Oy. Any live-action movie with an abstract as abstruse as that -- for that matter, any live-action movie with a premise as complex as that of your average anime epic -- needs to go away.

From a personal perspective, being a total slave to routine, I'd probably want to be acting all the time just so as not to have to come up with something to do with myself for months at a time. Also, for money inna bank. Then again, in acting, people do judge you by the projects you choose, so choosing shitty ones can make your choices disappear. I think Michael Caine is the bizarre king of taking every project that comes his way, and he is just the cleverest/luckiest dude ever that so many of his projects aren't crap.

Ben Kingsley wishes he were Michael Caine. For one thing, he would probably relax a tiny tiny bit. Ben Kingsley always seems extremely tense. I think he needs a massage.

Many venerable actors have done things throughout their careers that would seem to have blown up their world.

Olivier. Marathon Man. One of the few movies I've ever walked out of.

I'd probably want to be acting all the time just so as not to have to come up with something to do with myself for months at a time

If not for the paranoia I have about my rent check, I'd much more love the periodic work. Colin's always "...and then I'm going to spend ten days in Belize." I never spend ten days anywhere that's not my apartment.

Ben Kingsley wishes he were Michael Caine.

Or vice versa. Has Caine ever won an Oscar?

Two.

Yeah -- right? He won a couple of years ago, for The Cider House Rules, and then was nominated again for The Quiet American but I don't think he won that time.

Predictably, I liked the second performance a lot more than the first.

Really? I stand corrected!

I like that about Michael Caine -- it's like he's still a working class guy, so he wants to make sure there's a next paycheck coming.

Film critics refer to the Caine/Hackman rule. Which is that at any time of day, you are guaranteed to find a movie on cable with either Michael Caine or Gene Hackman in it.

Supporting for Ciderhouse and Hannah And Her Sisters. He has six noms, from 1967 to now. Which really only represents a scant portion of his output. (117 credits). Ben's got 4 noms, 1 win. (76 credits).

Hey, Olivier did The Betsy, a film so bad that it never shows anywhere. Plus he has a sex scene in it which is just wrong wrong wrong. I do NOT need to see an elderly and venerated performer humping the maid, thankyewverymuch.