Michael Caine: Never knew there was such a thing as drama school

"I'm very proud of being from the working class. We didn't have money when we were growing up, but we had plenty of love," the 88-year-old actor said.

London: Veteran actor Michael Caine says he did not know anything about actors or that drama schools even existed when he was young, and adds that he is proud of being from the working class.

“I’m very proud of being from the working class. We didn’t have money when we were growing up, but we had plenty of love,” the 88-year-old actor said.

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“I joined an amateur dramatic society but I never went to drama school because, in the milieu I come from, not only did we not know anything about actors, we never even knew there was such a thing as drama school,” he recalled.

Caine advises youngsters against signing up for drama school because he believes budding stars can get a better education in acting from simply watching others, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

“Kids today say to me, ‘Should I go to drama school?’ And I say, ‘No, you’ll learn more by sitting in the subway and watching people opposite you than you’ll ever learn at school’,” he said.

The actor also feels “very proud” of being in 1960s England when he played a part in “destroying the snobbery of the class system”.

He told Candis magazine: “The sixties in England was all about class. It wasn’t to do with rock and roll, or drugs, or everybody screwing around. It was when the working class in England told the rest of the country, ‘We don’t care about what class, colour, or religion anyone is. Just because you’re Lord Ponsonby of the manor, that doesn’t mean we want to come to your home — we’ll have such a good time that you will want to get out of your home and come to ours.”

“And we made it stick, too. We destroyed the snobbery of the class system. I’m very proud of that,”Caine recalled.