'The best thing about being 90 is that no one expects much from you… The worst thing is that so much disappears from your life.” Photo: Jack Robinson/Halton Archive/Getty Images | Jack Davison
Michael Caine is sitting on the sofa watching the Wimbledon Championships on TV when I arrive to meet him at his Chelsea Harbor apartment block on a cloudy day in early July. “I’ll turn it off,” he says, picking up the remote control.
He is 90 years old, his once thick head of golden hair is now thinning and graying, and he wears a blue shirt with the MC monogram, black. trousers and suede shoes, friendly manners, sparkling eyes behind huge glasses. Next to him stands a walking frame.
His wife Shakira met me at the door. Charming, beautiful, 76 years old, but seemingly ageless, asks if I want tea. They owned this apartment for 30 years.
Until recently they also had a country house in Surrey, but it got to the point where Kane could no longer walk on its eight acres, and the house was so big that he and Shakira would have to call to find out where the other one was, and which one what's the point? So they downsized and bought a house in Wimbledon, closer to family and three grandchildren.
They now spend three days at Chelsea and the rest of the week at Wimbledon. You wonder why. Wimbledon is not the same country, but there is something about Michael Caine and Chelsea that seems inseparable: echoes of the 60s, swinging London, King's Road.
“Having lived in Chelsea, you don’t understand, ‘I don’t want to live anywhere else in London,’” he pauses. “And if you come from Elephant and Castle like me, you'll want to live somewhere else in London.”
The living room is filled with large, modern furniture, with a counter separating the living and dining area from the kitchen , where Shakira sits on a high stool and watches what is happening.
The Italian Job was one of Michael Caine's most memorable and quotable roles. Photo: Moviepix/Getty
On the wall are paintings of Chelsea pubs and public landmarks — Chelsea Potter, Pheasant's, where Eric Clapton once lived upstairs. “They're all great 60s pubs on the King's Road,” says Kane.
“I went there when all this was going on and one day I went into the gallery and there were five or six of them these paintings, and I liked them so much that I bought them.”
He points to one. “This is the End of the World — it's just around the corner. This apartment building was the first to be built here. We sat here and watched everything happen around us, and it was unusual because it was slums and docks and all this nonsense.”
The housekeeper materializes at my elbow and places a cup of tea on the table next to me. . “And he has biscuits and everything!” Kane feigns indignation. «I didn't get any cookies!»
Michael Caine is probably the most famous Cockney who ever lived. Everyone knows his voice: flattened vowels, nasal intonation, and occasionally a cloying core. But here, in private, decorum rests and Kane allows a deeper, more unfiltered Cockney to emerge.
Truman Capote once remarked on Elizabeth Taylor's «amusing abundance of four-letter profanity» and the same is true of Kane this afternoon, who said this and that, never in anger, but as a punctuation mark or as a one-time expression of irritation, always with a laugh. . He loves to laugh, Michael Caine, and you often laugh while he talks.
“I’ll tell you who likes to laugh,” he raises a finger. «Frank Sinatra.» They met when Kane first arrived in Hollywood in the mid-1960s. “He was very sweet, became my friend and loved to laugh. But he never did things that made you laugh.
“He was cool… very cool. He took me to Las Vegas on his private jet, and then I knew every mobster in Las Vegas. I had dinner with all of them. Caesar Palace… — He pauses. Michael Caine from Elephant and Castle. “It was very difficult for me to believe what was happening.”
Michael Caine and wife Shakira at their home in Beverly Hills on Davis -Drive. Photo: Paul Harris/Getty Images
This was when Sinatra married Mia Farrow. And Kane dated Sinatra's daughter Nancy. In March, on Kane's 90th birthday, Farrow posted a tribute on Instagram, noting that if Kane had married Nancy, she would have been his mother-in-law. «Is it true?» — He laughs as if tired. He doesn't look at Instagram.
He and Farrow have become good friends. “When Frank married her and left, he said: look after her, Michael, don’t let her get bored. He had an older friend, whose name I forgot, and we both took her to discos, restaurants and all that — so that she would not be bored.»
Hollywood… the word itself brings it to life. . As a child, he sat in cinemas and watched all the stars, and suddenly they appeared. “It was the most incredible experience. It was like living with the gods. I would go to a restaurant and there would be John Wayne sitting there, different people, and everyone would say hello.
“They treated me like I was one of them!” I lived there, worked there, sometimes won an Oscar and all that. [He won two awards and was nominated for four more.] I was just like them.» I say you had an extraordinary life. «Oh, hell yes!»
In a career that spanned some 73 years—since his first fleeting, uncredited appearance as a tea boy in the 1950 film Morning Departure—Michael Caine appeared in more than 120 films and called every major Hollywood star a friend. But now he has probably made his last film.
The Great Escape is based on the true story of Bernard «Bernie» Jordan, a Royal Navy veteran. In 2014, aged 89, he disappeared from the Hove care home where he lived with his wife Irene to travel to France on his own to attend the 70th anniversary of the landings in France. said he had failed to secure a place on the Royal British Legion trip. His disappearance sparked a police search and made him a media sensation.
Bernie served on a support ship during the D-Day landings. «The Great Fugitive» fabricates his story, turning his journey into an act of remembering the young soldier he saw killed during the assault on Swords Beach, and developing Bernie and Irene's relationship to create a portrait a marriage built on lifelong acquaintance and tender quarrels. and deep and abiding love. This story, Kane says, had special resonance for him. — Oh, hell yes. I could be him.”
Kane was 12 years old when World War II ended. He spent most of the war evacuated in Norfolk. «But I knew all about it because my father was a soldier.» His father Maurice Micklewhite — also Kane's birth name — was not at D-Day, he was in Rome, Kane says. “He freed the Pope.”
Kane himself served national service, was drafted at 18 and sent to occupied Berlin. “And then when I was 19, I was sent to Korea—not a good idea for your 19th birthday. I was not a great professional soldier, and it was not a big war.
“The Korean War was like World War I: we all lived in trenches and fought each other in the dark; but I was still scared as hell, just like everyone else. So I understood these things – death and close friends dying and getting injured.” He pauses. “I saw a lot of what was going on, you know? Incredible.»
The Great Escape is a deeply moving film that avoids the trap of easy sentimentality thanks to Oliver Parker's deft direction and brilliant performances by Caine as the wary Bernie and Glenda Jackson as his no-nonsense wife who gives him Determination sets out on her adventure and keeps it a secret from the nursing home staff.
Bernie Jordan died in 2015, six months after traveling to France. Irene died just a week later. And The Great Fugitive is given added poignancy by Jackson's death at age 87, six months after the film's completion.
Glenda Jackson in the film “The Great Fugitive” she plays a serious wife. Photo: Rob Youngson
If this is Kane's last film, it marks a remarkable farewell performance for both of them. “I was so happy to do it,” Kane says. “I just loved the character of Bernie. I think he's incredible and it's so beautifully written. Because of Covid and all that, I hadn't acted in three years and I thought I'd had enough. And suddenly I did it — and had a great time.»
He admits that playing the role was physically difficult. Today he cannot walk without assistance. “They gave me a really nice cane and I was able to do the scenes that required it. I would just do it once and then fall,” he smiles. “But just one take and that’s it. Forget it.”
“We tried to make sure Michael didn't work too hard,” says Oliver Parker, “and we didn't have to negotiate with him to keep him going at the same pace.” . But for him to return to acting after being away from films for a long time, and in the way he did, was quite a highlight.
'I have rarely seen him play a character who has such a weakness. He was always Michael Caine — carefree, confident and cool. Here he plays a man who struggles to maintain control. And for audiences to invest in it, he really has to share his vulnerabilities, and I was really excited about Michael's ability to do that.»
Kane and Jackson had worked together once before, in 1975's The English Romantic. “We really liked each other,” Kane recalls. “But in real life it didn’t last long because she was a left-wing socialist and I’m just a regular conservative stuck in the middle. After the film ended, we never saw each other again until we met on the set of this film.
“She led a completely different life from me; we never spent time together. I never went to the Parliament building for anything, and I've been married to Shakira for 50 years, so I wasn't looking for girlfriends.
''It's a shame, because I liked her. so much and I think she liked me. And we worked very well together on this film and had a lot of fun.” He shakes his head. “I just could never understand why we didn’t meet in the 48 years between films.”
“I thought that You have to be very handsome and all that [to become a movie star], but I wasn’t like that when I was young.” Photo: Jack Davison
Parker says that before filming began, he invited Kane and Jackson to dinner. “It was like two great heavyweights coming back into the ring. But in this case they fought on the same side. There was almost tenderness between them. Michael said it bothered him that she thought he was an old fascist, and that was the last thing that could be said about Michael. But they had much more in common than differences.
“It was amazing to see them walk onto the nursing home set – that was the first scene – at their age and bring with them such a wealth of shared experience. They supported each other. Given his age, Michael would inevitably rest between scenes.
“But if Glenda ever had one of her big emotional scenes, he would be there and insist on playing the lines off-screen, which he didn’t have to do.” They both had a strong respect for each other and professionalism. There were never any problems with being late or overloaded; they were both true professionals.”
Jackson's death, Kane said, came as a «big shock.» She was such a wonderful person and had so much more to give. — He pauses. “It also meant I had to do all the advertising myself, with no one to help me. She would be here with me; that would be a completely different interview.”
Kane appears to have been talking about retirement for more than 40 years. In 1968, he told an interviewer that he planned to retire when he was 45, move into a farmhouse, «fill it with children and grow old with dignity.»
When I last met him in 2015, he had just finished working on Paolo Sorrentino's Youth, playing an orchestra conductor, and told me he was now retired, noting that «I don't have to work to get paid.» for the apartment». . He made 10 more films. “But I wasn’t 90 then. I’m fucking 90 now and I can’t walk properly and stuff. I'm kind of retired now. Anyway…'
Kane as Fred Ballinger in Paolo Sorrentino's Youth, a renowned composer in the later stages of his life and career struggling to understand where the time went
He changes the subject. He wrote a book, he says. “And I’m really happy about it because it’s something I can do without walking. All you need is a chair, a pencil and paper.”
This is not his first book. He published three autobiographies and two collections of amazing facts that few people know! Michael Caine's Almanac of Surprising Information, followed by And Not Many Know This Too!
But this is his first thriller, which will be released in November. He said he was inspired by a story he read in a newspaper about two garbage collectors who found pieces of plutonium in their trash cart, which he turned into a cat-and-mouse tale featuring several characters, including a London detective, a sinister Russian oligarch, and a cunning art dealer. art and the Colombian drug cartel.
It took 18 months to write, with some professional help to develop the context and characters. “When I wrote about my career, I knew everything about it. If you're writing about a murder, I don't know anything about it, so I needed help with the investigation. This is not literature, this is a thriller. And they changed the damn title after I finished it.
«Shakira!» he shouts across the room. “What is the name of my book now that it has been changed?” “A deadly game, darling,” she replies. «I called it 'Chasing Death,'» Kane says. «Because when the police started investigating, everyone who had the plutonium was killed before they could be questioned.» He shrugs. «I'm just glad it was published.»
Michael Caine knew he was going to marry Shakira after I saw her in an advertisement for Brazilian coffee. Photo: David M. Bennett/Getty
An avid reader of thrillers, he had attempted to write one before: «It's Incredible…» — about a plane crashing into a London skyscraper. And then September 11th happened. “I just got so angry that I tore the damn thing apart,” he says. “I was so excited I worked on it forever.”
I ask him what's the best thing about being 90? “The best thing about being 90 is that no one expects much from you and people do things for you.”
But people doing things for you must have been a part of your life, I say. He nods. “The worst thing about it is that so much disappears from your life. You can't run, you can't play football and you gradually realize that you are getting closer to death.
“It may not be far off, at 90 years old. But I'm quite happy. I sit here, write and do my thing. I like it. I have two children, three grandchildren and a wife; and if the book I have written is a success, after my departure everything that is done in it will remain so. And you have to remember that someone will probably come and ask to make a film. And a million dollars will be invested in this. So I'll be very happy about that.»
But you won't be there to play the lead role. He is laughing. “Yes, there are no 90-year-old lovers there.”
I ask if the prospect of death frightens him? “No,” he replies. “Because I have my own view on it. Eventually everyone will join me. No one will say: “I’m really sorry that you’re going to die, I wish you were like me and didn’t die.” Everyone will die. At least I lived to be 90; I didn't die at nine, or 19, or 29. I'm 90 and have had the best life I could ever ask for. The best wife and the best family. This may not be what other people would call the best family possible, but to me it is the best family.'
Kane has two daughters: 67-year-old Dominique from his first marriage to actress Patricia Haynes and 50-year-old Natasha from his marriage to Shakira, as well as three grandchildren: 12-year-old twins Miles and Allegra and 13-year-old Taylor's summer grandson.
He points to a photograph of himself and the twins on the table, surrounded by his two Oscars, taken in the stands at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge. “We lost,” he says. Kane had a season ticket for years but gave it up this year due to mobility issues. Another pleasure gone.
Kane says he never had any ambitions to become a movie star — a movie actor, yes, but not a star. “Because I thought you had to be very handsome and all that—kissing girls and everything—and I wasn’t like that when I was young. I was an ugly, skinny bastard. But I have been married for 50 years to one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen.”
He tells me this story. It was 1972. One evening he was at home watching TV when suddenly an advertisement for Brazilian coffee appeared featuring “the most beautiful girl I have ever seen” — and he immediately decided that he would go to Brazil the next day to find her. That evening he found himself at the Tramp nightclub (a place he frequented in those days) and told the guy who did the advertising that he was going to Brazil the next morning to find the girl he was going with. get married.
“And he said, wait, Michael, we're doing this commercial and she's not Brazilian, she's Indian and she lives on Fulham Road.”
I can hear Shakira sighing on the other side of the kitchen bar . I say it's a good story. “That's true,” she says. «But he said it so many times.» «But I only said it once to this gentleman,» says Kane.
Historical drama Zulu (1964) became Kane's breakthrough role. Photo: Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
“It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me in my life. But when I called her, she didn't come with me. And I called her 10 times…”
“Four or five times,” Shakira corrects him. “Don't pay any attention to her. Ten times. And for the 11th time I thought, if she doesn’t come out with me now, I won’t call again. And she left. And I got this life with her, which was heaven and the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”
“Oh, Michael…” I hear Shakira say.
“This is an extraordinary thing,” Kane continues. “If she had said no, our lives without each other would have been nothing.” I ask Shakira what she sees in Kane? “He was funny. He just made me laugh so hard. And of course he was the most attractive man I had ever seen and warm. I have too much to tell you. Kane beams on the sofa.
“Anyway,” he continues, “we went to Vegas for my 40th birthday and got married. It was here that many famous people got married because their photographs hung on the wall. I looked around and thought: «Damn it, I'm getting married where the one whose name is married, and so and so.»
'And then, at the end, I looked around and realized everything is a single person divorced on the wall. I thought: oh damn, then this won’t last long…” He laughs.
Before meeting Kane, I watched Amol Rajan's BBC interview with actor Brian Cox, where Cox was asked to give a 10-second opinion about other actors. When asked about Kane, he rolled his eyes and chuckled to himself.
“He can be really good, Michael… Alfie and all that; when he does what he does, he does it better than anyone else. But there's something about him… He's a bit of a working class Tory to me.»
For his role as Kane in Alfie «He was nominated for an Oscar, a Bafta and a Golden Globe. Photo: Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo
A response that managed to be patronizing, devoid of courtesy and humility, all in the space of three sentences. Kane won two Academy Awards. Coke? We'll talk about this quickly.
— Brian Cox? Kane says when I tell him about the interview. «No I do not know him. And I’m not a Tory.”
“Yes, dear,” says Shakira. “You are a Tory.”
“Uh, Shakira, don’t interrupt my interview.”
I note that you were quite happy with Shakira interrupting you when she was talking about how handsome and charming you are. “No, what I'm saying is that all my life I worked to earn money to pay taxes.”
“So the more money I made, the more money goes to the working class. That's all». And he adds. “I voted for the Labor Party for Tony Blair.”
“Anyway…” He pauses. “I'll tell you a story. I photographed in the Philippines. And there was a millionaire couple who invited some of us who were in the film to dinner. So we arrive, and when we walk into the lobby, people recognize me. «Michael Caine!» and so on. And I looked up and smiled at the hostess, who was standing on the stairs and looking down. And her face was so stern. She never smiled back.
She looked like she hated me, and I thought: What the hell did I do?
“And the crowd broke up a little, I walked up to her and wished her good evening. She said: “Good evening. Are you a drug dealer? That's why I said: I don't even take drugs, let alone sell them. I said: why did you ask me this? She said, «If you're not a drug dealer, why does everyone call you My Cocaine?» — Kane bursts out laughing.
“You couldn’t invent this!” But you suspect he might have made it up. . 'No, that's right! I was amused by it once I got over it. We've been talking for over an hour and Kane is getting tired. So what, I ask, would you like to be remembered for? “Let me see…” He thinks for a moment. “For the fact that I remained an actor all my life and never did anything else. I never left, I never wanted to leave…”
He stops mid-sentence. «Omar Sharif?» — His voice rises in disbelief. What? I'm confused. Then I understand. On television, Wimbledon gave way to a local news interview about the housing crisis with a man identified in the caption as Omar Sharif. Kane laughs. “This is not Omar Sharif,” he says. He would know. Omar Sharif was a friend of Michael Caine.
The Great Escape will be released in theaters on October 6
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