The life-changing acting advice Marlene Dietrich taught Michael Caine

(Credits: Far Out / Alamy / Fred Ohert / Hufvudstadsbladet)

Acting is one of those jobs where nobody should ever be allowed to think they’ve mastered the craft, which left Michael Caine more than happy to adopt Marlene Dietrich’s advice and use it for the remainder of his legendary career.

The two never worked together in a professional capacity, but thespians don’t necessarily have to be scene partners in order to share words of wisdom. Dietrich had virtually retired from the silver screen by the late 1950s, but she remained on hand to instil the next generation with valuable lessons.

Effortlessly navigating the transition from silent cinema to the talkies, it was her ongoing collaborations with Josef von Sternberg that made her an international star. 1930’s The Blue Angel brought her to prominence, and she reunited with the filmmaker for a number of films, including Morocco, Dishonored, Shanghai Express, and The Devil is a Woman.

Dietrich also worked under Billy Wilder’s direction in A Foreign Affair and Witness for the Prosecution, shone in Alfred Hitchcock’s Stage Fright, and sizzled in Orson Welles’ star-studded A Touch of Evil. A blonde bombshell, femme fatale, fashionista, and trailblazer, she was a true original of Hollywood’s ‘Golden Age’.

She was phasing herself out of cinema at the same time Caine was breaking through, with Dietrich only appearing in five pictures between 1961 and 1984, and three of those parts consisted of two voice-only roles and an uncredited cameo. Instead, she toured the world with her cabaret show before tragedy struck and the iconic performer spent the last decade before her death in May 1992 at the age of 90 almost completely bedridden.

Her legacy was secure long before that, and Caine was one of the many beneficiaries. He rose through the ranks in the 1960s to become one of the United Kingdom’s most successful big-screen exports, and while he was an excellent actor, Dietrich quickly spotted a shortcoming in his performative arsenal.

In fact, Caine was such a good actor he published the book Acting in Film: An Actor’s Take on Movie Making, offering tips and tricks based on a masterclass he’d taught in 1987. They weren’t ideas derived directly from his mind, however, with one of Dietrich’s most important lessons ingrained in the two-time Academy Award winner’s brain.

“Marlene Dietrich actually taught me how to look at someone while being filmed,” he revealed, per GQ. “She said she’d seen a film of mine, and my eyes were going all over the place. She told me to pick out something behind the actor you’re looking at and just stare at it.”

A relatively simple instruction at first glance, but seeing as Caine would lean on Dietrich’s tactics for decades before hanging up his boots at 90 with seven decades of performing under his belt, learning how to keep his gaze focused when standing in front of the camera was both a game-changer and life-changer.

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