Writer-director Paolo Sorrentino has a bevy of legends in his latest film, Youth, but each had a different path to joining the Italian helmer in Switzerland for the shoot.
The role of the retired orchestra conductor/composter Fred Ballinger was written specifically for Michael Caine. In fact, if Caine had declined the part, Sorrentino would have scrapped the project. The role of the legendary movie director Mick Boyle went to Harvey Keitel, but Sorrentino didn’t necessarily have him in mind when he wrote it. “Paolo offered it to two other actors but I had Joe Pesci kill them both. And here I am,” Keitel said, and laughed, at the recent press day for Youth. “My story was somewhat similar to Michael’s. I was stunned also… not to be offered the part!
Caine is in many ways, portrays the main character. We meet him and his BFF Boyle, along with Rachel Weisz’s Lena Ballinger (who is Fred’s daughter) at a Swiss resort-health spa where Boyle and the senior Ballinger have gone for years. Caine’s character is contemplating his life journey, the loss of his wife, an offer from the Queen of England to be knighted and to perform his most beloved creation (a piece called Simple Songs), all while enjoying a budding friendship with an American superstar actor (Paul Dano) who shares his emotional and meaning of life wanderlust.
For Caine, having a part written specifically for the Oscar winner at this point in his career was such a shock. “Receiving the role was an absolute surprise. Over the years, I’d seen everything Paolo had done. Not intentionally. I just saw these great movies. I saw The Great Beauty, and it won the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Film,” Caine recalled.
“Then my agent rang me and said, ‘We got a script for you from Paolo Sorrentino.’ I was amazed that he’d heard of me because we didn’t seem to be in the same sphere. I didn’t understand it. She said, ‘There’s a script and he’s written it for you.’ I said, ‘Really?’ She said, ‘If you don’t do it, he won’t do the movie.’ I was completely stunned to be offered this movie and those circumstances, you know?”
In Youth, Keitel and Caine play friends who have enjoyed each other’s company for over six decades. When it came to the actors behind those roles, they had never worked together, but they immediately found common ground. “I wanted to be like Michael when I saw his early films. He’s one of the actors that sets a standard for the work of all actors. I felt I knew him from way back though we’d never met,” Keitel said.
“He never told me that!,” Caine interjected as Keitel laughed.
“Yes, I have!” Keitel insisted.
They shared a common life experience that instantly connected them. “We had a fortunate thing for a start. We’re both ex-soldiers. That makes for an instant bond on certain levels,” Caine said.
Keitel smiled and takes issue. “I don’t want to start this again, but I was a Marine,” he added.
“A Marine is a soldier, that’s why I said soldiers, and I was in the British Army. You just know certain things no one else knows and that’s the end of that,” Caine said. “That started our friendship. He’s a very nice man and I’m a very nice man. We became friends and he’s a fabulous actor. I’m nearly as good as he is, so we became friends.”
So, how did Caine find the director who wrote a part specifically for him?
“Like all great directors, he’s not performing himself. He’s very, very quiet and knows exactly what he wants and knows exactly when he’s not getting it. I was working with John Huston and he didn’t give me any directions. So I said, ‘John. You never give me any directions.’ He said, ‘You get paid a great deal of money. You don’t need me to tell you what to do.’ I said to him, ‘What’s the art of directing?’ He said, ‘Casting.’”
Judging by the gorgeous, moving and glorious spectacle that is Youth, Sorrentino keenly understands the art of directing.
Lastly, when it comes to the film’s title, Caine wonders how Youth slips away so fast. “I don’t understand. About two years ago, I was 35,” he said. “Suddenly I’m 83.”