Sir Michael Caine thought it was "great" when he was hospitalised after a fall - because it meant he didn't have to promote a movie.

The 92-year-old actor took a tumble down a pothole when out walking in New York and needed hospital treatment, but he admitted he wasn't as upset as people expected him to be because the injury meant he didn't have to embark on a number of gruelling trips to plug his work.

In an extract from his new memoir 'Don't Look Back, You'll Trip Over' obtained by Entertainment Weekly, Michael wrote: "A few years ago, we were in New York, and I was walking down Lexington Avenue, and I literally fell into a pothole.

"It was a proper tumble, I needed stitches and everything. So poor Shakira [my wife] rushed to see me at the hospital and she was upset, as you'd expect. I must have looked a right state."

"I think everybody was expecting me to feel very sorry for myself -- and then suddenly I realised, 'Hey! This is great! Now I don't have to go to bloody Paris to do movie publicity!'

"Which, to be honest, felt like pretty good news at the time. It's funny, looking back."

While Michael didn't refer to the movie by name, it is likely he was referring to 'The Dark Knight Rises' because it was reported at the time he'd missed a number of the film's premieres after having stitches following an accident in New York. However, the Paris premiere was ultimately cancelled following a shooting during a midnight screening of 'The Dark Knight Rises' in Colorado.

The 'Italian Job' actor explained his optimism amid the pothole injury was a "left-field example" of his mantra "use the difficulty", which he embraces whenever things go wrong.

He said: "It's a good practice to really examine the scene of a setback for the thing that is going to help you: nine times out of 10, it'll be there if you look hard enough.

"Reframe the crisis as an opportunity and turn it to your advantage, even if only slightly. Remember, you're not on your own, but at the same time, nobody is going to make it happen for you."

Michael urged his fans to be proactive in changing their lives if they're not happy.

He said: "Just being angry about your lot in life won't achieve anything.

"There are victims in life, but not as many as the modern world encourages people to think! It's a really important aspect of this whole discussion - not walking into the elephant trap of self-pity and victimhood.

"It's a hard place to escape from once you've convinced yourself that you have no control over your own destiny, and the system has been rigged to ensure that you will fail."