Christopher Nolan has a habit of working with the same actors over and over again: the acclaimed director has worked with Anne Hathaway and Matt Damon twice, Christian Bale and Gary Oldman four times apiece. And, he’s notably collaborated a whopping six times with Cillian Murphy, the star of not only his blockbuster biopic Oppenheimer but also Dunkirk, Inception and The Dark Knight trilogy. While Chris and Cill’s professional “bromance” is undeniably impressive, it’s actually the filmmaker’s second longest-running collaboration with an actor. That title goes to Sir Michael Caine, who is notably missing from Oppenheimer.
Caine has performed in eight of Christopher Nolan’s films, including The Prestige, Interstellar and Tenet — which made the absence of the legendary British actor from that star-studded Oppenheimer cast all the more puzzling.
While accepting the BFI Fellowship at the annual British Film Institute chairman’s dinner on Wednesday, February 14, Nolan addressed why Michael was M.I.A. from the historical drama. Per The Independent, he said in his speech that it was actually the 90-year-old actor who made the decision for him:
Okay enough is enough.
The film veteran, whose acclaimed career has spanned eight decades and has garnered two Academy Awards (for 1986’s Hannah and Her Sisters and 1999’s The Cider House Rules), officially announced his retirement from acting in October 2023. (He had previously dabbled with throwing in the towel back in the ’90s, but Jack Nicholson allegedly pulled him back in.) He broke the news on BBC Radio 4‘s “Best of Today” podcast:
I keep saying I’m going to retire. Well, I am now…I’ve figured, I’ve had a picture where I’ve played the lead and had incredible reviews… What am I going to do that will beat this?
Michael Caine’s final onscreen performance was as real-life World War II veteran Bernie Jordan in The Great Escaper, opposite the late, great Glenda Jackson.
With Caine not available for Oppenheimer, Nolan joked that he had to put together an ensemble of megawatt A-listers in the hope that “all those greats would add up to one Michael Caine”:
I had to go off on my own. So, okay, I haven’t got Michael Caine, I’d better get Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Kenneth Branagh, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Cillian Murphy, Tom Conti, and hoped that all those greats would add up to one Michael Caine.
Sadly, Christopher Nolan’s onscreen collaborations with Michael Caine might be over, but his 20-year partnership with Cillian Murphy is thankfully still going strong. The actor presented Nolan with his BFI Fellowship on Wednesday night, calling his fellow 2024 Oscar nominee “a true legend”:
For the last 25 years, Christopher Nolan has been making films that are unique, boundary-pushing, singular, provocative, ambitious and unforgettable. He is a one-in-a-million, a true legend, one of the greatest directors in the world. It is a privilege of mine to know him, and to have worked with him so closely over the last 20 years. I have the utmost respect for him as an artist and a human being.
You can watch several of Nolan and Murphy’s cinematic collabs — especially the ones that also feature Michael Caine, like The Dark Knight movies and Inception — with a Peacock subscription.