Sir Michael Caine used to frighten everybody by not blinking – and not a lot of people know that.
The screen legend, 88, confessed he spent eight years avoiding closing his eyelids so he would look more convincing on screen.
Sir Michael, veteran of more than 130 films, including A Bridge Too Far, picked up the tip from a book, Teach Yourself Film Acting.
He said: “One thing that stuck in my mind was, ‘Don’t blink. You must never blink’.
“For the next eight years, I walked around trying not to blink. People around me, my mother and everybody, thought I had gone nuts.
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“They thought I was a psychopath. I used to frighten the life out of people.”
Michael’s staring earned him the school nickname of snake eyes but even now he never blinks shooting a scene.
d clearly it worked as he has starred in hit films such as The Dark Knight, Zulu, Get Carter, Alfie and The Italian Job. He also won Oscars in 1987 and 2000.
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The first was for the comedy Hannah and Her Sisters, the second for drama The Cider House Rules.
This week a Czech film festival honoured him for his contribution to cinema.
Sir Anthony Hopkins also used the ‘don’t blink’ tip when playing cannibal Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.
He has said: “If you don’t blink, you know you can keep the audience mesmerised. It’s not so much not blinking, it’s just being still. Stillness has an economy and a power about it."
