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Loading ...Michael Caine starred in the film Sleuth in 1972. And he stars in it again, right now. Caine and Jude Law star in a new Sleuth, a cat-and-mouse thriller about two men competing for the same woman. Sleuth opens today in Winnipeg –but please don’t call this version of the movie a remake.
“The only remake I ever did was Bedtime Story,” says Caine, 74, who promotee Sleuth at the Toronto International Film. “It was something Marlon Brando and David Niven did, a comedy that didn’t work. We called it Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.”
Caine says there was no point in remaking Sleuth, because in his opinion, director Joseph L. Mankiewicz “did a perfect job of it,” 25 years ago.
This Sleuth, on the other hand, is directed by Kenneth Branagh.
“And what we did get is an adaptation from Harold Pinter,” says Caine, “who’d never seen the movie or the play. And Jude gave him a copy of the stage play and said, ‘Would you please do a screenplay of that?’ ”
Caine adds, “I was an actor with Pinter when he was called David Baron, 50 years ago. He decided to write plays under his real name, which was Harold Pinter, which none of us knew. His very first play was called The Room, and I did it at the Royal Court Theatre. And then for 50 years he became this genius, great writer, and I never did anything again! And I’m the one who started him off.”
Caine, dismissed by some as a Cockney upstart when his career began, co-starred with Sir Laurence Olivier in the first version of Sleuth.
“Everyone thought I was out of my league,” Caine told the L.A. Times.
Though he’s become Sir Michael Caine since that time, he is quick to point out that he and Jude Law have plenty in common, although, says Caine, he’s from tough, working-class roots, while Law’s parents were both teachers. “I’ve been an admirer of his since Mr. Ripley. We’re both theatre trained, not drama school trained. We share a love of food and fun. We go out for dinner and things, but he lives in the city, and I live in the country. And he’s 100 years younger. But we do enjoy each other’s company.”
As working actors go, Caine is in a category all by himself. He’s a bona fide movie star who has appeared in more than 100 films, winning innumerable awards along the way. He has two Oscars, for The Cider House Rules and Hannah And Her Sisters, and he’s been nominated four other times, including a nomination for the 1972 version of Sleuth.
Some things about work, he says, have become easier with time. “I’ve played the lead in about 85 movies. I’m much more competent now than the first day on Alfie.
“That was terrifying. I think you get more competent, but never more confident. You’re always nervous. If you’re not nervous, you’re probably in trouble. You see these talent shows on TV, and the people say, ‘I am the greatest!’ and then they sing. And they’re totally useless.”
Caine got his first film role in Sailor Beware in 1956, and after dozens of bit roles in film and television, finally made an impact in Zulu in 1964. Within two years, his work in The Ipcress File, Alfie, Gambit and Funeral In Berlin had made him a major celebrity.
He says he started acting just to meet girls.
“I started at 14. I joined an amateur dramatic society because that’s where all the pretty girls were. I remember coming down from the basketball game, past the amateur dramatics door, and I looked in and all the pretty girls were there. Then they saw me, and the woman said, ‘Come in, we don’t have any men.’ All the guys were scared to join the amateur dramatic society in case they looked sissy. And I said, ‘I’ll come in.’ And I joined. And I’ve never regretted it.”
Tags: Jude Law, michael caine, Sleuth
