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First Look: Michael Douglas as Liberace

While Behind the Candelabra won’t premiere on HBO until next year, we’re getting our first glimpse at just how “authentic” the Liberace biopic will be.

Michael Douglas Liberace

Nine months after Michael Douglas announced he signed on to play flamboyant pianist Liberace, we’re getting our first look at a polyester-clad actor and his “lover” Matt Damon.

New York Daily News published the photo — featuring Douglas as Liberace and Damon as much-younger beau Scott Thorson — on set.

With his big glasses, full head of dark hair, and a shirt whose loud print just screams “1970s!” Douglas was a dead-ringer for the over-the-top performer born as Wladziu Valentino Liberace.

Damon as Thorson also stayed true to the time period, complete with shaggy head of hair, khaki trousers and now-outdated blazer.

Daily News is reporting the flick, directed by Steven Soderbergh, will focus on the couple’s ill-fated love affair.

Thorson sued for palimony in the 1980s, during a time when gays not only didn’t come out of the closet but seemingly “didn’t exist.”

As more details about the flick come to the surface, it’s reported Behind the Candelabra will also document Liberace’s struggle to keep his homosexuality under wraps.

The musician succumbed to AIDS in 1987. He was 67.

Damon, who plays the 39 years Liberace’s junior Thorson, told E! last year as the movie just came to the fore that it wouldn’t be shying away from tender moments between the once-happy pair.

“It’s scripted that there’s more than one [kiss],” he said. “I never thought I would get to kiss Michael Douglas.”

Image courtesy of WENN.com

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