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American Morning
Interview with Michael Caine
Aired July 26, 2002 - 09:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Roll out the shag carpet for "Austin Powers: Goldmember." It hits theaters today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE MYERS, ACTOR: Respect.
MICHAEL CAINE, ACTOR: Respect. Oh come on. If you've got an issue, here's a tissue.
(LAUGHTER)
MYERS: That is not funny.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Yes. Playing the role of Austin's father in the film as Nigel Powers, Michael Caine in real life, a true Hollywood heavyweight whose distinguished career has brought him two Oscars and knighthood about a year ago. A thrill to have with us today, Michael Caine.
CAINE: Hi.
HEMMER: It is my pleasure. Great to see you.
CAINE: Great to be here.
HEMMER: Listen, you play a lot of serious roles.
CAINE: Yes, I do.
HEMMER: Is it different for you to hop into a film like this?
CAINE: Oh yes, it's wonderful. It's wonderful because...
HEMMER: You like it then?
CAINE: Yes, because you spend your whole time trying not to go over the top and be absolutely real. In this movie you have to go -- if you don't go over the top, you look like a ninny.
HEMMER: So they're pushing...
CAINE: But everybody else -- oh sure, because you'd wind up looking like this old guy who came in and was too embarrassed to do it. You know what I mean?
HEMMER: And everybody would sit out there...
CAINE: And everybody says...
HEMMER: ... and say why is this guy so stiff?
CAINE: ... of the film what's he doing in here? Yes.
HEMMER: Yes.
CAINE: Yes, and so I went -- I went right over the top and thoroughly enjoyed myself.
HEMMER: Yes. Listen, truth be known, you are Austin Powers.
CAINE: I am, yes, because when it first came out -- there was a spy in the '60s with glasses and I thought that's Harry Palmer in the "Ipcress File." And so it was. Because when Mike sent me the script, he sent me a great letter with it telling me why I should play his father.
HEMMER: This is...
CAINE: There's Harry Palmer, you see. That's in the "Ipcress File." That's me doing -- see that -- see that piece of paper on there? Len Deighton, who wrote the book, he used to do a cooking strip in the newspaper and that was it hanging on the wall from that week.
HEMMER: No kidding?
CAINE: That was Lynn's recipe for steak and kidney pudding.
HEMMER: So when you saw the first film of Austin Powers...
CAINE: I knew who he was doing.
HEMMER: You knew that right away?
CAINE: Oh yes, I knew immediately.
HEMMER: Yes.
CAINE: I knew immediately who he was doing. The only thing I didn't like was the teeth, because my teeth are alright and he -- and we had to wear those teeth. The first time I wore those teeth, I had a scene where I had to shout at him and the teeth went across the room like a bullet,...
HEMMER: No kidding?
CAINE: ... so we had to stick them in. Yes, it was very uncomfortable.
HEMMER: You mentioned that Michael Myers wrote you a letter. CAINE: Yes.
HEMMER: Is it true that he says you remind him of his father?
CAINE: Yes, very much so. Yes, I'm the same age -- Mike's father is dead -- but I'm the same age as his father would have been. I'm from the same era. I'm all that -- all this -- all the Austin Powers is a homage to Mike's father secretly.
HEMMER: It's a tribute to his father then, yes.
CAINE: It's a tribute to his father, and I was one of his father's favorite actors. And so I'm one of his father's favorite actors. I'm the creative father of Austin Powers because I played Harry Palmer in the first part. So I figured I'm not only good for the part, I'm the only guy who could play the part.
HEMMER: You're the guy.
CAINE: Yes, I'm the man.
HEMMER: You mentioned a letter. I don't want to get too personal with this.
CAINE: Yes.
HEMMER: But it was a letter that had an impact on you when he wrote to you asking you...
CAINE: Oh tremendous. Yes, because I didn't understand his relationship with his father and the relationship with these movies and every -- you know this kind of movie and this period. And Mike is a very, very serious man. I mean he's very funny on the set, but you have dinner with him, he's quite a different story.
HEMMER: Yes.
CAINE: And so I have a very special relationship with Mike.
HEMMER: Yes.
CAINE: I'm a surrogate father. I may be one (ph). I'm beyond say surrogate father, you know.
HEMMER: Yes.
CAINE: Yes.
HEMMER: You play that role.
CAINE: Yes.
HEMMER: Hey listen here, some people say, the critics will say, you know, hey, this is stupid humor.
CAINE: Yes. HEMMER: I think somebody said the other day it was toilet humor. I kind of like it myself.
CAINE: You know I do. I thought it was funny, yes.
HEMMER: Your thoughts on it.
CAINE: Well my thoughts on it are is people think it's silly and stuff.
HEMMER: Yes.
CAINE: They don't realize how clever Mike Myers is and what he's doing. I mean I'd put him up there along with Peter Sellers...
HEMMER: Really?
CAINE: ... and Alec Guinness as a comic actor, you know, and also he writes this stuff. He writes it. That was -- that was stolen from Bond when he runs...
HEMMER: Right. That's right.
CAINE: ... when Bond ran across the crocodiles, you know.
HEMMER: Everybody on the floor here is laughing.
CAINE: Yes. Yes.
HEMMER: But why do you think...
CAINE: The Scotch (ph) people don't like that Martin (ph) I'm telling you.
(LAUGHTER)
HEMMER: They do not.
CAINE: No, they don't.
(LAUGHTER)
CAINE: They're staying away from -- but once he'd look, there he goes. Listen when he...
HEMMER: Yes, we can watch it.
CAINE: Yes, but what's funny is when she shoots him down, there is the biggest...
HEMMER: You got to go see the film for that.
CAINE: When I was in the theater, when she -- she then shoots the wire that he's hanging on and he falls on the ground, in the -- in the theater it was like the biggest whomp you ever heard.
HEMMER: You really do like this humor, don't you?
CAINE: It breaks me up.
HEMMER: Why do you think it strikes such a cord?
CAINE: Because it's so outrageous and he's doing things that no one else will do.
HEMMER: Yes.
CAINE: I mean the funniest sequence -- one of the funniest sequences I've ever seen in movies is towards the end where he and Miny Me (ph) are getting ready for a medical examination.
HEMMER: You're not giving anything away here, are you?
CAINE: No, I'm not giving anything away. And they are behind a screen, which is transparent, but they don't know it. And there's something -- you see them on their side...
HEMMER: Right.
CAINE: ... and something very innocent is going on. But when you see it from the doctor's side through the screen, it looks terrible. And it's one of the funniest -- I was in hysterics in the cinema. It broke me up.
HEMMER: You're still laughing.
CAINE: Yes, I still laugh when I think about it.
HEMMER: Well have you see the final project? You don't watch...
CAINE: Yes, I did, I saw the...
HEMMER: You did? I didn't think...
CAINE: Yes, I went to the premiere in Los Angeles, yes.
HEMMER: I didn't think you watched final films -- final projects.
CAINE: Oh I watch them once.
HEMMER: Yes, I heard a story about you,...
CAINE: Yes, no, no, I watch them once to see whose fault it is it was bad.
HEMMER: See who you can point the finger at?
CAINE: And if it's good, I take the credit.
HEMMER: Wow, that's great.
CAINE: Yes. HEMMER: Hey, well listen, best of luck on this one. We should -- more Nigel Powers characters in the future? Would you do it if asked or...
CAINE: I'd do it in a minute. If he'd write -- it's up to Mike. I mean he...
HEMMER: Yes.
CAINE: ... plays all the parts, he's the producer, he's the writer.
HEMMER: I got to think you're in his favor though.
CAINE: Yes, I am, yes.
HEMMER: Hey later this year, I'm really interested in another film you're in, "The Quiet American," based on the novel by Graham Greene,...
CAINE: Yes.
HEMMER: ... which is an absolutely wonderful novel.
CAINE: Yes, it's great.
HEMMER: Going to be out when, December do you think or when?
CAINE: It'd be the end -- you know it'd come towards the end of the year that would come out, yes. Yes. We did a showing of it in London, and a -- and a woman came up to me and she said that's the first time I've ever seen a movie that's better than the book.
HEMMER: Really?
CAINE: That's -- yes.
HEMMER: Because that is a high compliment.
CAINE: Yes. Yes. And she -- I mean it wasn't just a fan. This was a -- she was a very well known Australian writer.
HEMMER: Yes.
CAINE: My Australian director, Philip Noyce, told me. I didn't know who she was.
HEMMER: Right.
CAINE: He said, Jesus, you know, she's very well known in...
HEMMER: Yes. I was on a 37-hour train ride years ago from Calcutta, India to Bombay, had that book, sick as a dog and could not put it down.
CAINE: Oh (UNINTELLIGIBLE). It's amazing. HEMMER: Excellent. Excellent. Hey, pleasure.
CAINE: Yes, look forward to seeing you.
HEMMER: Good luck to you, OK. You got it, Nigel.
CAINE: Nigel.
HEMMER: Nigel Caine with us today.
CAINE: Isn't that a great name?
HEMMER: Yes, hang around for a second here, actually,...
CAINE: Yes.
HEMMER: ... because in our next segment -- you're going to like this actually. We've met the father, now time to check out the car.
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