Catherine Zeta-Jones didn't attend the 2017 Oscars, but like millions of viewers, she watched Jimmy Kimmel entertain the audience from the comfort of her own home. "You did a fantastic job," the Feud star said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Tuesday. "From the moment you opened, I felt like I was part of the party—and it continued right up to the end when everyone starts to cry!"
The actress won an Academy Award for her role in Chicago in 2003. "I think I hold the record of carrying the biggest jugs to the Oscars," Catherine joked while gazing at photo of her pregnant self at the ceremony. "I was 10 days before I gave birth to our daughter...It was a special night."
"When I was less pregnant, they invited me to sing live with Queen Latifah—one of the original songs. I thought it was a wonderful idea and a real honor, until 10 days before I was just about to give birth, I'm on a hydraulic lift going up, going, 'What the [heck] was I thinking?' I got through it, though. It's nerve-wracking," Catherine, 47, admitted. "I've got to say, it's terrifying."
Catherine and Michael Douglas' children, Dylan Douglas, 16, and Carys Douglas, 13, want to become actors, too. "You know, I know it's going to be hard for them, because they've got their grandfather, Kirk [Douglas], they've got me, they have Michael, but they so inherently love it and they're good!" the New York-based actress raved. "They go to summer camp every year—they do like three musicals and straight plays—and they love it. I've had a wonderful life in this business, so if they want to do it, they know the hardships and the percentages of who makes it and who doesn't, so I just think that they've got the talent and I know that they have the drive."
Of course, the nature of show business has changed over the years.
Before Catherine joined the cast of Feud, which explores the rivalry between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, she spoke to her father-in-law about what it was like to make movies back in the day. Kirk said Bette "was a real broad" who "didn't give a hoot what people though," while Joan was "f--king out of her mind." To be fair, both actresses were under a lot of pressure. "You think of the Hollywood system back then—boy, it was tough. It's tough for women today, but it was really tough then. All those women—and men; it was tough for Kirk—were thrown into this stable. They're all pitted against each other to see who would get the role of the season. You did what you were told. There were strict rules. Sometimes you dated who they said because you had to feed the gossip columnists. It was tough," she recalled. "These women were tough."
And Kirk would know. As Catherine said, "I really could sit there for hours with him."