Sir Michael Caine has revealed his new film about Alzheimers holds a poignant memory for him - a close of friend of his died of the condition.
The veteran actor, 76, plays an ageing magician who suffers from senile dementia in the moving film Is Anybody There?. And he revealed he based his performance on his late close friend Doug Hayward.
He said, "I'd just spent five years watching someone deal with it, so I knew exactly about Alzheimers and the confusion it causes. Douglas was my tailor - he wasn't just my tailor. Basically he was my best friend who made my suits."
Not that Caine thinks too much about his own mortality. Speaking at the press conference for the film at London's Magic Circle, he joked, "I don't think of my mortality. You're gonna die but I'm not going to do it myself. I'm going to go on and on!"
Talking about the afterlife, he added, "I'd dearly love to think there's someone or something there when we die. I've got a lot of back-up. My father was a catholic, my mother was a Protestant, I was educated by Jews and I'm married to a muslim. I won't lose out on a technicality."
Is Anybody There? is out in cinemas now