Michael Douglas has finally addressed the rumors that he refused to work with actress Debra Winger after she reportedly bit him on the arm. This is his first public statement on the matter.

On the one hundredth episode of the podcast Literally! With Rob Lowe, Michael Douglas discussed the production of the 1984 adventure film “Romancing the Stone” with director Robert Zemeckis. During their conversation, he discussed the time when they went to meet with Winger, who was the “first choice” of the studio to play Douglas’ romantic interest.

“She was in Texas doing Terms of Endearment. She normally doesn’t deal with actors or anyone else when she’s doing a film, which I understand, but she said, ‘I’ll hear what they have to say,’ and we talked. “… She was spending her time in the hospital, because she plays terminally ill in the picture, so she was doing method work, I guess, staying and living in the hospital.”

Douglas said they all got dinner one night and they were “knocking back some tequilas,” then afterward “we walk out, and just as you would kinda go ‘Oh, you!’ and give somebody a little punch in the arm joking around, she goes ‘Oh, you!’ and she reaches over and she bites me on my arm.”

Douglas continued, “She’s joking and I’m looking at her and go, ‘I don’t know, I’m thinking this could be rough…’ she’s broken the skin!”

In a discussion that took place at the studio some time later between Douglas and Zemeckis, the subject of the occurrence involving Winger was brought up.

“I break down in tears, ‘I can’t go into the jungle with her, she bit me, look! She bit me in the arm! I can’t do it… It’s just not worth it. It’s just too hard, these pictures are too—’ They said, ‘Okay, alright,’ ” Douglas said.

According to the actor, the officials of the company decided not to cast Winger, which created an opportunity for Turner to be cast in the role.

The film, which was produced by Douglas and directed by Robert Zemeckis, recounts the tale of Joan Wilder, a romance author who meets bird hunter Jack Colton (Douglas) in the Colombian jungle and falls in love with him. Zemeckis was the director of the film.

Turner, who is now 67 years old, made a reference to the tale of Winger biting Douglas in her biography, Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles, which was published in 2008.

“Michael Douglas produced as well as acted in Romancing the Stone, so he had a lot at stake in its success. He originally intended to have Debra Winger in the role of Joan, but they didn’t seem to get along as well as he’d hoped. They met to discuss it at a Mexican restaurant and she bit him, or so he said,” wrote Turner.

While celebrating the film’s 35th anniversary in 2019, Douglas gave an interview to Variety in which he stated, “we couldn’t get a direct answer whether [Debra] was committed or not and we had concerns after being down [to Mexico] with [Zemeckis] on locations and seeing how difficult it was going to be. We were going to need somebody to be a total team player.”

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Turner took over for Winger in the role, and she went on to win the Golden Globe for Best Actress for her performance in the action romantic comedy.

As Lowe listed other roles Winger went on to take, Douglas described the actress as “very, very talented” and “a character.”

It wasn’t a bite that kept Winger from starring in “A League of Their Own;” rather, it was the casting of Madonna that prevented her from appearing in the film.

In the sequel “The Jewel of the Nile” from 1985, Douglas and Turner appeared together again. She went on to get nominations for both the Tony Award and the Oscar for her depiction of novelist Joan Wilder, for which she was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Actress in 1985.

In the 2021 episode of “The Kominsky Method” on Netflix, the legendary film combo played exes who are at odds with one another.

During an interview with PEOPLE in 2017, Winger discussed her decision to take a break from Hollywood at the age of 40 as well as her history of conflict with a number of her prominent co-stars, including Richard Gere and Shirley MacLaine.

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“I don’t know what Hollywood is. I’m living under the freaking sign now, and I just stare at it and laugh,” Winger was quoted as saying at the time.

She argued that her choice to quit the industry had more to do with her personal life than it did with her work life. She was leaving for personal reasons. “The parts that were coming, I wasn’t interested in. I’d already done that or I’d already felt that. I needed to be challenged. My life challenged me more than the parts, so I dove into it fully,” Winger stated.

“Romancing the Stone,” which was released in March 1984, was a huge financial success, grossing $115 million all over the globe. In 1985, a sequel titled “The Jewel of the Nile” was made available to the public. Douglas and Turner both appeared in the film in the roles that they had previously played.