The 2003 co-star who told Michael Caine they’d win an Oscar one day: “Not a trace of arrogance, just clarity”
Every actor dreams of winning an Academy Award, but it takes a pair of brass bollocks to walk up to Michael Caine, who’s won two of them, and kindly inform him that it’s going to happen one day.
For most thespians, it’s the unattainable dream. There are plenty of top-tier actors, legendary stars, and indelible figures who never even got a sniff of an Oscar throughout their careers, and with more movies being released annually than ever before, making that five-person shortlist is harder than ever.
Of course, it would help if that person was an actor by trade or somebody who made even semi-regular appearances on the big screen. As things stand, they do not, and they haven’t for the better part of two decades, so it seems fair to say that those lofty ambitions have well and truly been placed on the back burner.
Not that they’ll be losing any sleep over it, since that person also happens to be Beyoncé, who’s done alright for herself without conquering cinema. Could she have become a major movie star if she wanted to? Maybe, maybe not, although her short filmography didn’t offer many signs that she had the chops.
Fresh from her acting debut in 2001’s Carmen: A Hip Hopera, which only the diehards will remember, the then-Destiny’s Child singer made her proper theatrical bow in Austin Powers in Goldmember as Foxxy Cleopatra, a whole lotta woman, in what felt like stunt casting to capitalise on a fast-rising face more than anything else.
“You could already tell how focused she was, and how big a star she was going to be,” Caine reflected. “I remember the first day on set, I asked her what her ambition was, and she said, ‘I want to win an Academy Award for a movie’. Not a trace of arrogance, just clarity.”
No offence to Beyoncé, but you’ll never win an Oscar for acting when your list of credits includes co-starring with Cuba Gooding Jr in The Fighting Temptations, lending support in Steve Martin’s Pink Panther reboot, or voicing characters in animated fare like Epic or The Lion King, and her complete disinterest in film would suggest that she’s given up on that goal completely.
The last time she played a major role in a live-action picture was back in 2009, when she led the dismal psychological thriller Obsessed. That movie earned her half of the total sum of her awards season recognition for acting, with a ‘Worst Actress’ nod from the Razzies somewhat balancing out the Golden Globe nod for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ that she earned for Dreamgirls.
Nonetheless, Caine remains “sure she’ll win an Oscar eventually,” basing his theory entirely on the fact that “she’s already won a bunch of Grammys,” which isn’t quite how these things work. As we rapidly approach the 20th anniversary of her last leading part in a film, though, he’d better not hold his breath.
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