Michael Caine at TIFF on being Harry Brown

Tribute’s Toni Ippolito sat down with film icon Michael Caine at TIFF to talk about his lead role in the Daniel Barber thriller, Harry Brown.

In the film, Caine plays title character Harry Brown, an aging ex-soldier who decides to take the law into his own hands after losing his only friend to gang violence. Hailing from Elephant and Castle where the film was shot, Caine tells Tribute that going back to the place he grew up and spending time with young people in the area during filming really changed his approach to the story and his character. “My mind changed during the course of the movie, from ‘how are we going to kill these scumbags?’ to ‘how are we going to help these kids?’” he says.

In the interview, Caine also tells Tribute that there is a mural of him—along with fellow actor Charlie Chaplain, who also lived in the area—at the heart of his old neighbourhood. Despite the rough nature of the area, the mural has never been defaced.

Caine’s next project is a small role in the Christopher Nolan film Inception. Though he can’t reveal much about the top-secret film, he says, “I will tell you, it has an incredible cast.”

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Harry Brown, Michael Caine, tiff, tiff 2009

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