The role Michael Caine regrets missing out on: “David Lean liked the back of my head”
It’s not often that an actor becomes an essential part of a director’s process purely because of how the back of their head looks on camera, but then again, Michael Caine isn’t like most actors.
Caine first burst onto the scene in the mid-’60s with Zulu and The Ipcress File, quickly making a name for himself as one of the best young actors in Britain. However, there was another seismic role in this period that he inadvertently came very close to landing, even though he didn’t actually think he was in the running for it for the longest time. This iconic part almost came his way through his good friend Julie Christie, who was trying out for the female lead and needed a willing partner for her screen test. Naturally, being the stand-up gent he is, Caine volunteered his services.
“My friend Julie Christie had got a screen test for the lead role in Doctor Zhivago, which was being directed by the great David Lean,” Caine revealed in his autobiography. “I offered to support Julie by playing the ‘back of the head’ part opposite her in the screen test so she could play for the camera.” When Lean saw this test, Caine claimed he “liked the back of my head so much” that he made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: would he lend his beautiful dome to every female actor’s screen test? Caine was excited that the legendary Lawrence of Arabia director wanted to keep using him on camera, even if it was an unusually specific part of him that was getting all the attention, so he gleefully said yes.
After a number of these screen tests for different stars had taken place, though, something strange happened. Lean must have gotten so used to viewing his actors through the prism of the back of Caine’s noggin, because he suddenly suggested to the Italian Job star that he should test for the actual lead role of Dr Yuri Andreievich Zhivago, a physician and poet whose life is blown apart by World War I, the Russian Revolution, and a torrid romance. The opportunity for an actor who had seemingly toiled in the mire of supporting roles for many years was too big to turn down.
So, bristling with excitement and possibility, Caine shot the screen test with Lean – but it quickly became obvious to both men that he wasn’t right for the role. Instead of letting himself spiral into disappointment and anger, though, Caine once again resolved to be helpful. He asked Lean what exactly he was looking for in the actor playing Zhivago, to which he claimed the director mused, “A man who’s taken a long, hard look at life and has decided there’s absolutely nothing to be done.” After hearing this description, it hit Caine like a bolt from the blue. “Omar Sharif!” he blurted out, leading a curious Lean to reply, “Really?”
Despite directing Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia, Lean hadn’t yet considered him for Doctor Zhivago. However, Caine had just watched that epic cinematic achievement and was convinced Sharif had the right qualities for the role. After a couple of moments of thought, he said Lean mused, “You know, you could be right. I’m going to test him.” Obviously, this test went well, and Sharif was cast in the part.
Caine claimed that he never told the Egyptian star that he had such an instrumental role in his casting, although, as with everything being remembered decades later, perhaps it should be taken with a pinch of salt. Either way, the amused Dark Knight icon concluded, “So there you are: if I hadn’t failed the bloody screen test, like so many other things, I’d have been Dr Zhivago.”
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