TimesTalks: Michael Caine: An Accent That Broke Class Barriers | The New York Times 

If i would have his voice, i would sit the whole day in a corner and talk to myself...

He's a brilliant, genuine, talented guy and my favorite actor. Love him to bits.

The cockney accent is classic and Michael Caine specifically comes to mind when I hear one. Hearing him say he kept it as a way of shoving in the faces of the posh makes me love him even more.

It's sad because the cockney accent is dying out now. My family are cockney's and the accent is in my family so naturally, I have it too. People mock it nowadays, I even get made fun of for having it but I don't really care because it reflects my family.

Caine is one of the finer actors to come out of English films. Basically self-taught, Caine didn't want to let go out of his background and pretend to be something he wasn't (he was already doing that as an actor). I think Caine was one of those actors who helped change the filmic landscape and soundscape in England by showing that working class actors could have a valid and major presence in film and television without speaking posh.

If you say "my cocaine" aloud, you're saying "Michael Caine" in his own voice.

Although i'm not good at recognizing accents, Michael's accent is one of the greatest accents i've ever heard, for me he's of the best British actors who triumphed in Hollywood, he's also winner of two Oscars, so he's not just any actor

fokin legend m8

You can be a success in Hollywood no matter how bad your English is. Case in point: Arnold Schwarzenegger

His accent is magnificent. I had a posh English girlfriend who said he sounded like trash, when we watched Alfie. I think the cockney accent is so much cooler than the normal English accent.

My cocaine was a good alfred

Apparently Shelley Winters, who starred with him in Alfie, said that she didn't understand a word he was saying when they shot a scene together, and she just waited for him to stop moving his lips to say her lines. Funny.

What a great interview, such a humble guy.

It amazes me that England - founder of the english language - has developed so many regional accents and dialects. I have met many English in Canada whose accents, while distinctly different,are still incomprehensible to my poor colonial ears.

Amazing actor and man. Truly a blessing, he is.

such fascinating man, always love his stories

He’s a class act in my humble opinion! I love his voice.

I love how consistent and yet so different every episode is:

Please please do more of these. I absolutely love vids like this from ya.

Love his role in 1967 Billion Dollar Brain in Helsinki winter time with Karl Malden. Accent sounds great, truly british (for a foreigner).

29:00 The surprise ending kept me waiting to the end and after getting to the end it filled the satisfactory hole in my heart. Thank you

Brave man and a superb actor

I love to learn cockney accent because I really love it

I love it so much! The class segregation that is rooted in the language skill which are hard , send as Pigmalione was trying to achieve, takes the time and training most People don’t have . Thank you for sticking to your way of talking, thank you for changing that paradigm!

love the kays cooking shoutout. she may not make the best food but she’s so pure

I never knew what Peter Griffin meant when he said that something "insisted upon itself". Then I tried to shortcut the ad before this video. Now I know.

Yeah, but you've got to think about the people he's socialised with for the past 50 odd years. Accents do change.

Top man, Mike.

Michael Caine's working class cockney accent, for which anyone from a similar background like him. As he's stated, if he can do it, and so did everyone who can succeed like him, no matter how they speak.

Im from the states and i just gotta say he is Top class..Top shelf..simply Tops..Michael caine is my favorite briton actor. Harry brown is a sick movie just watched that the other day and i suggest eveyrone here go and watch it. He is old school Proper Cockney Underground, love it - cheers

Caine is a number 1 gent. Love him.

Truly one of the moment of all time

Felix sticking with the one edible Scandinavian dish for 20 mins straight

Bravo, Michael!

I love how he goes all in on the owners and chefs but always stays respectful towards the waiters

The special surprise at the end was worth watching the full video without skipping the sponsor. Thank you pooderpe!

That ending was definitely worth the wait

Still can't get over his joke about himself that goes: Somebody asked him "Are you into drugs? Then he goes "Why?" then the other guy goes "Why do they call you "my cocaine?" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 🇵🇭

He's a Legend

As an American much later (1986), Zulu was the first time I saw this amazing actor.

I remember in one of his earliest movies Zulu he actually faked something of a posh accent and did it rather well.

i love how pewds was cracking on seeing those chefs fail a meatball task

true legend

This man is golden

Felix speaking Italian makes me laugh so hard even when his pronunciation is on point

brilliant - hats off mate!

Felix looks so much happier than last few years

Lovely!

God bless Michael Caine

Didnt even realize there was a seperate British and American kitchen nightmares.

"We seriously have a kitchen nightmare"

When it comes to cooking Gordon is an absolute expert at roasting literally anyone for the flaws in their approach to it

Love him

I should run my own bloody restaurant seeing how this guy literally freezes frozen pasta

I thought Ramsey just went everywhere lol.

This needs to be a series. Every Episode With Pewdiepie = EEWP&Gordon Nightmares

i love the southern u.s accents i live in u.k and the cleaner at my work is from corpus christi in texas.... she has one hell of a funny accent lol

Wow. Integrity. +1

Therei s one chef he actually loved all the food of

@kamelion7 Didn't know that! Thank you!

Although not as formal or integrated into society as class accents of England, this is true to a degree in America as well, for example people in a dive bar don't really talk the same way as people in a fine restaurant. On the other hand some "street" terms end up making their way into the mainstream language, so perhaps you could say our linguistic divisions are more malleable and not as rigidly defined.

My favourite actor he has a similar background to me. He reminds me of the older members of my family. It's not exaggerated it is just proper estuary English Sarf Eest innit guvnor.

I like him

Blinding fella our Michael. He is from the Elephant and Castle just like me.

not a lot of comments on the class aspect of this video. it really speaks to the division between rich and poor when the poor literally have a different dialect. and we have stuff like that in america, too, except we’re such a big country that we have MANY dialects of poverty and of the working class. this was a form of class subversion on his part. it’s more than just showing young people that they can be successful. it’s just showing people THEMSELVES, representing them on the screen. representation is such a meaningful and important part of media, and that’s his point here. it’s so easy to believe that you don’t exist, that you aren’t important, if your life is not reflected in the media around you. this is why diversity of all sorts is important. i recognize i’m talking about an old white guy here, but that’s kinda my point. here’s a white guy who didn’t even see HIMSELF represented on film. this should tell you how narrow a scope media had, how few people they were truly representing. if a man like michael caine could watch a film, and never see anybody like himself, what does that say about other people? about smaller dialects, about other minority populations? caine’s firsthand experience with a lack of representation speaks to an incredibly narrow vision of society on the part of the media. not only were white people just about the only people represented, but it was a SMALL group of white people. where are the rest of us? so caine helped in a little way, just about the only way he could. he represented himself, his background. here’s a man portraying the very act of appearing on screen as himself, as a somewhat radical choice. a progressive choice. if you think cockney representation is important, then you should understand the importance of representation for everybody. everyone wants to see somebody like themselves on screen. “i don’t like when it’s forced.” what does that mean? when you see a minority in real life, did somebody FORCE them to appear in front of you? no, they just exist. the same logic goes for media. it’s wrong to have a “default” kind of person. that’s honestly the message here, even if he said it in a way that wouldn’t attract any ire.

what an accent

@papayankee69 Believe it or not Bermondsey, Rotherhithe, Peckham and Borough are in the bow bells and people believe that up to now Bermondsey is a place were the majority of people are cockney in London. But you gotta remember after the war all the cockneys were scattered out all over London once council estates were built that's why you can here west Londoners and north Londoners with the accent. Look at Amy Winehouse she was brought up in Southgate and hear her accent.

I read his first book where he bought a house in a posh area + was never accepted by the local snobs, and it came thru in the book. Nasty poms.

Pewdiepie and Gorgon Ramsay in one video.... I can die happy now

Marzia is a legend

2:10 Yes, Sir Michael. But it took YOU to make it cool.

This makes me optimistic about how well I would do as a chef.

I think Pewds is transforming into an angry Italian chef.

@papayankee69 the general cockney accent will never die, since so many people from essex have inherited it from the people who moved out of the east end, although it won't be heard in the east end at all in 30 years time

legend

Jus found out that he has Romani ancestry and is has connection to India indeed we are all connected on an whole new level...

Good for him, I'd never lose my London accent for anything.

My cocaine

@Kie10McC A bull is not a species of cattle. It is actually the term used for an adult male that is not castrated. This is used with many other hoofed animals as well such as moose, dolphins, and alligators.

@ttlwh I can understand that. I'm sure it is still that way a little bit, just as it is in the US.

The accent made him.

Hearing the old hows it going bros is 10

It would be so cool if Marzia told you a recipe a step-by-step in Italian and you had to follow it

So they said if the restaurant fails then they loose their house and we find out it was closed... he laughs his head off was definitely the highlight for me

@ttlwh no the actual mobility is roughly the same and has been since the 19th century with the same working/middle/upper classes but the accents are much more distinct and the pressure to adopt the relevant accent immense. 3 of my grandparents had very working class accents but weren't all poor, both my parents quite middle class, my sister is quite posh but I have a more working class London accent and I live in the Midlands!

@Mrtre7 I think I understand what you are saying, however, sometimes accents here can also attribute to social status. Wealthy people usually speak with a certain sort of accent.

Try listening to Singlish and Manglish in Singapore and Malaysia respectively

That's fair enough but there is something weird about our RP accent! It doesn't really connect to any regional UK accent. There's been a merging of accents - prince Harry would have been considered 'common' 20 years ago and working class accents aren't as broad as they were. I guess the same in the US e.g. Appalachians. Even distinct regional accents are merging here and a lot of under 25's have a Caribbean/Pakistani tinge. The English spoke like Americans 200 years ago so its always changing.

@rejectedchik89 That's different. In America, like everywhere in the world for that matter, there is a local accent from which you can tell where people is from. Then if you are prejudiced against that particular part of the country you react accordingly. In England, different wealth classes belonging to the same area (London but also Essex) speak differently. It is a distinctive trait of social condition. It is literally a code, a message to let others know who's your mate and who isn't.

Interesting

Hi Morris

Alfred!

I'd like to see him do Shakespeare with that accent..... now that would be interesting lol.

thats true about the accent...americans now need to accept people for who they are and where they come from and don't discriminate.

he is funny with out even trying

In his first film Zulu, he was a toff.

If their is a “ channel nightmare” I’m sure pewdiepie will be in the role of Gordon Ramsey

he did a good posh accent in Zulu

He says he kept accent... But he says in the first ten seconds that he speaks in a general London accent because if he kept the accent no one could understand him. So he didn't keep his accent?

@EdwardQuid To be a true Cockney you must be born withing the sound of Bow Bells,which are in St Mary Le,bow Church in Cheapside in the City of London.Michael Caine was born in Rotherhithe,so he would need bloody good hearing to hear them all the way other there.What Michael as is a London accent ,just like all the other ppl born South of the River and in North London and in the West of London and also some of the ppl born in the East.I hope this explains it for you.