The only one of his performances Michael Caine called perfect: “I am most proud”
Michael Caine has a lot of roles to be proud of, and since he formally retired from acting in 2023, it’s possible to be categorical about his performances. There are plenty to choose from. He’s been in the business since the 1950s, and he’s evolved with the times. He started out with conventional fare like Zulu and Hurry Sundown, helped shape the Swinging Sixties with The Ipcress File and Alfie, and hurtled into the ‘70s with films like Get Carter and The Man Who Would be King.
It’s pretty unusual for an actor with a career spanning nearly seven decades to remain part of the zeitgeist from start to finish, but Caine did. In the ‘80s, he made films like Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill, Oliver Stone’s The Hand, and Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters (for which he won an Oscar). In the ‘90s, he made A Muppet Christmas Carol and The Cider House Rules, two films which, if not classics in their own right, pretty handily encapsulate two of the biggest trends of the decade – the Muppets and maudlin, star-studded dramas.
Defying all precedent, Caine became even cooler in the 2000s by hitching his wagon to a young director named Christopher Nolan. Their collaboration lasted until the actor’s retirement and encapsulated eight consecutive films, starting with Batman Begins in 2005 and ending with Tenet in 2020. Nolan even haphazardly wrote in a character for him in 2017’s Dunkirk just to make sure he got the actor in every movie.
So, yes, Caine has many roles to be proud of. However, in his 2010 memoir, The Elephant to Hollywood, he singled out his performance in the 1983 comedy Educating Rita. Directed by Lewis Gilbert, the film stars Julie Walters as a young working-class hairdresser who hires a jaded, alcoholic professor (Caine) to give her some higher education. It’s a story that has been told many times, from Pygmalion to My Fair Lady, but author and screenwriter Willy Russell managed to put a modern spin on it, and it was well-received by critics and audiences.
“I am often asked which of films has come closest to my own ideal of performance and I always answer, Educating Rita,” Caine wrote. “To me, Educating Rita is the most perfect performance I could give of a character who was as far away from me as you could possibly get and of all the films I have ever been in, I think it may be the one I am most proud of.”
He was inspired to accept the film for various reasons, including the fact that Gilbert had directed him in his breakthrough role in Alfie nearly two decades before, but it was also a risk. He had to turn down the opportunity to work with Sally Field, who had just won an Oscar, and Julie Walters was a largely unknown quantity.
It was an excellent gamble. The film was nominated for three Oscars for Caine, Walters, and Russell’s screenplay. Although none of them took home an award (Caine lost to Robert Duvall for Tender Mercies), the actor didn’t feel short-changed. It was a key moment in his career and one that he remembers fondly, even if he didn’t get the hardware to back it up.
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