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Brit thespian and ’60s icon Michael York
by MATTHEW HAYS Believe it or not, Michael York didn’t have a lot of high hopes for Austin Powers when he was acting in the first film in ’97. The British actor, the star of such films as Cabaret, Zeppelin and The Three Musketeers, says there were a lot of long faces on the Powers set. “It wasn’t testing very well at all,” he recalls. “Of course, my character, Basil Exposition, could explain what was going on, so I was a big help. It was very sweet when it all became so momentous. It did okay in cinemas, but then on home video it really took off.” It certainly did-spawning the hugely successful ’99 sequel, which in turn led to this, Austin Powers in Goldmember, what creator and star Mike Myers says may well be the final Powers movie. York joins Robert Wagner and Powers virgin Michael Caine as part of the Powers ’60s icon ensemble. Any second thoughts about returning to the role of Powers’ boss, the savvy Mr. Exposition? “I should jolly well think not!”
With its constant absurdly caricatured retro nods to the ’60s, the Powers films must have seemed the perfect casting spot for York, who’s as sheerly shagadelic ’60s as they come. The actor first came to international attention during that decade in a pair of Shakespeare films, The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet. But York’s biggest break undoubtedly came in ’72, when he was cast opposite Liza Minelli in the landmark film Cabaret, widely regarded as one of the greatest musicals ever made. Set in an uneasy Berlin dealing with the rise of the Third Reich, the film seamlessly interwove the wartime stories of Christopher Isherwood with the musical score from the Broadway show. “I was living in London when I heard that the movie was set to be made,” recalls York. “There was a casting buzz going on and I heard they were looking for a Michael York type. So I phoned my agent immediately and asked if there was any way at all I could pass for a Michael York type. “Then it became even more improbable because I was doing a film in Puerto Rico. In order to meet up with [director] Bob Fosse I had to take the night flight and go directly from the airport to his hotel to do a reading. I’d been up all night, but in a sense I think that liberated me. Whatever happened, it seemed to work-I had the part.” The drama didn’t end there though. Surprisingly, York says he felt stumped by his character as he read the script. “I didn’t know what the hell to do with the role. I remember thinking that I shouldn’t call and burden Bob Fosse with it. But I called him, because it seemed my character was just about watching things; this was I Am a Camera. I was the witness around whom everyone else revolved. So we spent a week rehearsing and improvising, fleshing out the character. That really paid off.”
Doing Cabaret meant York struck up a strong friendship with the source material’s gay author, Christopher Isherwood. In fact, York was staying at Isherwood’s London home as they received the rave reviews of the film the day it opened. “I loved Chris. It was amazing-we forget that that was a big push forward, having that character bisexual.” York has fared considerably better than his two costars from that film, Minelli and Joel Grey (who both won Oscars for their respective roles). So dire have their career paths been-Minelli’s been in and out of rehab in an eerie echo of her mom Judy Garland’s substance issues, while Grey has made mainly forgettable film and TV appearances-it’s led some to speculate about a Cabaret curse. York has had his own bizarre career chapters. There was the cult ’70s sci-fi oddity Logan’s Run, for one, but more recently, he appeared in a series of films backed by the Christian right. In The Omega Code (’99), York played a media mogul called Stone Alexander, who is actually Satan. The film cost a mere $7.2-million (U.S.), but became a massive success with Christians who felt (and feel) that callous atheist film-biz types chronically ignore or disdain their religious beliefs. York reprised the role two years later for Megiddo, and has since parlayed the gigs into a book: Dispatches From Armageddon: Making the Movie Megiddo (Smith and Kraus, $14.99). (It’s a fairly light read, but rather fun-York clearly regards making what some have disdained as Christian propaganda films as an entirely benign and innocuous thing.) “Playing the devil was great. He tends to hog the spotlight. My beliefs never really became an issue. They never asked for any credentials. These films are obviously designed to appeal to a core Christian audience, something I didn’t realize was quite so huge. “You know, people love to put you in a niche. Before I was the guy in Cabaret. Then it was Austin Powers’ boss. Now I’m the guy who does those Christian movies.” : >> Movie Listings |
