How Michael Caine defied tradition by taking on gay roles: “It was a bit dicey”
The debate over heterosexual actors playing homosexual characters is one that continues to this day, albeit under entirely different circumstances from the time Michael Caine became one of the first major stars in Hollywood to play more than one gay character.
It would be an understatement to say that society has evolved to a point where representation and diversity have reached greater levels than ever before, but Caine initially rose to prominence during a period where playing a gay person in a motion picture was akin to career suicide in many eyes.
Not that he cared, though, with the legend more than confident enough in both his abilities as a performer and the mindset of audiences to render it a moot point. Caine was always driven by the material when it came to selecting parts, and if the strongest material had him playing a gay character, then so be it for the happily-married thespian.
Adapted from Neil Simon’s play of the same name, Maggie Smith won an Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ in the star-studded ensemble piece California Suite, where she plays an actor nominated for her first Oscar entered into a marriage of convenience with Caine’s closeted antiques dealer, who becomes increasingly prepared to openly embrace his sexuality.
Black comedy thriller Deathtrap saw Caine share an on-screen kiss with Christopher Reeve, where they starred as a veteran playwright who plans to murder the promising student who’d scripted a play so incredible it could potentially reignite the stagnant career of the increasingly bitter older man consumed by desperation to resurrect his fallen star.
Caine admitted to Rolling Stone that embodying gay characters “was a bit dicey to do” at the time he’d done it, revealing how “people said it could be a career killer.” There were even folks who questioned what it would mean for his public persona at large, but the two-time Oscar winner wasn’t having any of it.
“What are the girls going to think of you? A couple of people said, ‘Do you really want to do it, Michael? People will think you’re gay’. I said, ‘No, they won’t. They know I’m an actor’. I loved doing that,” he explained. “Many of my friends were gay, so I’d studied them and their movements and speech, so I basically knew what I was doing. And the parts were so very good. I’d never kissed a man on the lips before.”
Reeve was in the exact same boat, though, so the inexperienced pair “drank a couple of brandies” to prepare, which didn’t go according to plan when they forgot their lines immediately after the smooch in question, with Caine admitting “the kiss was a bit of a disaster” on the first take after they opted to indulge in some liquid courage beforehand.
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