Michael Caine’s Close Call With The Queen Almost Gets Him In Trouble


Michael Caine’s close call with the Queen of England almost got him in trouble.

Caine is known for his quick wit, but his funny charm had him thinking twice during his knighthood with Queen Elizabeth II in 2000.

The 82-year-old actor recalled the story, while speaking to reporters at the Cannes Film Festival Wednesday, according to EntertainThis. Michael was attending a press conference for his latest film Youth, directed by Paolo Sorrentino.

“She knighted me once. And I nearly got into trouble. She didn’t say much. She sorta of put the sword on me. But she said, ‘I have a feeling you have been doing what you do for a very long time.’ And I almost said, ‘And so have you.'”

Fortunately, Michael, known for his role as the butler on Batman, was able to bite his tongue.

“I said, ‘Michael keep your mouth shut, you’re about to lose your knighthood or be taken to The Tower and beheaded.'”

Surprisingly, Caine added that the queen actually has quite a funny sense of humor.

“I was at a party with her once. And there was a very dull man on the other side of her. She turned to me and said, ‘Mr. Caine, do you know any jokes?’ I said, ‘None I can tell you.’ She said, ‘While you are thinking of one, I’ll tell you one.’ So she told me a joke. The most annoying thing is I cannot remember what the joke was.”

Needless to say, the jokester had journalists in fits of laughter as he continued to elaborate on his opinions of acting at his age. “I came to Cannes 50 years ago with a movie called ‘Alfie.’ ‘Alfie’ won a prize and I didn’t, so I never came back. I’m not going all that way for nothing,” he said when asked why he hadn’t attended Cannes in decades, according to MSN.

When asked about the downside of ageing, Caine responded: “In the poster for the movie it’s us two old guys in a swimming pool looking at a beautiful girl with no clothes on and I think that describes ‘Youth.’ We’re just looking at what we lost and what we’re never going to get again. And it’s very sad. The poster makes me cry.”

“The only alternative to playing elderly people is playing dead people,” he added. “So I’m quite smart, I picked elderly people.”

[Photo by Pool/Getty Images]

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