'I’d love to think there was somebody there'
Justin Bateman got to bask in the presence of the great Sir Michael Caine, who plans to live forever. But just in case he doesn't, he's got all bases covered when it comes to deities ...
Is Anybody There? tells the story of an unlikely friendship which develops between 10-year-old Edward, played by Bill Milner and 84-year-old Clarence, retired magician and cantankerous old git, played by Sir Michael Caine. Neither of them wants to be in Lark Hall, a retirement home run by Edward’s parents, but their mutual dislike for their surroundings slowly brings them closer together.
While a film set in a retirement home might not be the obvious choice for every director, for John Crowley it was perfect. “When I read the treatment I just loved the tone of it and it had all the potential to be a really distinctive, funny and touching little film,” he said. “And I found the idea of a child growing up in a retirement home made me chuckle and it felt like a fantastic lens with which to examine the whole idea of growing old and growing up.”
Caine shows absolutely no signs of growing up and has no plans to grow old, never mind die. Asked whether a role like this made him think about his own mortality, Caine replied: “No, it makes me think of your mortality, being sympathetic to all you people who are going to die. And I want to show you how it’s done, because I’m not going to do it.”
“And how do you think you’d fare in a retirement home, Sir Michael?” said a journalist after the laughter had died down.
“I would probably own it.”
Clearly a man with a fine sense of humour, Caine had other reasons for accepting the role. “Although I’ve read many scripts that have made me laugh, and this was one of those, I’ve never before read one that made me cry, and this one did that as well so I just had to do it.”
One of his closest friends, tailor to the stars Doug Hayward, recently died after having suffered with Alzheimer’s disease for several years.
“I obviously brought a lot of experience of what it’s like to suffer from dementia because Dougie died while we were making the film,” Caine said. “I hadn’t really thought of it, because it’s not really a film about a guy with dementia, it’s just about an old magician and a little boy. But I’d seen Dougie for four or five years and I was just waiting for the day when I walked in and he would ask who I was, and one day he did. So that was as accurate a portrayal of dementia as I could do.”
And an excellent portrayal it is too. In fact, if it doesn’t garner a few award nominations, there’s something seriously awry with the film industry. But given Edward’s obsession with the paranormal – he spends much of the film with his tape recorder, trying to capture the sound of ghosts – it was no surprise that the assembled journalists were focussing somewhat further into the future than next year’s Oscars and whether there is an afterlife.
“I’d dearly love to think there was somebody there,” Caine said. “And I’ve got a lot of back up. My father was a Catholic, my mother was a Protestant, I was educated by Jews and I’m married to a Muslim so I won’t lose out on a technicality.”
And what would he like to have on his gravestone?
“See you later. No hurry.”