Orlando Bloom has a crawly secret - he perfected his acting skills by pretending to be a lizard.

The actor, who shot to fame playing Legolas the elf in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, was quoted as saying by Internet portal Femalefirst: "We had to go to the zoo, watch the animals, then mimic their behaviour. I studied them all but loved the lizard best."

Orlando now believes the composure and stillness he learnt from the zoo lizards came in handy for his parts in films such as "Troy" and "Pirates of the Caribbean".