by Paul Fischer
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Michael CaineInterviewed
prior to his film Little Voice, courtesy Miramax Films |
It seems to Cranky that, for a long time in the late 80s and early 90s, Brit film star Michael Caine was releasing a movie a month. It wasn't that frequent, of course, but every time you blinked, there he was. The problem was, he was always playing Michael Caine, debonair, upper-class (but not stiff upper lip) Englishman. A notable move to character performances in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (with Steve Martin) parodied the image, but rarely did great perfs, such as his role in Mona Lisa make any headway in the States.
Then, Caine disappeared. His return, as Ray Say, the scuzzy has-been talent agent of no-talent stars in an English seaside tourist resort in Little Voice brought him back across the pond and into CrankyCritic.com. What did we learn about Michael Caine? He's a CNN junkie, loves to talk news. We couldn't stop him from going on and on about the Clinton scandals and how they're second rate to the ones in the UK ("He could've got some prettier girls for Chrissakes. Sharon Stone or somebody. At least Kennedy had Marilyn Monroe.") Caine's language can get kind of earthy, so you are warned. We'll cover Little Voice, booze, pot, living at the Playboy Mansion, all sorts of good stuff (with the help of a roomful of reporters. Cranky isn't old enough to remember a Playboy mansion in Chicago but I'm more than happy to take the credit for the questions) . . .
CrankyCritic:
So, where the hell have you been?
Michael Caine: I took a lot of time off to do an autobiography.
I went on holiday for a year and decided I didn't want to make any movies.
Then I decided that I did and couldn't find any scripts that I wanted
to do because if you've been away for a while, everybody forgets you.
They all go, "what does he look like now?" They see old movies
from 1965 and say, "Well he doesn't look like that". Or they'll
see Educating Rita on television and in that I'm a fat man with
a beard. So they don't know... anyway, I had a little part in Blood
and Wine (with Jack Nicholson), but that wasn't it, you know
what I mean? I went home and started writing a novel, just for my own
amusement, and one day Little Voice came in. I remember shouting
to my wife, in that way like you've won something -- "got it!"
-- just like that. She said "What?" I said "This is it.
This is the one." And she said "Thank Christ for that! It'll
get you out of the house." Cuz she was getting a bit bored with me.
CrankyCritic:
Do you not want to use the word "comeback"?
Michael Caine: It's a kind of comeback except that I never went
away. I got lazy and I didn't have to do any work. I did LV and
then I did a comedy film called The Debtors, directed by Ebbie
Quaid, the wife of Randy Quaid. That's next year.
CrankyCritic:
Little Voice had a spectacular London run five years back. Had
you seen it while you got lazy?
Michael Caine: I saw the stage play in a strange way. Jim Cartwright
(the writer) put his own video camera in the theater and left it on. I
saw that and several things struck me about it. One, the play seemed to
be screaming to get out of the stage set. Two, Jane Horrock's Character,
Little Voice, never says anything! In the theater you always look
at the person who's talking. Movies are a medium of reaction, so now you
can see this incredible face of Jane's. I said to her "It's a bloody
nightmare doing speeches with you! I learn all the bloody lines. You just
look up with big eyes and steal the scene. I've done all the [work] and
you're nicking all the scenes here." On the stage she couldn't do
that, y'see. So it's great for her.
CrankyCritic:
On stage she wasn't working with you.
Michael Caine: That's the other great thing. I saw Pete Postlethwaite
play Ray Say and I thought they'd give it to him. They've got to. And
then they rang me and said Pete Postlethwaite is working for Steven
Spielberg. I said great. So, "Thank you" to Steven Spielberg.
You've never given me a part but you've given me this one. [laughs]
CrankyCritic:
You mentioned an autobiography. Dish the Dirt.
Michael Caine: Oh, a lot of stories I can't tell in the book and
I can't tell 'em here for the same reason -- the lawyers come down on
you like a ton of bricks. Kirk Douglas had just written his autobiography
and he got into a lot of trouble -- more trouble than me 'cuz he was more
indiscreet than me -- and he said to me, "Write fiction, Michael.
You can tell the truth." Which is true.
CrankyCritic:
So, you write your life's story but you're told that you can't tell the
tale . . .
Michael Caine: Well, you also have to live a life and meet these
people again. I think I'll have another go in ten years when I'm 75, I've
never given all the zingers, y'know? I never forget anything. You cut
a lot of stuff because you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. As a
matter of fact, one of the most hurtful things you can do to anybody is
to leave them out. [laughing] They hate that.
CrankyCritic:
So Liz Taylor doesn't mind The Vodka Story being told?
Michael Caine: Nah. She doesn't drink anymore. She doesn't care.
She's great. With Elizabeth, she had it in her contract that she didn't
have to be in the studio until 10 o'clock. I was always there at 8 o'clock
doing close ups of my own with a continuity girl saying "I love you
darling. Take your trousers off." I remember saying to Elizabeth,
"I know for sure that you are a great star and a real professional."
She said "How do you know?" "Well," I said, "you
are a great star because you don't have to get her until 10 o'clock and
I know you are a professional because you are never late!" [everybody
laughs].
I'll tell you a funny thing about Elizabeth. One of the great banes of
actors in movies is such a technical thing; you've got a long speech and
you can't forget your lines. I myself am pretty good at dialog but we
all screw up. Elizabeth has a memory like a rat trap. She never flubbed
a line. She was the most extraordinary actress to work with.
CrankyCritic:
You and Anthony Hopkins have both talked about your alcoholism
what is it about actors that they need to wallow in that sort of misery.
Do you think about that?
Michael Caine: It's not misery. We drank alcohol because we couldn't
afford drugs. We were too poor. In our day, Anthony had a lot to drink
and I had a lot to drink, but I liked drinking so much I cut right back
on it so no doctor would ever say to me you can never have another drink.
You know? If you think in terms of it, alcohol, destroys inhibition cells
in your brain. The last thing an actor needs is inhibition cells, right?
I was the shyest person you've ever met in your life. For me to become
an actor was an incredible act of almost masochism; to go on stage in
front of people and speak. Alcohol broke down those inhibitions. When
you go the other way, with marijuana, it's the worst thing for an actor
to do because it affects the memory cells. You get a girl drunk and she'll
take off all her clothes. You get an actor drunk and he'll do a part for
$1.98. That's what they do now. I don't know what cocaine does, cuz I've
never had cocaine. But all these other drugs aren't very good for film
actors because you're hitting marks. Being pissed is; Inhibition cells
in your brain are gone and you wind up like me, with no inhibitions whatsoever.
CrankyCritic:
None?
Michael Caine: Uh. I do actually. I was just thinking I've never
done a nude scene. I couldn't do a full frontal scene no matter how drunk.
Robert Halpern, who was the head of the Royal Ballet in London
said to me, "I don't like the idea (of a ballet in the nude) because
not everything stops when the music does. [laughter]. I've never been
drunk enough to be out of control. But then I'm a bit of a control freak.
I like to control the area around me but that's part of acting.
CrankyCritic:
You were a big part of that Playboy scene.
Michael Caine: Yeah. I stayed in the Playboy Mansion in Chicago
and everyone was so up in arms, morally, about the whole thing. None of
the press guys in Chicago would interview me until I moved out. There
were 86 Bunnies in there with a 24 hour a day kitchen and bar. Now you
imagine that for a single man of 30, who'd had a slow life up until that
time. [Laughter]
CrankyCritic:
What do you remember of those times? The clothes were changing. The music
was changing. The morals were changing.
Michael Caine: Well the morals part was the first thing. Where
I come from in London, it was like Sicily. You look at a girl twice and
two guys with a shotgun come up and you've got to get married. Technical
difficulties, in the fifties, were how to get a bra off with one hand.
It was very difficult. In the sixties, all the girls threw their bras
away. And I thought Jesus Christ this is great! And you could get laid!
I couldn't get laid for love nor money. It was murder. It was a nightmare.
CrankyCritic:
It wasn't England.
Michael Caine: It was absolutely great. In England, everybody you
knew; supposing we were all sitting like a group of friends and had a
big dinner. We'd all chip in 'cuz none of us had got any money. A year
later, every single one of us is famous for something. And I don't mean
famous locally. The painter was David Hockney. The actor was Peter
O'Toole. The director was Ken Russell. And my flat mate, Terrence
Stamp, became a movie star. His brother, Chris, was a Cockney
guy who like the rest of us, should have been a gangster. We all sort
of failed gangster, that's why we all became actors. Chris was 19 years
old, minimal education, and I thought, he's not going to do anything.
Chris just wanted to get girls. All actors become actors to get girls,
'cuz you want to get good looking girls. You don't get good looking girls
in fruit bottling factories, not as good as Hollywood. So with Chris,
I finally thought "At last I've met someone who is going to be a
failure," 'cuz everybody I knew was famous. Including me. Then one
day, Chris came home pissed out of his mind. I said "What are you
going to do with your life Chris?" He said, "I'm going to be
a rock 'n' roll manager." "What?" "I've found a group
in a pub and I'm their manager." I said "What're they called?"
"The Who." [laughter] On that point, he's made more money
than I did.
CrankyCritic:
So what did you think when you saw Terrence, your flat mate, in drag in
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert?
Michael Caine: I was stunned. I did drag as the killer in Dressed
to Kill. But I was surprised that Terry did Priscilla because
that was so enjoyable. My drag in Dressed to Kill was for a purpose.
But one thing about doing drag, if you've never done it and you do it
for a movie... [conspiratorial] supposing I like this? I mean all the
extra expense, the underwear and everything [laughter and exits]