Michael Caine Discusses His Role in The Dark Knight Rises
Posted 06.19.11 by Ryan
Production on The Dark Knight Rises formally began in mid-May, but as new set photos have revealed, work for Michael Caine has just begun.
In a recent interview with Collider, Caine spoke about working on the highly-anticipated sequel, but, like every Christopher Nolan-directed movie of late, there wasn't much Caine could reveal.
It’s fantastic. I started filming last week and I film next week. As the butler, I do a load of filming at the beginning, and everybody goes off and does all the adventures and they all come home shot to pieces and I patch them together when they all get back. Christopher Nolan, I think, is one of the greatest directors in the world and I’ve been lucky enough...this is my fifth movie with him. It’s such a pleasure to work with him and he’s so clever. We’ve all signed the Official Secrets Act. I’m lucky to be able to tell you the title of the movie. I remember I did an interview and someone said to me, "What are you doing next?" I said, "I’m doing Batman." I saw Chris and he said, "Why did you tell them you were doing Batman?" I said, "Because I am." He said, "You’re supposed to keep it secret." I said, "I couldn’t keep that a secret." Let me tell you…the plot is extraordinary...really extraordinary. I know why he wants to keep it a secret. You really need not to know till you see the movie.
While the interview was just released, much has been made of Caine's comment that "they all come home shot to pieces and I patch them together when they all get back," with even Collider thinking that the words "they" and "them" as if the words imply that Batman (Christian Bale) might be working with a partner — perhaps Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, a.k.a. Catwoman. Clearly, the secrecy surrounding The Dark Knight Rises is driving speculation to brand new heights.
We'll let you discuss whether there's anything to make of Caine's semantics. In the meantime, Caine described the inspiration for his character of Alfred while talking to ScreenRant, revealing the elaborate back story he devised for Bruce Wayne's butler.
I’m a method actor, I’m Stanislavski and all that stuff, there is a back-story to my character. For instance, I play Alfred the butler in Batman and I wanted him to be a tough butler, and I wanted him to be an ex-soldier. The voice, the voice is the first Sergent I ever had. Because I was a soldier, and I had this voice of this Sergent and that’s his (Alfred’s) voice. And I always imagined him to be SAS — which is our special forces. He was wounded, and didn’t want to leave the Army, and went to work in the officer’s mess behind the bar, and Batman’s father came in and he saw him and said, "Would you like to be trained as a butler?" And he said yes, and he went with him to America and was trained as a butler and that’s his back-story.
Nolan wrote the script for The Dark Knight Rises with his brother, Jonathan Nolan. The sequel stars Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby) as Lucius Fox, Tom Hardy as Bane, Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose) as Miranda Tate, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake.
Next Showing: The Dark Knight Rises opens July 20, 2012