At the age of 91, Michael Caine has seen a lot over his decades in Hollywood. The two-time Oscar winner is retired from acting, but he’s now promoting his new memoir, Don’t Look Back, You’ll Trip Over. During one interview to promote the book with the Sunday Times, Caine recalled meeting Tom Cruise for the very first time back in 1983 at an event for Caine’s film Educating Rita.
“I turned around and there was this young actor, very polite, asking questions about how not to be just a flash in the pan. That was Tom, probably around the time of Risky Business,” he explained.
Caine added that, while he couldn’t remember how he’d responded, he feels like the advice must have been okay. “I can’t remember what I said, but it obviously didn’t do him any harm!” he explained. “There was something special about him. He had a great attitude, this sense of poise. What interests me is that he is really one of the last true stars in movies. People will go to see a film just because he’s in it. Brad Pitt is a star, Morgan Freeman has some of that quality too. There are so few nowadays — not like John Wayne or Humphrey Bogart or Cary Grant.”
Although Caine and Cruise seem to have been friendly with one another off-screen, the two screen icons only share a single credit — both actors starred in Austin Powers in Goldmember in 2002. Caine may be a generation removed from Cruise, but at this point, both have been stars in Hollywood for decades.