Michael Douglas And Matt Damon Inspired By Marriages

Michael Douglas and Matt Damon used their own marriages as inspiration for 'Behind the Candelabra'.

The actors play gay lovers in the new Liberace biopic - which focuses on his secret relationship with Scott Thorson - and they felt they could ''relate'' to the couple because of their own marriages.

Speaking at the film's press conference at Cannes Film Festival, Damon said: ''What it felt like was a a love story, a movie about a real, long-term relationship.

''And I think that, for Michael and me, that was a way in. We're both married and we've both been in these relationships for a while and so we could relate.''

Douglas is married to actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, while Damon is wed to Luciana Barroso.

The Steven Soderbergh-directed flick is based on Thorson's tell-all book about his relationship with the famous pianist which ended acrimoniously.

Despite their long-term relationship, Thorson was left with nothing when Liberace ended the relationship as he was not recognised as a legal spouse, and Damon feels the film shines a spotlight on the current debate about legalisation of gay marriage in the United States.

He said: ''The guys around [Thorson] at the time referred to it as a marriage. Had it been a relationship between a man and a woman, it would have been a marriage, they could have parted and come to some arrangement.''