Michael Caine: from Cockney king to Renaissance man

Breaking out from humble beginnings in Elephant & Castle, Caine said his ambition to take to the stage was met by locals with: “What are you going to do, sweep it?”.

“The snobbery wasn’t just from the middle and upper classes, but it was from within my own society,” he said. He would most like people to remember him for breaking the mould, he said.

“If I had a conceit it would be that I helped working class people never to be told you can’t do it, because you can. That’s the example that I would like to set.”

Visiting the now-demolished estate where he grew up a few years ago, Caine said: “The thing that stuck me, is that – I came from a gang culture but we were sort of like Mary Poppins compared to what it is now.

“We weren’t in a culture to harm anyone, we formed a gang for protection so that no one else would beat us up. Sounds rough but our drugs were alcohol and our weapons were fists. But now it’s drugs. With drugs you’ve got guns and knives. A lot of the guys in the gangs even today are in them for their own protection, if they weren’t in one they’d get beaten up.”

“If I had a conceit it would be that I helped working class people never to be told you can’t do it, because you can. That’s the example that I would like to set.” Michael Caine

His views of modern day gang culture saw him back David Cameron’s Big Society theme in this year’s general election.

“I was very impressed with Cameron. I don’t belong to any political party. Cameron had this national civilian service long before the election – it wasn’t an election ploy,” he said.

It takes people out of their environment and mixes people up. I wouldn’t suggest national service for men but just six months to learn to defend your country if something did come up and give you a sense of belonging and the right to belonging,” he said.

Almost 20 years after the publication of his first book of memoirs – What’s It All About – Caine said his new book covers the “sort of renaissance” period of life.

“It’s not just about an actor or a movie star, it applies to everybody: Are you ever over, and can you start again.”

Hitting his mid-50s, Caine said he entered a twilight zone in the acting profession. “At that point you have to make a decision whether you are going to become a leading actor or retire. My friend Jack Nicholson talked me into coming back into it,” he said.

Caine noted the films Alfie and Educating Rita as his finest achievements, Alfie because it made him an international star and Educating Rita as it was the first time he had ever been satisfied with his portrayal of a character.

“From performance point of view it was Educating Rita which was the character the farthest away from me. I played an English professor that I thought was perfectly done, for the first time in my life – because I am super critical of my own performances,” he said.