Taking things upmarket for the premiere of his new film Is Anybody There, the living legend that is Michael Caine made his way to the Curzon Mayfair with beautiful wife Shakira and was joined by his co-stars Anne-Marie Duff, David Morrissey and Bill Millner.
Is Anybody There follows a retired magician of mature years (Caine) and his relationship with the young son (Milner) of the couple who run the retirement home he is forced to live in.
Milner, known best for his breakthrough role in Son Of Rambow, told us what it was like working with a living legend: “It was brilliant, it was just such a privilige to work with such a brilliant actor. He's just so lovely and we got on really well. You learn a lot from working with such an experienced actor because subconsiously you're picking up stuff.”
Next up in Ian Drury biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, playing the Blockheads lead singer's son. He told us: “I play his son Baxter. I've been doing a bit of research and it's been going well. It's life, it's just a brilliant film and it's gonna be good.”
Duff, looking gorgeous in Alexander McQueen and showing off a brand new choppy fringe, told us about playing mum in both this and her next film Nowhere Boy amidst rumours that she and husband James McAvoy are getting broody: “If you work with actors like Bill, how could you not want babies? He's a gorgeous kid and he's amazing and I adored him and I adored being his mum. Everybody's broody, aren't they?”
Producer David Heyman was on hand and talked about diversifying his film interests as the end of his Harry Potter era draws near: “This is the last **Harry Potter **and I want to enjoy it because it has been a unique experience and I'll never have anything like it in my life again. This is the last journey and I really want to treasure that, so I'm not going to be running off, I want to focus on that. But the end is nigh for Potter, sometime in June 2011, and it will be a mixed feeling because security, this family, this great group I've worked with and this material I've worked on will be coming to an end. It's a rather scary prospect of being unemployed, and having to find my next gig looms large. But I'm looking forward to having the time to spend on new projects in a way not interrupted by Potter.”
He also told us what he has up his sleeve: “Next, I'm working with Alfonso [Cuaron] on something which is in its early development stages. I'm working on **Paddington Bear **because I love children. I'm working on The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time, which is a rather wonderful novel – so an ecclectic array of some family, some adult films.”
And then came the legend. Supported by a band of fellow old-time greats Leslie Phillips, June Whitfield, Sylvia Syms and Barbara Windsor, Caine revealed that semi-retirement calls again, until another unmissable script calls: “I don't do very much any more. I just did this picture Harry Brown, but that was eighteen months in between. I don't have another script I want to do, but if I don't get one I'll be retired. Because I always say, ‘the movie business retires you, you don't retire from the movie business’. I don't have a movie, so I'm not working with anybody - I'm unemployed! What I do, is I regard myself as retired and I get scripts occasionally that are so good, like this one, that it drags me out of retirement. I call it the offer I can't refuse, but it's nothing to do with money, it's the script - like Harry Brown - they were both pictures I couldn't turn down.”
Then it was time for Anybody who was watching the film to take their seats - and for anyone else to do a disappearing act. Ta da!