Michael Caine: “I stick to the naturalism I believe in”

Excerpt from Michael Caine’s awesome book Michael Caine – Acting in Film: An Actor’s Take on Movie Making.

I sometimes encounter actors who think they’re going to steal a scene by being big and bombastic. Those actors are using their bodies and voices instead of their brains. They don’t realize that in terms of voice and action, less is more. You see the great theatre actor who can’t be bothered to come to terms with the movie medium. He probably needs a new Mercedes, so he’s condescended to cope with a cinema gig between productions of Titus Andronicus. Now put the camera on him. Watch. Everyone goes into hysterics. The voice is too loud, the movements — famous for causing whole theatre audiences to gasp — now seem suddenly exaggerated and false. If I’m playing opposite somebody who goes into orbit like that, I just come in underneath him. I stick to the naturalism I believe in, and he is left up there looking pretty stupid.