There is a line in Youth that Jane Fonda says to me: “It’s impossible to speak frankly in the film business.” That’s just how it is. When everyone applies for a job, they lie their heads off. I did. My first résumé when I was an actor was all a lie except for my name. I made sure I chose plays I was in that happened to have played out of town.
When I was a child, I did a lot of stealing. And it was formative for me in deciding to get into acting – because you have to pretend you didn’t steal. Sometimes I’d steal pigeons from someone else’s coop. I’d bring them back to mine and make the mistake of opening the door too soon – so they’d just fly back to their own coops. I’d steal things in the Five & Dime store and the supermarket, like potatoes that my friends and I could go and roast in a fire.
The one time I was caught was when it was my turn to steal candies from the confectionery shop. I put them under my shirt, and as I was leaving they fell out. I was terrified. I froze in my tracks. I think I’m still standing in that store now. But I wasn’t severely punished, and I got smart doing that. I learned to wear bigger shirts.
Then I was in the marines, and that taught me a lot about life and honour and respect and endurance. It gave me the survival skills I needed to get through the rest of my life.
Youth speaks about that perennial journey: being born, leaving home, struggling through obstacles on the way. And if you are lucky enough to survive, then you return to share this knowledge with people like you.
I don’t think anybody loses their powers as they get older. As long as you’re involved and creative and interested, then you can’t lose it. That’s how you keep being surprised. Old age is infused with youthful things.
If one is circumspect about life, you know we are always born to a new thought, a new expression, a new imagination. Even when you face death it’s a new experience – it’s being born, then. So don’t fear death. Though when I get there, remind me that I said that.
The Buddhists have a saying that I enjoy which sums it up: be at play with everything. Even death. I think that makes for a youthful life. And Youth is about the same mythology. I love the poster for it. It’s me and Michael Caine in a pool with Madalina Ghenea, who is naked. But you can’t see her face – and I like telling everyone that’s actually me.
When we were on the red carpet in Cannes, Jane Fonda squeezed my ass. Maybe that’s why. Or maybe she meant to scratch herself and just picked the wrong behind.
Youth director Paolo Sorrentino on working with Caine and Keitel
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