Sir Michael Caine thinks every man should be forced to do National Service – and hates ‘wokery’.
The 90-year-old was 12 when World War Two ended and was called up to the army when he was 18 and sent to occupied Berlin – before he was sent to fight in Korea a year later.
He told the Daily Mail’s You magazine: “I think every young man should be made to do it. It truly makes a man of you.”
But Michael admitted he soon fell in love with the money he could make from acting when he came out of service.
He added: “I only became an actor after I left the army… I got a movie and was like, ‘F*** this! I love films more. I liked the money and all.”
Michael’s latest film is ‘The Great Escaper’, in which he plays real-life World War Two veteran Bernard Jordan.
Born in 1924, he left his care home in Hove aged 89 without telling his wife or carers where he was heading as he was determined to pay his respects at the 70th D-Day commemorations in Normandy.
When he was tracked down, and on returning home was stunned to find he’d become a media sensation – nicknamed ‘The Great Escaper’.
Michael added in a chat to promote the film, out in October, that one of the things he despises about modern life is so-called ‘wokeness’.
He said: “It’s dull. Not being able to speak your mind and not being able to call anyone ‘darling’.
“I try (to make myself woke), but it’s hard. I like to learn from friends who are younger than me.”
Michael added his main focus now is staying alive to see his grandchildren grow up.
The ‘Alfie’ star, who has been married to his second wife Shakira Baksh, 76, since 1973, has two daughters – Dominique, 67, from his first marriage to the late actress Patricia Haines, and Natasha, 50, from his marriage to Shakira – as well as three grandchildren: 12-year-old twins Miles and Allegra, and 13-year-old boy Taylor.
He said: “As you get older, you inevitably think about dying, but as soon as you get grandchildren, your focus shifts.
“You think about them. You want to go on living because they are so much a part of you, and you want to live for ever to see what they do with their lives. You just want to keep going.”
He also said when asked for his secrets to a long life: “Younger wives, no snacking and wear trainers at all times. And you have to be careful not to fall down.”
