“Oppenheimer” was notably marketed in the press as the sixth collaboration between director Christopher Nolan and star Cillian Murphy, who was finally getting his chance to lead a Nolan movie after five supporting turns in films such as “Batman Begins” and “Dunkirk.” Nolan has another longtime collaborator in Michael Caine, who got a special shoutout when the filmmaker accepted the BFI Fellowship this week at the British Film Institute chairman’s dinner (via The Independent).
Nolan, who many awards pundits agree is the BAFTA and Oscar frontrunner for best director and best picture thanks to “Oppenheimer,” remembered Caine joking to him about not being able to star in the atomic bomb epic.
”Okay, enough is enough,” Caine told his frequent collaborator.
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“I had to go off on my own,” Nolan said about his reaction to Caine sitting “Oppenheimer” out. “So, okay, I haven’t got Michael Caine, I’d better get Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Kenneth Branagh, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Cillian Murphy, Tom Conti, and hoped that all those greats would add up to one Michael Caine.”
Nolan later said: “So many people have helped me, so many people have been there for me, in so many different ways. I’m very moved to receive this, very moved by the presentation. This means the world to me.”
Caine has appeared in eight Christopher Nolan movies, starting with 2005’s “Batman Begins” in the role of Bruce Wayne’s butler and patriarchal figure Alfred Pennyworth. Caine reprised that role in the sequels “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises,” and also had supporting roles in “The Prestige,” “Inception,” “Interstellar,” “Dunkirk” and “Tenet.” It appears “Tenet” might have been Caine’s last Nolan movie as the actor floated his retirement from the profession during interviews last year.
“I am bloody 90 now, and I can’t walk properly and all that,” he told The Telegraph in a new profile. “I sort of am retired now.”
He then told BBC Radio 4’s Today a month later: “I keep saying I’m going to retire. Well, I am now…The only parts I’m likely to get now are old men, 90-year-old men, maybe 85. And I thought, ‘Well, I might as well leave with all this — I’ve got wonderful reviews [for final film ‘The Great Escaper’]. What have I got to do to beat this?’ You don’t have leading men at 90, you’re going to have young handsome boys and girls.”
Caine might be retired from acting, but if there’s any director who can get the icon back on screen it might be Nolan. The director has not yet announced how he plans to follow-up “Oppenheimer,” although it will certainly be another large scale movie.
