It's a long road from the projects of south London to the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, where Michael Caine is reflecting on his rough-and-tumble roots.
"It's called the Elephant Castle," recalls Caine, who still retains the Cockney accent -- and the lack of pretension -- of his childhood home. "It's very, very rough."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, April 02, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 50 words Type of Material: Correction
Michael Caine: An article about actor Michael Caine in Wednesday's Calendar section identified the title of his new film as "Is There Anybody There?" The title is "Is Anybody There?" Also, the article stated that he lived as a child in Elephant Castle. The correct name is Elephant and Castle.
The memories are fresh in his mind because the two-time Oscar winner ("Hannah and Her Sisters," "The Cider House Rules") recently completed a movie, "Harry Brown," in his old neighborhood. "It was quite amazing," he says of his return. "There was a mural with me on it and Charlie Chaplin, who is from there as well. It's Charlie Chaplin in 'The Kid' and me with my mum."
He was shocked, though, at how much nastier the area had become. "An English guy was interviewing me and said, 'How different is it now?' I said much tougher. We didn't have drugs. We had alcohol. We used to get [drunk] and pass out. You didn't have to knock down an old lady to get the price of a beer. At least they were knocking these places down."
Caine, who has given indelible performance after indelible performance in the last four decades in such films as "Alfie," "The Man Who Would Be King" and "The Dark Knight," is in town from his home in England to talk about his latest movie, "Is There Anybody There?," which opens April 17, and to receive ShoWest's lifetime achievement award in Las Vegas on Thursday evening.
"It's an extraordinary thing to get," says Caine, trim and fit at 76, of the honor from the movie exhibitors' convention. "They are tough. There is no sentiment there. I have to been to ShoWest before. They are not a namby-pamby crowd."
But you'd be hard-pressed to find anybody saying an unkind word about Caine as an actor or as a person.
"He is the actor of actors," says Mitch Neuhauser, co-managing director of ShoWest. "The breadth of his work is just enormous, and there's no genre or type of film that depicts a Michael Caine role. What makes this tribute at ShoWest so appropriate and so meaningful is that over the course of his career he has been responsible for providing hours and hours of entertainment for moviegoers worldwide."
"He always makes it look easy and natural," adds film critic-historian Leonard Maltin. "That is the mark of a true artist. He started out as a young stud leading man but then showed he had skills to back up his charisma, so he earned respect to go along with his stardom."
Caine, born Maurice Micklewhite, reinvented himself again as he got older. "He didn't shy away from character parts," says Maltin. He always found a way to bring color and life to any role he played. He's a very skilled craftsman, as he proved in a series of illustrated lectures [on the craft of acting] he did some years ago for the BBC, but he never lets you know the wheels are turning."
In a way, Caine became a role model for younger movie stars by toggling between mainstream fare and smaller indie projects, such as "Is There Anybody There?" In the touching drama directed by John Crowley ("Boy A"), Caine plays Clarence, a grumpy old magician who arrives unwillingly to live in an old-folks' home. It doesn't take long, though, for Clarence to befriend Edward (Bill Milner), the 10-year-old son of the home's owners. As Clarence disappears further into senility, Edward becomes his caretaker.
"One of my closest friends, he was only 68, just died of Alzheimer's," says Caine softly. "I know of where I speak."
Perhaps it's that deep connection with dementia that allowed Caine to give such a naked performance -- Clarence wears his emotions on his sleeve, including crying over the loss of his past life and getting angry when he can't even remember who he is.
"Dougie having dementia was a reason I wanted to do it," says Caine. "But also from a purely selfish point of view, it was a hell of a part to do. I'm now looking for things that are different and stretch me. I don't work very much. So a movie sort of has to grab me.
Caine particularly loved the relationship between Clarence and Edward and "how I become responsible for the boy and try to help him and eventually how he became responsible to me."
Caine developed a deep affection for his young costar, who was previously seen in "Son of Rambow."
"He is not a trained actor," says Caine. "So it was easy. We got to know each other very well. People say to me, 'Did you give him advice?' I wouldn't think of giving Billy advice."
Caine hadn't talked to many people who had seen the movie until the previous evening when he participated in a Q&A session in L.A. after a screening. "They seemed impressed with the movie," he says.
But his wife, Shakira, was a basket case when she saw it.
"She got very upset," says Caine, "because she watched me grow old and die. I said, 'It's a performance. I am not like him. I am not the same person.' "
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Michael Caine on . . . Michael Caine
