Why Michael Caine refused to talk about his favourite role: “I never care to discuss it”
What’s one of the first questions you ask if you are lucky enough to meet an artistic legend? Quite possibly, what their favourite oeuvre is. But for industry icon Michael Caine, the answer is not so simple.
He has decades worth of incredible roles, Michael Caine says his best film is The Quiet American. The 2002 romance and political thriller also stars Brendan Fraser and Đỗ Thị Hải Yến, chronicling the love triangle between a British reporter, an American doctor, and a Vietnamese woman in Saigon against he backdrop of the Vietnam War.
Based on the 1955 novel of the same name by Graham Greene, The Quiet American has been adapted for the big screen twice, first in 1958, helmed by Joseph L Mankiewicz. However, Caine himself notably commented in an interview with Dark Horizons that he “remade The Quiet American, which wasn’t very good.” Phillip Noyce’s 2002 remake, on the other hand, achieved great critical acclaim and earned Caine his sixth and last Oscar nomination for acting.
Caine staked his entire career on The Quiet American, so to speak. Following the end of its production, The Quiet American was shelved for a long while, in part because of its initial release happening just before the 9/11 terrorist attacks and studio executives being nervous afterward about showing a film that could be interpreted as critical of American politics. However, Caine called in a favor with now-convicted Harvey Weinstein, then the chief of Miramax, to get another screening in 2002.
Caine fiercely believed in this film and took it upon himself to fight for its distribution when it seemed like it was at a dead end. However, shortly after that, Caine made it publicly known that he did not want to go through this experience again, be that filming, securing distribution, or worrying about the fallout if the movie wasn’t a hit. In the Dark Horizons interview, Caine was asked, “You’ve said that you wouldn’t put yourself through the kind of stress of the film experiences of Quiet American again. Is that because you’ll never find a role like that again?”
Caine responded, “No, I would do, no, if I picked a role and the producers said, ‘Bag it, I don’t like it, I’m going to sling it out in January.’ I say, ‘Sling it out in January?’ I can’t be bothered, can’t be bothered. I wouldn’t do it again. It was too tough for me; nearly killed me that did; nearly killed me. The stress of it was unbelievable; unbelievable stress.”
These events took their toll. “And I only knew it when I got back to England recently,” said Caine, “and I just collapsed right up until now for six weeks, having gone straight from that into The Statement. At the end of that, it was just the adrenaline and chewing gum keeping me going. I just collapsed, and, you know, I didn’t say a word for a week. And now, although we have just been, I never speak about the Quiet American. I never care to discuss it or anything.”
Caine wrapped up by saying, “I don’t want to know anything about it.” However, the interviewer then said, “Yet you would [be] pleased to know that it’s an extraordinary film.” So is the case with most films that were extremely tumultuous behind the scenes but still became critically acclaimed.
“Yeah, well thank you, yeah, yeah,” Caine says. “At least it’s out there; it’s out on DVD and people can buy it, and they’ll see it. It will be on the telly sometime; it will be on cable; it will be around.”
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