Thirty-five Grammys are groovy, baby — but is there anything as shagadelic as an Oscar?
In his new memoir Don’t Look Back, You’ll Trip Over, Michael Caine remembers Beyoncé telling him she dreams of winning an Academy Award while on the set of 2002’s Austin Powers in Goldmember. Caine says the singer was “only nineteen at the time, I think, and a very nice person” when they filmed the threequel together. “You could already tell how focused she was and how big a star she was going to be.”
Caine continues, “I remember the first day on set, I asked her what her ambition was, and she said, ‘I want to win an Academy Award for a movie.’ Not a trace of arrogance, just clarity.”
He also says that he fully believes the singer will fulfill that goal one day: “I’m sure she’ll win an Oscar eventually. She’s already won a bunch of Grammys!”
Beyoncé finally received her first Oscar nomination in 2022 for Best Original Song. Her nominated track, “Be Alive,” came from the King Richard soundtrack. The “Drunk in Love” singer has been part of other Oscar-nominated movies, including Dreamgirls, which won her costar Jennifer Hudson the award for Best Supporting Actress, and 2019’s The Lion King, which earned a nod for Best Visual Effects.
Sue Gordon/New Line
In his book, Caine goes on to praise Beyoncé and their costar, Mike Myers, for their work in Goldmember. “On set she was totally engaged in the comedy, as we all were — Michael York and Robert Wagner, and the late Verne Troyer, who played Mini-Me so brilliantly,” he writes. “Mike Myers is a sort of crazy genius, and a lovely guy, who kept us all laughing and enjoying ourselves. I remember him playing loud rock’n’roll between takes, which was a new one on me! He knew a lot about my movies and couldn’t have been more charming to me. I had a really good time.”
The Ipcress File star also explains how he came on board to portray Austin Powers’ father. “The whole series was a send-up of the Sixties, and the fashion, and all the psychedelic stuff. Just lampooning the whole decade in the best possible way,” he writes. “So Mike Myers asked me to play Nigel Powers, Austin’s dad, and it was just too good an opportunity to pass up.”
He continues, “I loved doing that movie, poking fun at the Sixties but also celebrating it all again. It was great fun. I remember doing the scene where I had to tell Dr Evil’s henchmen exactly how to fight me: ‘Judo chop! Judo chop!'”
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Don’t Look Back, You’ll Trip Over is on shelves now.