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Acting in Film: An Actor’s Take on Movie Making
Michael Caine
By
Published: Jan 01, 2008
Category:
Self Help
Michael Caine was a Cockney with burning ambition, unproven talent and few connections.
If he wanted to be a movie star, he decided, he’d have to invent himself as one.
He went to “in” places, wearing glasses, smoking a cigar. And became known, he says, as “that guy who wears glasses and smokes a cigar.” He got a few working class parts. That got added to the description. Then he worked hard to show his sunny personality. And became known, he says, as “that easy-to-work-with working class actor who wears glasses and smokes a cigar.”
For all the success he gained with that self-created image, he was not, he knew, on the Hollywood A-list. [He should have been. Just for one, Get Carter is a remarkable film, with a stunner of a performance from young Michael Caine.] And yet he got invited to A-list parties. Why? He was amusing. His wife was intelligent and a raving beauty. And he never asked the A-listers for work. Which was the real key, he says. B-listers have a bad tendency to hustle at social events. He just tried to be fun.
Taking notes?
But wait. Isn’t this a book for actors? A very narrow book, in fact, aimed at helping the actor who’s completed his/her academic training make a smoother transition into the world of big time filmmaking?
Yes, it is. But “Acting in Film” is a much more profound book than that. Like Improv Wisdom, it’s a manual for a successful life.
Video
Michael Caine on Acting
Michael Caine: Part 2
Michael Caine: Part 3
Michael Caine: Part 4
Michael Caine: Part 5
Michael Caine: Part 6
You want to be a star — or just the star of your own life — you want to inhale these 168 pages and think deeply on the lessons he delivers. Like creating an image for yourself. Like: “Play for the moment: Immortality will take care of itself.” Like: “Get your own act together” (shades of Epictetus). Like: “The director’s word is law.” Prepare like mad. Try anything. But never sleep with the leading lady. (Okay, that last one is just for actors. Anyway, these days leading ladies seem to prefer crew guys with washboard abs.)
A bonus: Michael Caine is a great storyteller who has tucked a mini-memoir into these pages. You’ll thrill to the story of how he and Christopher Reeve prepared to kiss each other on the mouth in “Deathtrap”. You’ll smile at John Huston telling him, “Speak faster; he’s an honest man.” You’ll giggle at what Caine did when Anthony Quinn’s minions gave him daily updates on Quinn’s mood but never asked about his. And you’ll have an empathetic rush when he explains why director Carroll Reed dropped a coin when a take wasn’t working.
Oh. The acting advice. My friends who have made money at this art tell me that you won’t find an actor who hasn’t read Caine’s book and doesn’t love it — he knows what the basics are, and he lays them out with Cockney simplicity. So if Hollywood stardom is your idea of a life, you should honor and obey Michael Caine. Just don’t try to put one over on readers who have become leading men and women in their own lives thanks to his book.
To buy “Acting in Film” from Amazon.com, click here.
To read more about “Get Carter”, click here.
To read more about “Improv Wisdom”, click here.
