Michael Caine: I back Brexit because Eurocrats run Britain

Director David Batty, left, and actor Michael Caine pose for photographers during the photo call of the film 'My Generation', at the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis) Director David Batty, left, and actor Michael Caine pose for photographers during the photo call of the film 'My Generation', at the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

By Associated Press September 5, 2017 2 min read

VENICE, Italy (AP) – Michael Caine said Tuesday that he supports Brexit because he doesn’t want Britain to be controlled by European Union bureaucrats.

At the Venice Film Festival, the Oscar-winning actor said Britain was “being run by a man called Mr. Juncker” – European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, a former prime minister of Luxembourg.

Caine said that “up until I was 20, I thought Luxembourg was a radio station. I didn’t even know it was a country, and now he’s running my country – and he doesn’t seem to like us.”

Caine is in a minority among Britain’s creative artists, most of whom backed staying in the EU when Britain voted last year to leave the bloc.

The 84-year-old actor said his decision wasn’t based on immigration or economics, but because “I’d rather be a poor master of my own fate than a rich servant of someone else’s.”