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PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 5 april 2017

Q&A: Freeman, Caine and Arkin on aging as actors

JAKE COYLE Freeman: Well.... want Michael Caine” or
AP Film Writer Arkin: You’ve got nothing “I want Alan Arkin” and
NEW YORK (AP) — Morgan to complain about! that’s what they want, not
Freeman, Michael Caine Freeman: We wouldn’t. It’s some character that he
and Alan Arkin would, agents who would do that. can play. They want him.
if they ever sat still long I don’t care. And that starts getting in
enough, make a respect- Caine: I don’t care. It’s the the way of being an actor.
able Mount Rushmore. money. You become sort of a cari-
One could hardly find a AP: Is this film, in a way, a vi- cature of yourself.
more formidable trio of sion of your own lives if you Arkin: The first time I was
such overwhelming char- hadn’t found the movies? asked to play something
acter. Their voices, alone, Caine: When I became near myself I was terrified
are utterly unmistakable. an actor, I was working and I think I stank. It was
Put together Arkin’s street- in a butter factory, load- not until relatively recently
wise Brooklyn accent, ing butter from the factory that that’s really all I want
Caine’s nasally Cockney onto the trucks. If I’d have to do. When I look at “The
cadence and Freeman’s spent 60 years doing that, Russians Are Coming,” I say
deep Mississippi timbre and I’d have drunk myself to I couldn’t do that now to
you’d have the most color- death. save my life. I used to like In this March 27, 2017 photo, actors Michael Caine, Morgan
Freeman and Alan Arkin pose for a portrait to promote their new
ful radio play ever assem- Arkin: There was no choice to be anything in the world film “Going in Style” in New York.
bled. for me. I had to act or kill other than myself. But I’ve Associated Press
Or you would have “Going myself, and I don’t think I gotten relatively comfort-
With Style,” a new old-guy killed myself. able with being this, what- be it’s lazy but I like being about why you don’t re-
buddy-comedy that teams AP: You’ve each gotten ever this is. I don’t have the this so I don’t really want to tire? Freeman: Only on this
the contemporaries (Caine better as actors with age. need to hide myself in or- shed this. because we play these old
is 84, Arkin 83 and Freeman Morgan, you didn’t really der to express myself. May- AP: Do you often get asked men.q
79) for the first time. A re- start in movies until you
make of the 1979 comedy were almost 40.
with George Burns, Art Car- Freeman: People say al-
ney and Lee Strasberg, the ways to me, “Your career
three play retired factory didn’t get started until very
workers who, after having late.” I say that’s prob-
their pensions taken away, ably propitious. When you
decide to rob a bank. start having success, par-
Freeman and Caine have ticularly in movies and in
made a few movies to- a lot of places on stage,
gether (the “Dark Knight” drugs start coming your
films, “Now You See Me”) way. I thought: Boy, if this
and are friendly. But as had happened when I
Caine points out, there are was younger, who knows?
divisions. Freeman lives in There were a lot of young
Mississippi and Caine in guys who were just dead.
London. “And he’s a golf- What’s the reason for that?
er,” Caine says. “I can’t Too much too soon.
play golf. I was great friends Caine: People say to me:
with Sean Connery until he “What’s the secret of your
learned how to play golf success?” I say timing,
on ‘Goldfinger.’ I never and it has nothing to do
saw him again.” with me. It’s the way soci-
So all the more reason to ety changed in my own
appreciate a rare assem- country. (Caine relates
bly of three legends, who how he, of working-class
during a recent interview origins, came to be cast
most enjoyed themselves by Cy Endfield as an officer
by trading “Casablanca” in 1964’s “Zulu.”) No British
lines. Of all the gin joints in director at that time, even
the world... if he was a left-wing com-
AP: You seem to have had munist, would have cast
fun making this. me as a posh-speaking of-
Caine: It’s one of the most ficer. I owe my career to an
enjoyable pictures I ever American.
made. AP: Do you think you’ve im-
Freeman: I’m reticent to proved with age?
say this but it’s the absolute Freeman: When I was
truth: When you’re working young, I did all kinds of dif-
with people whose work ferent characterizations. I
you venerate, it’s really al- was a character actor. It
most always a very satisfy- was what I wanted to be.
ing experience. Don’t tell You can hide in charac-
everybody I said that. ter. You can go out there
AP: So there weren’t any and just do it up. But for
arguments over billing? most parts they’ll say, “I