Michael Caine couldn’t turn down the movie that fascinated him three times over: “Why not do it?”
With over 150 acting credits to his name, spanning from an uncredited role in 1950’s Morning Departure to his final performance in The Great Escaper 73 years later, Michael Caine had never been particularly picky or choosy over which parts he wanted to play. Up until a certain point, anyway.
He was happy enough to be a working actor, but the downside of being so in demand and Caine being so appreciative of it was that he ended up starring in a fair amount of crap. He might be one of the United Kingdom’s all-time greats, but his down-to-earth personality has ensured he’s never been too precious about it.
The two-time Academy Award winner has been in countless classics, cult favourites, and box office juggernauts, but he’s also lent his name to no small amount of shite. The Swarm, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, Steven Seagal’s On Deadly Ground, and his ill-judged Harry Palmer legacy sequels are the most egregious offenders, if only because they were the ones singled out by the man himself as the worst of the bunch.
To separate the cinematic wheat from the bargain basement chaff, Caine developed his own set of rules that dictated the direction of his career. If a script, director, or storyline didn’t match up to those ideals, then there was no chance of convincing him to sign on. Fortunately, one movie fascinated him three times over, which ensured his legendary presence.
Caine was reborn at the turn of the 21st century, with his second Oscar win for The Cider House Rules opening the doors to his best run in years, one that gave the world The Quiet American, Austin Powers in Goldmember, Batman Begins, The Statement, and The Prestige. Smack dab in the middle was Alfonso Cuarón’s modern masterpiece Children of Men, which hooked him immediately.
The role of Jasper Palmer didn’t require Caine to step too far outside of his wheelhouse, with the character operating as a friend, confidant, and sage to Clive Owen’s Theo Farron, the unassuming everyman who ends up becoming anointed as an instrumental figure in safeguarding humanity’s future whether he wants to or not, but that didn’t put him off. Quite the opposite, in fact.
“It was a fascinating character with a fascinating director with a fascinating leading man,” he told Movies. “Why not do it?” A very good question and one Caine didn’t even contemplate when the combination of embodying a pot-smoking and flatulent old man armed to the teeth with nuggets of wisdom under the direction of an elite-level auteur and sharing the screen with Owen was too good to resist.
One of the greatest dystopian movies ever made and right up there with The Shawshank Redemption in the running to be named the best film to ever bomb at the box office; Children of Men was simply too good to turn down.
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