Page 31 - Aruba Today

A31
PEOPLE & ARTS Friday 26 OctOber 2018
Michael Caine looks back in 'Blowing the Bloody Doors Off'

By JILL LAWLESS and Harold Pinter, telling
Associated Press stories about working-class
LONDON (AP) — Michael life.
Caine has been looking "Suddenly every working-
back, and on the whole he class boy who was going to
likes the view. Regrets? He's work said: 'Sod this. I'm go-
had few. ing to do something I want
The 85-year-old star of "Al- to do and do it my way,'"
fie," ''Get Carter" and "The he recalled. "And that's the
Dark Knight" — among way the 60s started."
many, many others — remi- The 60s made Caine a star,
nisces fondly in "Blowing the and he wasn't alone. Sud-
Bloody Doors Off," whose denly, he writes in the book,
title adapts a line from his "everybody I knew seemed
1969 heist caper "The Italian to become a household
Job." Being published Tues- name."
day in the United States by Caine enjoyed fame, when
Hachette, it's part memoir, it came, but also worked
part advice manual for extremely hard, at one
aspiring actors and any- point making 12 films in four
one else nursing an elusive years. The result is a resume
dream of success. of more than 100 features,
Most of the advice is reso- of varying quality. Caine
lutely old-fashioned. Learn British actor Michael Caine poses for a photograph in London, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. is cheerful about the low
your lines. Work hard. Be Associated Press points, films like schlocky
nice to people. And be shark sequel "Jaws: The Re-
lucky. Caine knows he has brought him American to be happy since then," he educated and a complete venge" or "The Swarm," a
been extremely fortunate. fame and earned him the notes in the book. "Once waste of a brain — and disaster movie in both sens-
"The luck I've had, you first of six Academy Award you've been on maneu- that's what was happen- es of the word where Caine
couldn't make it up," Caine nominations. vers in Korea, everything ing to me, and I could see and his co-stars learned
said during an interview in He went on to win two Os- else seems like quite a lot that." another lesson: Never work
his riverside London apart- cars — for "Hannah and of fun." Answering a classified with bees.
ment, with a panoramic Her Sisters" and "The Cider When he returned to Lon- ad led to small parts in a "None of us realized it was
view up and down the House Rules." Later came don and a dead-end job provincial repertory com- a disaster till about halfway
Thames. "I mean, even a stint as butler and men- in a butter factory, Caine pany. Then came work on through, when the bees
once I was a success, I tor Alfred in three Batman resolved to be an actor, the London stage, televi- turned up," Caine said. "We
made a lot of flop movies. movies directed by Christo- although he had little idea sion parts, movie roles and were doing a scene and
But I only made three at a pher Nolan. Along the way, how to go about it. global stardom. If he has they all shit on us.
time before I had a hit." he became an icon, and "I was nobody from no- a secret, he says, it's that "I learned from them — also
In print and in person, Caine his signature glasses and where who knew nothing he kept going when others earned from them," he said
describes his success as se- Cockney accent spawned about anything," he said. gave up. of his critical duds. "I got the
quence of lucky breaks. a thousand imitators. His drive to succeed came "If someone rejected me, same money for the flops
His first big movie break, Caine says his optimistic from "desperation — the I never worried about it," as I did from the successes."
as a British Army officer in outlook is rooted in his hard- determination to become he said. "I tried again, be- When leading-man parts
"Zulu" in 1964, was followed scrabble early years. Born something other than a cause my only alternative dried up, Caine retired
by a role as a world-weary Maurice Micklewhite into a factory worker. was working back in the — briefly. The last two de-
spy in "The Ipcress File." On working-class London fam- "My father was an exam- butter factory. cades have brought some
the back of that came his ily, he was a child during ple of what I was and how "But also, timing played a of the most rewarding parts
breakthrough as a callous the London Blitz and later, lucky I was to have been massive part in my career." of his career, including his
man-about-town in "Alfie." as a teenage conscript, born all those years later," Caine was starting out just six films with Nolan, whom
That film made blond, be- was sent to fight in the Ko- he said. "My father was an as a new generation of writ- Caine calls "a brilliant di-
spectacled Caine a sym- rean War. extremely clever, intelligent ers was emerging — play- rector ... the new David
bol of Swinging London, "I have found it pretty easy man but completely un- wrights like John Osborne Lean."q

'French Spiderman' arrested after

scaling London skyscraper

Associated Press ushered spectators away. scary and crazy, but this is
LONDON (AP) — French Robert, known as "the the way it is."
urban climber Alain Rob- French Spiderman," has City of London Police said
ert has been arrested after climbed many of the a 56-year-old man was ar-
scaling one of London's tall- world's tallest structures, al- rested for "causing public
est buildings. most always without ropes nuisance."
Robert climbed the 662- or harnesses and often Commander Karen Baxter
foot (202-meter) Heron without permission. criticized Robert for taxing
Tower without ropes or Before Thursday's climb, police resources and caus- Climber dubbed the French Spiderman, Alain Robert scales the
safety gear on Thursday he told reporters "I fully ing "significant disturbance outside of the Heron Tower building in London, Thursday, Oct.
as police cordoned off the feel alive when my life is at to local transport and busi- 25, 2018. Associated Press
building, closed roads and stake. It may sound a bit nesses and their staff."q