in Apple TV+'s new historical drama, Franklin.

"As an actor, looking at the 100 dollar bill with Ben Franklin's face on it, I did not see a big resemblance - I was concerned about how much make-up we might have to use," he remembers.

But then Michael made a decision to skip hours in the make-up chair every day, trying to make him look like Franklin - and there was a reason for this.

When the Basic Instinct star played Liberace, he "was a real person and we knew his voice, so we did the whole make-up process", he explains.

"But with Franklin, we have drawings of what he looked like, but we don't know his voice and all of that." This gave Michael more of an opportunity to make the role his own, as audiences didn't have quite as many expectations about what the Founding Father should look like and how he should speak.