With all the lousy remakes of British films in recent years, what made you confident that Alfie wouldn end up on that underachieving slagheap?
It’s such a loved classic. And I imagine, like everyone else, I was never a great fan of remakes. But I realised we weren’t just remaking it for the hell of it, we were actually trying to reinvestigate its essence, to look into the inner workings of the sexual terrain – which is something that’s always relevant – and at how little that has changed since the ’60s and how much it has changed. People never question when they remake Hamlet or Macbeth, and in a way Alfie is an iconic figure. I was cynical about it, but it was the fear factor that provoked me to do it in the end. I always like the idea of being scared before I do a project because what’s the point in doing something straightforward and easy? Your Alfie is still pretty much a bastard but he’s a modern bastard – he’s cast in a slightly less misogynistic mould than Michael Caine’s callous incarnation… Yes, but you can see how little we had to change and then by changing so little, how much changed around him. What’s interesti
