Actor Michael Caine considers himself retired from his work — in a way.
In an interview with The Telegraph about his upcoming film “The Great Escaper,” in which Caine will portray Bernard Jordan, Caine remarked on his age and future in acting.
“I am bloody 90 now, and I can’t walk properly and all that,” he told The Telegraph. “I sort of am retired now.”
“[Death] could be just around the corner at 90, but I’m quite happy. I’m sitting here writing, doing my thing. I like it. I have two children, three grandchildren and a wife… Everyone’s going to join me eventually. No one’s going to say, ‘I’m so sorry you’re going to die — I wish you were like me and not going to die.’ Everybody’s going to die. At least I’ve lived to fucking 90,” Caine added later on in the profile. “I didn’t die at 9, or 19 or 29. I’m 90, and I’ve had the best possible life I could have thought of. The best possible wife, and the best possible family. They may not be a family that other people would say is the best possible family — but the best possible family for me.”
Caine has said similar things before, specifically when it came to promoting “Best Sellers,” in which he starred as Harris Shaw alongside Aubrey Plaza. The actor clarified that he hadn’t actually retired from acting in 2021 when the film about a cranky author and young publisher came out.
Of “The Great Escaper,” Caine said, “I was so happy to do it. I just loved the character of Bernie. I thought he was incredible, and it’s so beautifully written. With Covid and all that, I hadn’t done a picture for three years, and I thought I was finished. And I suddenly did it — and had such a wonderful time.”
The film, which premiered Wednesday in London, is based on the true story of Royal Navy veteran Bernard “Bernie” Jordan and costars Glenda Jackson. Jordan went missing from his retirement home at the age of 89 to attend the 70th anniversary of D-Day in France.
“We were careful to ensure that Michael wasn’t working too hard,” Caine’s director, Oliver Parker, said, “and having to negotiate him moving around at the pace he did. But for him to have returned to acting after not having made a film in a while, and in the way he did, was quite a thing.”
This followed Caine’s summary of receiving a walking stick to do certain scenes in one take.
“I’ve rarely seen him playing a character that has such frailty,” Parker added. “He’s always been Michael Caine — carefree, confident and cool. Here he’s playing a man who is struggling to keep control. And for the audience to invest in that he really has to share his vulnerabilities, and I really was thrilled at Michael’s ability to do that.”
