The movie Michael Caine admitted wasn’t a “dream experience”
Few filmographies are ever squeaky clean, with actors known to take paychecks to go on a luxurious holiday or install a premium bathroom, and who can blame them? Indeed, even the greatest actors of all time aren’t safe from regretful roles, with the likes of Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep and Michael Caine having each appeared in movies that they themselves would admit weren’t spectacular.
Despite having starred and impressed in such classic movies as Zulu, Alfie, and Get Carter, winning two Oscars along the way for roles in Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules, Caine also took part in multiple cash grabs. Speaking about the “terrible” aquatic sequel Jaws: The Revenge, Caine stated: “I have never seen the film, but by all accounts, it was terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific”.
Yet, despite appearing in Jaws: The Revenge, as well as 1978’s The Swarm, which he has previously voiced his dislike of, Caine adamantly insists that there is not one role he regrets turning down.
When asked this question directly in an interview with Rolling Stone, Caine states: “I never made that kind of mistake. I only made the ones in the opposite direction — what I didn’t say no to”. Yet, not taking that answer at face value, the interviewer pushes onwards, testing Caine by asking him about one of his worst movies, On Deadly Ground, a sub-par action film from 1994 directed by Steven Seagal.
“It wasn’t one of my dream experiences, to put it nicely,” Caine told the publication before adding, regarding the eccentric filmmaker and actor, “We were in Alaska. He was quite pleasant, but I never saw much of him; he never came out of his motorhome very much. He was one of the top whatever it is — jiu-jitsu, whatever it is they do. I’d never argue with him. I didn’t want him to throw me over”.
Despite the two events being seemingly unconnected, it seems rather purposeful that the next question he is posed is regarding the time he almost retired in the 1990s before he was talked out of it by none other than Jack Nicholson. “I emigrated to Miami for the winter,” he revealed, “And Jack was living there and we became friends. I decided I wasn’t going to work again and then Jack said, ‘I’ve got a movie called Blood and Wine, and there’s a very good part for you in it,’ and he talked me into doing it. The lesson was: Never give up”.
Take a look at the trailer for Steven Seagal’s On Deadly Ground below and watch the whole movie at your peril.
Never Miss A Tale
The Far Out Michael Caine Newsletter
All the latest stories about Michael Caine from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.