The scene Michael Caine called a “disaster”
As one of Britain’s most cherished acting legends, the recently retired Michael Caine sits proudly atop a varied and consistent oeuvre. Following early rumblings of success in the 1950s, the London-born actor broke through in 1964 with a major role in Cy Endfield’s colonial war classic Zulu.
Zulu’s success led to a streak of highly-praised appearances in blockbusting titles over the remainder of the decade, including Alfie, Gambit, The Italian Job and the classic World War II movie Battle of Britain. Over the past five decades, Caine has remained just as relevant, with Academy Award-winning roles in Woody Allen’s 1986 movie Hannah and Her Sisters and 1999’s The Cider House Rules.
In October 2023, Caine’s final movie performance in Oliver Parker’s The Great Escaper received a warm reception, perfectly rounding off a 70-year acting career. While most actors would cut off their noses to lead a career of such prolonged celebration, Caine identifies several regrets.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2019, the actor was proud to claim he never regretted any opportunities he passed on. “I never made that kind of mistake,” he said. “I only made the ones in the opposite direction — what I didn’t say no to.”
Among such regretful roles was that in 1978’s The Swarm. Directed by Irwin Allen, the sci-fi horror follows a scientist who teams up with the US military to tackle a giant, mutant swarm of bees. While the move received mixed reviews, it wasn’t Caine’s cup of tea.
“I said, ‘I’ll do it.’ One day, we were all having a conversation with live bees above us, and suddenly, we noticed all these little black dots on our shirts,” he said. “The bees were shitting on us. And so the first review was in, but we didn’t know it at the time.”
Continuing, Caine picked out one of his past scenes as a “disaster”. In 1982, he starred in Sidney Lumet’s black comedy Deathtrap as a gay man, Sidney Bruhl. In one of the movie’s most memorable scenes, Bruhl kisses Christopher Reeve’s character, Clifford Anderson.
Although proud to tackle such a role in less permitting times, Caine wasn’t happy with how the scene turned out. “It was a bit dicey to do — people said it could be a career killer, and what are the girls going to think of you? A couple of people said, ‘Do you really want to do it, Michael? People will think you’re gay.’ I said, ‘No, they won’t. They know I’m an actor,'” Caine said. “I loved doing that. Many of my friends were gay, so I’d studied them and their movements and speech, so I basically knew what I was doing. And the parts were so very good.”
Caine then explained how the scene was marred by inebriation. “Chris Reeve and I had to do a romantic scene,” he continued. “Neither of us had ever kissed another man before, so we drank a couple of brandies. Then, when it came time for the dialogue, we couldn’t remember it. So the kiss was a bit of a disaster.”
The kiss certainly added a nervy touch to the performance, but fortunately, any impact on the dialogue didn’t spoil the scene. Watch the famous kiss scene from Deathtrap below.
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