The invaluable acting trick Michael Caine stole from Marlon Brando: “I wanted to look stern”
Multiple generations of thespians have operated under the belief that Marlon Brando pretty much wrote the book on-screen acting; such is his legacy, but it often goes unmentioned that Michael Caine quite literally did.
After fronting a BBC special in which he laid down the tricks, tips, and techniques that had made him a global superstar, the star decided to take things one step further by jotting them down with Acting in Film: An Actor’s Take on Movie Making being published in 1989.
Needless to say, it wasn’t a tome dedicated entirely to Caine espousing methods that he’d created, developed, and honed himself, but it nonetheless became an invaluable tool for many aspiring performers. After all, if one of the best around is writing a book on acting, it almost demands to be read.
In keeping with his down-to-earth and laid-back demeanour, though, Caine would never contemplate taking credit for innovations that weren’t his. He’d sit under as many learning trees as possible, whether he was working directly with them or not, and it was Marlene Dietrich who gave the two-time Academy Award winner a pivotal lesson on what to do with his eyes when standing in front of a camera.
Whether it was by coincidence or design, ocular acting became an increasing fascination of Caine’s, with Brando joining Dietrich in forever altering the way he used his peepers. When asked by Short List if there was anybody he’d liberally stolen from over the years, one of the all-time greats quickly came to mind.
“Yeah, Marlon Brando, the way he uses his eyes,” Caine confessed. “I can give you an instance of what I mean. When I did Zulu, I played a British army officer with these pith helmets that come down right over your eyes. The cameraman said to me, ‘Push it back a bit, I can’t see your eyes’. If you push your helmet back, you look like you’re pissed, and I wanted to look stern.”
Recalling the way Brando would regularly keep his gaze fixed as low as possible until the biggest and most impactful moment of a scene, Caine stood his ground. “I remembered Marlon, and I said to him, ‘You’ll see my eyes when I want you to,'” he said. “Brando would always be down here mumbling, and suddenly the big line would come, and he’d be looking at you.”
Caine hadn’t even met Brando at this point, although that changed soon after when Zulu served as his star-making turn and quickly had Hollywood knocking at his door. He’s far from the only person to have pilfered from such a formidable playbook, of course, with the unlikely duo of Brando and Dietrich forever transforming the way Caine used his eyes to aid his performance.
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