Michael Caine says he spent eight years trying not to blink: ‘I used to frighten the life out of people’

The habit earned Caine the nickname ‘Snake Eyes’

Michael Caine has revealed he spent eight years “walking around trying not to blink” leading people to think he was a “psychopath”.

The veteran actor said that he developed the habit at school after reading an acting guide – titled Teach Yourself Film Acting – that instructed him to do so.

The 88-year-old told The Mirror: “One thing that stuck in my mind was, ‘Don’t blink. You must never blink.’”

He continued: “For the next eight years, I walked around trying not to blink. People around me, my mother and everybody, thought I had gone nuts.”

“They thought I was a psychopath,” said Caine. “I used to frighten the life out of people.”

The Batman actor’s commitment earned him the nickname “Snake Eyes” at school.

Similarly, Anthony Hopkins has previously said he used the same technique for his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs.

Hopkins 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.”