LOS ANGELES - Michael Douglas came to Cincinnati to work.

        Yet, as it happened, his Midwestern sojourn to shoot scenes in the Steven Soderbergh ensemble drama Traffic turned into an excellent adventure.

        “It was a great time,” the actor said recently of his three-week stay in Ohio in late May. “That's the magic of making movies. You go to places you've never been before, and — I was knocked out.”

Michael Douglas in a scene from Traffic | ZOOM |

        The natural beauty of the area caught his attention early on, particularly when he hit the links.

        “Being a golfer, I availed myself of a lot of the many golf courses around there,” including Camargo and Maketewah. “It was stunning,” he said. “I don't know why, but I had the idea it was flat ... But all those rolling hills were great.

        “I chartered a boat one evening actually and took a couple of river rides. It's a stunning view with the bridges. You think about shooting locations, all that water access, all the possibilities.”
       

Hit the nightspots

        During his stay in town, Mr. Douglas visited some of the area's best dining spots, watched the Reds play baseball and closed down a few night spots, including Neon's and the Cricket Lounge at the Cincinnatian Hotel, which served as his home base here.

        Also on his itinerary were the Waterfront and its upstairs dance club Rumba, where he tried but failed to entice restaurateur Jeff Ruby onto the floor. “Jeff Ruby was a great host to us,” Mr. Douglas said.

        “We bonded,” Mr. Ruby said. “We had a lot in common.”

FAMOUS FACES

Scores of real people from Mexico to Cincinnati to Washington, D.C., were hired to give Traffic an authentic look. Though extras often end up cut from a movie, or trimmed to micro-seconds, here are a few appearances to watch for in the finished film:    • Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) appears in a scene at a Washington cocktail party where drug policy is the topic du jour.    • Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla), Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), and former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld appear in the same scene, along with several other government officials and journalists.    • Rudy Camacho, director of the U.S. Customs Service in San Diego, appears as himself, as do several staff members of the service's El Paso Intelligence Center.    • Deborah Gates, clerk to Hamilton County Judge Norbert Nadel, appears in a scene set in an Ohio courtroom.    • A house on Edwards Road stands in for the home of Judge Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas). Though the movie places it in Indian Hill, the house is a Hyde Park landmark built in 1906 by the Castellini family; it was later owned by the late legislator and U.S. Attorney James R. Clark Sr.

        They met when the movie star stopped into Mr. Ruby's self-titled downtown restaurant and spent several evenings on the town swapping life stories.

        “I know he's an actor, but I felt a sincerity with him,” Mr. Ruby said. “He's the kind of guy who makes you feel better about yourself.”

        For his part, Mr. Douglas was impressed with the reception the movie company found.

        “Everybody was really supportive and excited,” he said. “It's nice when you don't have that kind of jaded environment. It was a very good experience. You have a very good film commission there, too. They were politely aggressive, but they did a good job.”
       

A hero to police

        Though he downplays the incident — “It got to be a bigger thing than it really was” — Mr. Douglas won fans among Cincinnati police during a brief encounter with a fleeing car-theft suspect.

        “I was in the middle of doing a scene” in Over-the-Rhine, he said. "I was looking down one of those narrow streets and I saw the gumball machines going off, red lights a couple blocks away. And I saw this guy running toward me. ... Of course my first thought is, "Oh this guy is really excited about seeing the filming.'

        “Then I saw him make a sharp right, and then all these police cars pull up, so I basically just told them where he went.”

        That was enough to earn a flurry of jokes about his old TV role as a cop on The Streets of San Francisco, and a brief effort — which he deflected — to give Mr. Douglas a good-citizen citation.

        The experience did leave him with a good impression.

        “That's a great area, Over-the-Rhine,” he said. “I could see that being developed. It's a charming, beautiful area. Those buildings are great.”
       

Efficient director

        He credits his famously efficient director with setting a schedule that allowed the cast to enjoy their surroundings.

        “It was a really joyful time, because Steven's hours are relatively decent, compared to any other director. You can actually go out to dinner,” he said.

        Mr. Soderbergh, who has been collecting accolades both for Traffic and Erin Brockovich, kept up a brisk pace throughout the shoot, Mr. Douglas said.

        “He has the same philosophy we do, that there's a certain arc where the fatigue factor sets in and you're not necessarily doing better stuff. Also, actors are now getting used to ... "hurry up and wait,' where the time that they sit around in their trailers waiting to come to the set, versus actual shooting, has gotten out of proportion. With Steven, it's not like that.

        “The first thing he said to me was "You'll be on the set of this picture more than any film you ever have been on.' And it's true.

        “Because of the style he used, he did this with mostly natural light, or very few lights. That reduced the crew, reduced the equipment, so there was mobility and speed. It just energizes you and keeps you going.”
       

A good year

        One of Mr. Douglas' co-stars in Traffic is Catherine Zeta-Jones, his new wife and the mother of his 5-month-old son, although all her scenes were shot in California.

        Once he saw her performance, which has been earning high praise from critics, he said, “I was so proud of her.”

        “I thought, wow, if this isn't a cool thing: To be able to have a baby, and knock off a part like this, and be as good as you are, and have all that glam stuff in your back pocket, and now sort of show your acting chops ... it doesn't get much better than this.”

        It hasn't been a bad year for the 56-year-old Mr. Douglas either. In addition to his marriage and new baby, he has released two critically acclaimed films, Traffic and Wonder Boys, both seen as contenders for major awards.

        “As I keep saying, 2000 is not going to be an easy year to forget,” he said. “It's very seldom when you can look at your private life and your professional life and feel equally rewarded as I have this year.”
       

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