Show Michael ichael Caine is still on the chase Michael Caine Is Still on the Chase I By Patrick Goldstein Los Angeles Times I hope you like the seating arrangement the waiter said in a soothing voice fluttering and fussing as he seated Michael Caine in a quiet comer corner of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel This is our be best t table When youve you've been a movie star as long as Caine everything seems to fall neatly in place whether its it's having your salad prepared just right or still getting juicy parts to play more than 40 years after afier coming to fame as the Cockney cadin cad cadin in 11 Alfie Of course to hear the year old actor tell it his real talent has been in the area of career choices I have a tremendous amount of pragmatism he said in town to tout his new movie that opened Friday a remake of Sleuth starring Caine and Jude Law Law plays the part of the brash arriviste that Caine handled in the original I 1972 film opposite Laurence Olivier Whenever anyone asks what my biggest talent is as asan asan asan an actor I say survival Hollywood is a churn chum L. L L. L tin cm tm ss where the topic of survival is on everyone's mind especially with actors whose careers are more fleeting than ever Every few months the the- industry anoints a new It Boy or Girl ever in need of a new sensation to provide sizzle for a new film Its It's easy to toland toland toland land a good part in a surprise hit The real challenge is keeping a career on track afterward Just ask Mira who won an Oscar for her role in Woody Allens Allen's Mighty Aphrodite but soon saw her career derailed by a string of bad films Look at Wes Bentley an instant sensation after American Beauty who has faded from view Julia Ormond once ordained as the new Audrey Hepburn is almost entirely forgotten The latest fall from grace belongs to Adrien Brody whose career has been in decline since he won an Oscar for The Pianist If anyone is an expert on career maintenance it would be bc Caine who still works at an astonishing pace having made nearly 20 movies since he won his last Oscar in 2000 for Cider House Rules while many of his peers have faded into obscurity or retired to a cozy country home Sure some have criticized him for taking too many roles but the actor says theres there's a method to his madness Success comes from doing not waiting says Caine When I was young I wanted to become an experienced actor so Id I'd read a load of scripts and take the best one possible If you sit around waiting for that great part you wont won't be ready for it because you wont won't have all the little experiences that give you the confidence to do your best I had friends who didone did didone didone one great movie but never worked again because they kept waiting for Fellini or John Ford to call them and it never happened Caine thinks today's actors spend too much time comparing themselves to contemporaries What they really should be doing is competing with themselves not with someone else Its It's unhealthy to worry about other people get on with your own life For Caine career longevity has a lot to do with lack of vanity He recalls complaining to a producer that hed he'd a part in a new script was too small Dont read the part of the lover read the father he says the producer told him when I became a film actor instead of a n film star I took the father and never looked back Caine isn't like stars who have screenwriters to personalize scripts for them For Educating Rita he says I gained weight and put on a big stomach to play the part and I got nominated for an Oscar A movie actor says How low can I change myself to fit the part Its It's hard not to notice the difference between Caine and Jude Law who was heralded as a new star but has yet to live up to the billing having endured a string of failures including a remake of Alfie When Caine is asked if he ever teased Law about his Alfie flop he replies Not at all Im I'm very kind especially if its it's someone Im I'm going to work with In the new Sleuth Caine projects the air of ofa a chilly eminence grise playing the famous mys mystery ery author who matches wits with his wife's young lover Its It's quite a sight seeing him play a pillar of the establishment considering J H. H i y 1 4 Los Angeles Times photo by Carl Carlos s cz Cha Michael Caine talks about survival in the acting world that when he first emerged in the he was dismissed as a working- working class upstart There was a big fuss when we did the original Sleuth over me this working-class working Cockney going to head-to-head with Lord Olivier everyone thought Id I'd be out of my league he recalls Olivier wrote me a letter saying You may be wondering how to address me me which I wasn't wondering at all But he said You must call me Larry and only Larry forevermore A crafty student of acting Caine says he wasn't worried about going up against Olivier Remember he was a theater actor while I 1 was already an experienced film actor so he was in my medium not his If it had been the theater hed he'd have wiped the floor with me Olivier had j been fired from London's National Theatre and turned up on the set in a terrible state He was out of sorts until the third day of rehearsals when he arrived with a matchbox containing a small mustache Once he put on the mustache he was wonderful and forgot all his troubles recalls Caine If you think about it in all his best film roles he has a putty nose or a wig or mustache He used to say I cant can't bloody act with my own face The morning Caine did his first scenes with Shelley Winters in Alfie he was so nervous playing opposite a big star that his mouth was too dry to speak She had a tall glass of water so I went over and had a drink He laughs It was straight vodka I was pissed all day M Many any gifted young actors actors' cant can't handle the fame and self-destruct self Why is Caine different I was a failure until I Iwas wa was 31 31 he he says Id had a whole life before I w was was s famous so I think I was more comfortable in myown myown my 4 own skin He shrugs You have to remember that when I was a young actor I was given a great deal of advice and 90 percent of it was Give it up He offers one last nugget of wisdom for the next generation Learn how to read a script he says If you read the first 10 pages and the last 10 pages and nothing has happened to your character you can be pretty sure N nothings nothing's going to happen to you in between |