Michael Caine is an esteemed actor with more than 90 films and many award nominations to his credit as well as Academy Awards for Hannah and Her Sisters (Best Supporting Actor) and Cider House Rules (Best Supporting Actor). The English actor, who was born Maurice Micklewhite, was recently bestowed the honor of a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II. Because I'm an ardent admirer of Sir Michael Caine's impressive film career, it was an honor for me to sit and talk with him about his latest film, his joys, dislikes and future career plans.

In The Statement, Caine plays Pierre Brossard, a man who was part of the Milice, a military force created by the German Vichy government in 1943. Its sole purpose was to execute French Jews.

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Q. DID YOU HAVE PITY FOR THIS GUY?
MC. Yes. I have met racists and Nazis myself, and I've always gone with the idea that I would hit them or smash their face in. But after talking to them for a while, I've realized that I feel very sad and find them pathetic. You go in fuming about Nazis and you come out almost in tears with sadness that anyone should waste their life like that. It's not even anti-Semitism. They hate the nearest thing. If you start killing with racist intentions like, Pol Pot in Cambodia, who killed millions of his own kind! And he had to find motivations to kill them. No one stopped him, and they let him go. Then there were the Germans killing people they didn't like. The point is to say something and speak up, because old people forget and young people don't know.

I've never disliked anybody as much as I disliked Brossard. That's the reason I did it (made the film). I keep testing myself to see what I can do to make it harder on myself. I've been acting a long time. I could play a cockney gangster or a womanizer in my sleep or standing on my head. What I try to do is find characters who are as far away from myself as I possibly can and then make them real.  A French Nazi is about as far away from me as I can possibly get without actually going to Mars.

Q. YOUR CHARACTER WAS AN A_ _ ALL AROUND, AND HE PROVED THAT WITH THE DOG ABUSE.
MC. Brossard had no respect for life. I was very worried. I have a knack for making villainous people a little sympathetic. I have a bit of fun on screen and make my characters a bit of a rogue and not that bad. I wanted to keep that out of this film. I think I did, but it was very difficult. Each day I knew what I wanted to do, but at the end of the day I suffered from selective amnesia. I couldn't remember what I had done.

Q. WHY IS THAT?
MC. When you finish a picture you always say, "Well, I did this scene or that scene." My wife asked me what it (The Statement) was like. I had to answer that I hadn't the foggiest idea. I had completely forgotten because I had wiped him (Brossard) from my memory. It was quite strange because I'd never gone to the cinema to see myself on screen and I literally did not know what was coming. What I saw was more or less what I'd set out to do - disappear into the character. You don't say "Isn't Michael Caine marvelous." You just sit there watching Brossard. That's my idea of what film acting should be. There shouldn't be any acting. You become the person.

Q. DID YOU AD-LIB A LOT FROM THE SCRIPT?
MC. Nothing, no. Brian Moore, who wrote the book, was a very, very devout Catholic. His books were always critical of the church because he saw himself as the "conscience" of the Catholic Church every time they went wrong. He got tough because it was his religion, which he loved so much. So, anyone who made a mistake in it (the church) got it from him. The ones who supported the Nazis, although there weren't very many, in this story really got it (were criticized) from him.

Q. HOW DID YOU PREPARE TO PLAY SOMEBODY SO DIFFERENT FROM MICHAEL CAINE?
MC. I came prepared. I read books. I was 12 years old when the war ended, so I knew about all of this. I investigated World War II in books and newsreels after the war as an education for myself that had nothing to do with school. I know a great many racists and Nazis!

Q. ARE TODAY'S TERRORISTS ANYTHING LIKE THE NAZIS?
MC. No, that's an entirely different thing. It's a mixture of discontent with their lot and what is happening to them. Also, there's a sect whose job it is to make the entire world Muslim. My wife is a Muslim. Of my own religious background, my father was a Catholic and my mother was a Protestant. I became a Protestant because my mother had the upper hand. I was educated by Jews in Jewish schools because of accident of geography and the war. I had to go to the local London school, which was Jewish. And, I'm married to a Muslim, so I know the backgrounds of all the religions. There are certain sects of Islamic fundamentalists, who are quite open in England, and who publish everyday in the newspapers that they are waiting to see the Islamic flag flying over Buckingham Palace and #10 Downing Street. The British don't take any action against them because we know who they are.

Q. HOW DO YOU THINK THE FRENCH PEOPLE WILL REACT TO YOUR CHARACTERIZATION OF BROSSARD?
MC. I think half of them will react well and the other half won't. It's the same way as what I said about the unit. They all reacted well because they were all left wing. The right-wingers won't like it very much. The right wing people know we're not revealing some great information to them or to the French. All we're saying is we were surprised. Everybody expected the French to be anti-Nazi. The majority of them were. The surprise was that some weren't anti-Nazi. The British royal family was anti-Nazi. But what about the Duke of Windsor? All American heroes are surely anti-Nazi! But what about Colonel Charles Lindbergh? Sweden was a neutral country, but they had two regiments of volunteers in the SS. So, if we make a film like this, we're making a film about the surprise of things we knew were right The French were anti-Nazi, the Catholic Church was anti-Nazi - but wait, some of them are not. We're talking the truth about things.

Q. WAS NORMAN JEWISON PART OF THE PROJECT WHEN YOU CAME ON BOARD?
MC. Yes. He brought it to me. I didn't know the story because I had not read the book. Norman and I have been friends for years. We've always wanted to make a picture together. I was at the stage in my career where I was looking for something difficult. I was like an old skater in the Olympics looking for a degree of difficulty and willing to do some twists and turns and break my neck.  It keeps it interesting for me. I set out to become the best possible film actor that I could become. And I'm still doing that. Otherwise I might as well sit at home. I do fun pictures, too. Next I'm going to be Batman's guardian butler. I like to do fun pictures in between the dramatic ones. I'm Austin Powers' father, and Sandra Bullock's trainer.

Q. HOW DOES NORMAN JEWISON WORK?
MC. He works it out all from his own point of view. With actors he is extremely sympathetic. He gives tremendous explanations about everything you should note, the points you should hit, and what we're looking for.

Q. THERE'S SOME CRITICISM OF THE FILM BECAUSE EVERYONE SPEAKS ENGLISH.
MC. If you're in France, everybody is French, they all speak French and they all understand each other. There was one point when director Norman Jewison said he had a French actress for a part. I said, "Norman, we can't use a French person. Otherwise we're going to sound like we're English. Or, we're all going to have to speak with a French accent, and I will sound like Inspector Clouseau, the terrorist." We might as well send him off with a beret and a string of onions. The rule had to be that everybody just had to speak straight English. Everybody spoke the same language and they all understood it.
 
Q. A QUESTION WAS BROUGHT UP AS TO WHY MAKE A PICTURE ABOUT 1944 AND ANTI-SEMITISM.
MC. Our producer, Robert Landis, said, "I'm Jewish, too. This picture isn't about 1944; it's about now. It's about the man, played by Alan Bates, whom you don't know who he is. He's doing what he's doing now. He's a politician. You didn't know he was there or what he is doing or why. You don't know whether he's there or not. If he isn't, he probably has been replaced by his son. That's what you have to worry about."

Q. YOU HAVE MADE OVER 90 FILMS. IS THERE A PUSH FOR YOU TO EXPAND THAT FILMOGRAPHY, OR IS IT JUST SOMETHING PERSONALLY YOU HAVE TO SATISFY TO KEEP BUSY?
MC. No, my philosophy is that I have an offer that I can't refuse. Or I sit home and do nothing. I haven't worked in 10 months since I finished this picture. I have a house just outside London. Batman is being made in England. It's being made quite differently. I had a long conversation with director Christopher Nolan before I accepted the part. I only knew him from Memento, and didn't know him personally. Funnily enough, he lived near me, so he came 'round to the house, and we had a long chat. He explained what he was going to do and what his outlook is on Batman and why he wanted me in it. The short answer is that he wants it to be more natural. Coincidentally, I find a lot of these comic book heroes boring because they are so invincible. If you are bullet proof, how are you going to kill him? Where's the jeopardy?  He's the hero; you can't get him, you can't kill him. What's the point? Nolan is making a very, very natural Batman who is very powerful and strong. Nolan said it wasn't because of Kryptonite but because he does push-ups! However, I have never met Christian Bale yet.

Q. YOU'RE MAKING A NEW PICTURE CALLED ROUND THE BEND?
MC. Yes. I'm just going to do a week in Albuquerque. They offered me a part with Christopher Walken, who's a friend of mine. I play the old grandfather. It's very, very funny. It's called Round the Bend, because it's nuts. My son is Christopher Walken and my grandson is Josh Lucas, and a 6 year-old boy is my great grandson. I'm in the first 20 pages of the movie. I die almost immediately in Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Q. DOES IT TAKE MORE NOW FOR YOU TO SIGN ON FOR A PICTURE?
MC. About 30 years ago I did pictures for the money. Now I have enough money not to do films I don't want to. I'm 70 years old. I don't want to get up at 6:30 in the morning to do 10 pages of dialogue with some creeps I don't like! It has to be fun for me. I did The Quiet American, Miss Congeniality, Cider House Rules and then I was Austin Powers' dad. I knew that Mike Meyers based Austin on Harry Palmer who was a spy with glasses and a cockney accent. The only criticism I had was where did he get those rotten teeth? I don't have rotten teeth! He sent me the most groveling letter he's ever written. He begged me to do it and threw money at me, so I went and did it. It was fun and we had a great time. It's the same thing with Batman. It's so nice to be in something like that. It has a $135 million budget.

Q. WHAT KIND OF CHILD WERE YOU IN 1944?
MC. I was eleven years old in 1944. I was evacuated to the country having been evacuated from the blitz many times. Funny enough, I was in the Jewish school. I had won a London scholarship. I had to go to the nearest evacuated London school. I didn't know it, but I was there with Harold Pinter and my current press agent here in Hollywood. We were in different classes. But my name was Morris (Maurice), so I fit in really well. I was known as Morrie the Goy.
 
Q. IS THERE A DIFFERENT LEVEL OF ENJOYMENT IN PURSUING A ROLE WHERE YOU ARE THE STAR AS OPPOSED TO WHEN YOU SHARE A FILM WITH SOMEONE IKE ROBERT DUVALL IN SECONDHAND LIONS?
MC. Oh no. I love those movies. I worked with Bobby Duvall, and we're like brothers. We love each other and that's great. That film was a joy to do. I love working with other actors. I'm going to do the true test of working together. I'm going to do a remake of SLEUTH with Jude Law. Stephen Frears says he wants to direct. Jude is a friend of mine, and I'm a great admirer of his. I think he's a wonderful actor. Everybody else is remaking my films, so why not me? Alfie is being remade. I think it will be very interesting because Alfie  was about a male chauvinist pig in the '60s, and an American woman who might have one or two feminist tendencies is rewriting it. It's being rewritten in a very cunning way.

Q. DO YOU WANT TO DO MORE CAMEOS IN FILMS?
MC. No. I did a cameo in Get Carter and I didn't' like it. I won't do any more cameos in any remakes. I thought I should be playing the lead. I felt like when I started. It's for small part actors. Everybody treats you like dirt and don't take any notice of you. I'm used to being a movie star with people running around getting me cups of coffee. They were telling me to get out of the way. I protested and said I was a movie star. They said, ''No you're not. You've only got two days on the film!" I didn't like that experience at all. It was like going back to the past.

Q. HOW DID YOU SPEND YOUR TEN MONTHS AT HOME?
MC. I spent most of my time watching cricket and football, Will & Grace and CSI!

Q. I HEARD YOU LIKE SHOPPING!
MC. I do like shopping. I never know what I'm looking for, but I do like shopping. I was too busy on this picture to go shopping. What was nice about this film is that we shot it in southwest France, all in beautiful places. It helped with the movie to have something so terrible going on against such beautiful backgrounds.

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Whether portraying villains or heroes, Michael Caine captures their essence on film. Like all great actors, he helps us understand the human condition while entertaining us in the process. And he promises more exciting performances in his upcoming movies.