Michael Douglas says he connected to his 'And So It Goes' character 'right away'

NEW YORK, July 14 (UPI) -- Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas says it was easy for him to relate to the complicated character he plays in Rob Reiner's new romantic comedy And So It Goes.

Douglas plays Oren Little, a retiring real-estate agent, whose estranged son -- a recovering drug addict -- shows up on the doorstep of Oren's Connecticut home on his way to prison and asks him to take care of his 9-year-old daughter, Sarah. Diane Keaton plays Leah, the lounge singer who lives next door and who is happy to hang out with the little girl, who was named after the wife Oren lost to cancer years earlier.

Asked by UPI during a recent round-table interview with reporters in New York if he immediately connected with Oren, Douglas laughed: "Right away. Right away!"

"I grew up in Westport, Conn., so I knew that whole WASP, martini scene, growing up. Pink socks. That part of it. That exterior, I knew pretty well. And Mark Andrus [who wrote] As Good As It Gets and everything. He is the real deal. It's a really good script. A really good screenplay. He set up all the pieces," explained Douglas, himself a tongue-cancer survivor. "[Oren's] wife got cancer. He took care of her for two years. Probably all he did was be a caretaker for two years before she died and, certainly, a son with drug problems in federal prison. So, yeah, it was in the wheelhouse."

Douglas' 35-year-old son Cameron has been in prison since 2010 for various drug offenses. He is expected to remain behind bars until 2018.

And So It Goes opens nationwide July 25.