Veteran actor Michael Caine has questioned the need for intimacy coordinators on film and TV production sets, saying they have only recently become a thing.
Caine, now 90, was asked about them in an interview for the Daily Mail, when he replied:
“Really? Seriously? What are they? We never had that in my day. Thank God I’m 90 and don’t play lovers anymore is all I can say. In my day you just did the love scene and got on with it without anyone interfering. It’s all changed.”
And he reflected on other challenges of modern-day life, reflecting: It’s dull. Not being able to speak your mind and not being able to call anyone ‘darling.’ It’s hard. I like to learn from friends who are younger than me.”
Caine’s upcoming movie, The Great Escaper, sees him star as the real-life Bernard Jordan, a war veteran who left his care home on the British south coast, without telling his wife or careers, to attend the 70th anniversary of D-Day commemorations on the Normandy coast. He co-stars with the late Glenda Jackson, who died soon after completing the film.
Caine has an extraordinary 176 IMDB acting credits to his name, totted up in a career running more than 77 years since his very first appearance, as uncredited teaboy, in the 1946 TV movie Morning Departure. He has two Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, for Hannah and her Sisters (1987) and The Cider House Rules (2000). He credits his big break to the epic war film Zulu (1964).
He told The Mail: “They were looking for a cockney corporal and they thought I’d be great, but when I got there for the audition the director said, ‘Sorry, Michael, it’s been cast.’ I was used to being rejected, but it was a long walk to the door, let me tell you.
“’Can you do posh?’ he asked me on my way out. ‘Of course I can do posh!’ So, I got the job playing a posh officer and it made my career. When I started out, I never thought about being in competition with other actors. All I cared about was being as good as I possibly could be.”
