Q&A Michael Caine

By Rebecca Winters

As a paternal butler in Batman Begins and Nicole Kidman's pop in Bewitched, Michael Caine is summer cinema's father figure.

Did your Cockney roots prepare you to wait on Bruce Wayne?

Perfectly. My mother was a cook in a country house--several, actually, and they all had butlers.

Have you thanked your Bewitched co-star Shirley MacLaine, who gave you your first Hollywood break?

I've always been grateful. She had a choice of leading men ... and she chose me. I was cheap.

You're everybody's onscreen daddy lately.

I am. It all started when I was Austin Powers' father. Next I'm in a film called The Weather Man with Nicolas Cage, and I'm his father. [Cage] plays the world's biggest loser, and his father is the first one who notices this.

You once did an instructional video on acting. Have any stars copped to watching it?

All the time. Gwyneth Paltrow told me the other day. People watch it out of amusement.

In it you say actors should never blink. Why?

If you want to appear strong, never blink. Marlene Dietrich told me that. If you want to appear weak and funny, blink all the time. Hugh Grant never stops blinking.

How have the roles you're offered changed as you have aged?

The roles have gotten better, but the girls have disappeared.