From The Italian Job to The Dark Knight, Michael Caine has a legacy full of memorable roles. In a recent talk with The Mirror, the 88-year-old legend revealed one of the secrets from his early days, and it’s… unusual, to say the least. After picking up a tip in a book about acting, Caine decided to try to avoid blinking in his everyday life for eight years. “People around me, my mother and everybody, thought I had gone nuts.”
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Caine went on to say that his friends and family described him as a “psychopath,” and that he used to “frighten the life out of people” during social interactions. He eventually gained the nickname “Snake Eyes” because of this odd life choice, making his lack of appearance in the G.I. Joe films all the more tragic.
For what it’s worth, the strategy seems to have been successful for the Oscar winner. Caine still never blinks when he’s filming a scene, but he has (thankfully) added blinking back into his everyday life.
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In moderation, the “don’t blink” strategy is sensible for a certain type of role, as seen in Sir Anthony Hopkins’ take on Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. Hopkins has told ABC News that not blinking “keeps audiences mesmerized. It’s not so much not blinking, it’s just being still. Stillness has an economy and a power about it.”
