Page 51 - James Caan - The Real Deal

5 · Finding My Way

Neither of us had skied before, but seeing as we were there we
thought we might as well give it a go, so we hired the gear and
had a laugh. It was a good story to tell the guys when we got
home.
Not long after we got back, I went to the cinema with some
people from work and it turned out to be quite a significant night.
As the opening credits came up, I saw the name James Caan, and
it struck me for the first time that the name I was born with – Khan
– could be spelled in a different way. In fact, I actually thought
that Khan was misspelled. There is no ‘kh’ sound in English, and
I thought Caan was spelled as it’s pronounced. While my friends
followed the plot, I went on my own mental journey thinking
about how Caan made more sense than Khan, and how it also
happened to be the name of a really cool actor, and when we came
out and were standing around in Leicester Square working out
where to go next, I told my colleagues that I thought I would
change the spelling of my name.
‘You can’t do that’ was the initial response.
‘Why not?’
‘No one changes their name. Don’t be daft.’
‘Actually,’ said another, ‘I think it’s pretty cool. Why don’t you
change your first name, too?’
Anyway, for the rest of the evening they decided to call me
James Caan, which I quite liked. After all, who wouldn’t want to
have the same name as the coolest guy in Hollywood?
The next day at work they kept calling me James, and as a bit
of a joke I asked Clive if he would get me some business cards
printed with the name James Caan on them.
‘Don’t be stupid.’
‘Seriously, Clive, it would be such a laugh, just for a week to let
them think I’ve changed my name.’
‘No.’
‘You can deduct it from my wages.’

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