1.
Jamie Dornan as soon as stalked a girl with a purpose to put together to play serial killer Paul Spector in The Fall. “This can be a actually unhealthy reveal: I, like, adopted a girl off the practice in the future to see what it felt wish to pursue somebody like that. I actually saved my distance,” he revealed to the LA Instances. “She obtained off a number of stops sooner than I used to be planning, so I mentioned proper, I’ve to decide to this. I adopted her round a few avenue corners after which was like: What are you doing?”
2.
Aaron Eckhart confirmed to Howard Stern that he as soon as pretended to have misplaced a baby in order that he might attend a baby loss help group in preparation for his function in Rabbit Gap. “It is very delicate to go in there, in fact it’s. I did the analysis. The gathering may be very quiet. There’s 10 folks, {couples}. [Their children had passed away] very lately, it is recent. You are sitting in type of a circle. Then one particular person goes, then two, three, then it will get to me. And by that time you are simply so flushed that you just simply begin going and giving the small print of the story.”
He mentioned he “misplaced it” when he was talking. “You actually imagine that you just simply misplaced a baby. You’re as near actuality in that sense as attainable. I do not need to be impolite to individuals who have misplaced a baby, however yeah, you’re feeling proper there, you’re feeling like your character.”
3.
Ben Foster took performance-enhancing medication to arrange to play the well-known bike owner Lance Armstrong in The Program. “It is not one thing I might advocate to fellow actors,” he mentioned, declining to call the precise drug. “These are very severe chemical substances they usually have an effect on your physique in actual methods. For my very own investigation it was vital for me privately to know it.” Nonetheless, he mentioned it took him a very long time to bodily and mentally get well from taking the medication.
4.
In preparation for Alpha Canine, Foster lived on the streets of Los Angeles, “pissing my pants like everybody else” in order that he might put together to play an unhoused veteran that will get hooked on crystal meth. He did not take crystal meth to arrange, however he implies he did take different medication. “In all transparency, I rolled with these guys on Alpha Canine, and I purchased their medication, however it’s a must to ask your self how far you possibly can go and nonetheless come again. I had been dropping pals to crystal meth. The proximity to it was sufficient that I did not have to take that door,” he mentioned. He additionally used eye drops for glaucoma to present his eyes the look of somebody hooked on meth.
5.
One final Ben Foster instance — he actually ate handfuls of filth to arrange for his function in Lone Survivor. “You place your self in a headspace, I suppose, like [American] footballers headbutt one another to remain within the sport. As actors you discover moments to maintain according to what the day is demanding,” Foster mentioned when requested about his actions. “I do not know. I may need been attempting to assist out the make-up division, or I may need simply wished to eat some filth. It isn’t like I get up within the morning and be like, ‘You already know what I’ll do at present is simply eat handfuls of filth.’ However…you do because it feels.” For the movie, the actors all needed to attend a month-long boot camp with actual Navy Seals and, based on Foster, “simulate[d] operations with dwell fireplace.”
6.
Don Cheadle mentioned he offered medication in order that he might perceive his character in Brooklyn’s Best, although he could have been joking. “Once I knew I had the function, I went right down to the native pharmaceutical distributor, obtained a packet, and began slinging medication. I might by no means completed it earlier than. I am a technique actor; I needed to perceive it from the bottom up,” Cheadle advised Blackfilm. Nonetheless, he “determined being an actor was higher than promoting medication.”
7.
Shia LaBeouf reportedly took acid to arrange for his function in The Crucial Dying of Charlie Countryman — after which was really on acid whereas filming some scenes the place his character is on acid. “There is a method to do an acid journey like Harold & Kumar, and there is a method to be on acid,” he mentioned. “What I do know of appearing, Sean Penn really strapped as much as that (electrical) chair in Lifeless Man Strolling. These are the blokes that I look as much as.”
8.
He additionally had a tooth pulled out for his function in Fury. After Los Angeles dentists refused to assist him, he says, he “obtained it completed by some man in Reseda subsequent to a Radio Shack, and he did not ask too many questions.” Costar Logan Lerman revealed LaBeouf additionally minimize his personal face proper in entrance of him and saved opening the cuts for the movie. Oh, and LaBeouf refused to bathe, based on one supply, who acknowledged Shia was attempting to “higher perceive how his character would have felt dwelling within the trenches.”
9.
To organize for his function in Good Time, Robert Pattinson primarily went undercover in New York. He obtained a job at a automobile wash — although he solely lasted a day — went out in character and took the subway. He additionally lived in the identical condominium as his character within the movie — a basement condominium in Harlem. “I by no means opened my curtains, did not change the sheets all the time I used to be there, for these two months, and I’d simply sleep in my garments,” he revealed.
“There was this girl who lived upstairs, and she or he saved attempting to see what was occurring as a result of she thought I used to be such a weirdo. I saved actually bizarre hours, and I’d run in and shortly shut the curtains. I used to be like this freak dwelling within the backside of the basement,” Pattinson continued. “I used to be on my own the entire time. I solely ate cans of tuna the entire time. I most likely have mercury poisoning now as a result of I ate it simply out of the can. That is all that was there: tuna, sizzling sauce, and Nespresso capsules.”
10.
Benedict Cumberbatch lived in Montana for 2 months to arrange for his function in The Energy of the Canine, studying easy methods to herd cows and castrate a bull (amongst different issues) in order that he might convincingly play a rancher. He additionally did not need to break character throughout filming, so he initially refused to wash as he was rehearsing for the movie. He gave that up by the point filming began, however he did decline to have his garments washed as a result of they helped him keep in character. He was additionally impolite to costars whereas behaving in character between takes, as soon as upsetting Jesse Plemons by calling him “large boy.”
11.
Ryan Gosling did a littleeee an excessive amount of preparation for the function of George Harvey in The Beautiful Bones, and it ended up costing him the function. After he was forged, he began consuming melted ice cream and gained 60 kilos as a result of he “actually believed [the character] must be 210 kilos.” Nonetheless, he did not talk this with director Peter Jackson, who “had a distinct concept of how the character ought to look.” When Gosling confirmed up on set to movie, Jackson fired him. Stanley Tucci was forged within the function as an alternative.
12.
On the opposite excessive, Christian Bale misplaced over 60 kilos getting ready for his function in The Machinist by subsisting on a food plan of cigarettes and whiskey, together with an apple and a single tin of tuna. He obtained right down to 120 kilos and wished to maintain going to beneath 100 kilos — producers for the movie really needed to cease him as a result of they anxious it would severely jeopardize his well being.
13.
Equally, to arrange for his function in The Pianist, Adrien Brody misplaced 30 kilos by primarily practically ravenous himself and “barely consuming water.” He additionally left his girlfriend, gave up his condominium, offered his automobile, disconnected his telephones, and moved to Europe with two luggage and a keyboard, then spent months getting ready by practising piano 4 hours a day, promoting all of his belongings, and studying Szpilman’s memoirs to immerse himself within the Holocaust.
14.
This wasn’t the one time Brody dedicated this difficult to a job. For The Jacket, he really requested to be left alone in a room in a straightjacket so he might perceive how it might really feel for his character.
15.
Oh, and he actually obtained actual braces for Oxygen, saying, “I did not understand how fucking painful that was till they caught in pliers and ripped them off my enamel on the finish.”
16.
Matthew McConaughey additionally needed to lose a ton of weight to play a person with AIDS in Dallas Patrons Membership — over 50 kilos. In truth, he ate so little that he really began to go blind. McConaughey initially refuted this however later acknowledged, “Once I obtained right down to the place I misplaced 43 kilos, I did begin dropping my eyesight. I observed it acutely, and it needed to do with the load loss.” Fortunately, medical doctors had been in a position to assist, and his imaginative and prescient got here again.
17.
Ashton Kutcher was so dedicated to enjoying the function of Steve Jobs in Jobs that he adopted the Apple founder’s food plan of “fruitarianism” — which is principally vegetarianism with an emphasis on fruits. Kutcher particularly began consuming carrot juice continuously, as Jobs had reportedly additionally completed. At different occasions, he was consuming nothing however grapes. This food plan landed him the hospital with pancreatitis twice.
18.
Gary Oldman was equally hospitalized after he ate solely “steamed fish and many melon” to play Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy and in the end misplaced 30 kilos to play the function.
19.
Woman Gaga says she lived as Patrizia Reggiani for a 12 months and a half whereas getting ready for and filming Home of Gucci — and that she spoke with an Italian accent for 9 months of that (regardless that filming solely took a number of months). Proper from the beginning, she dyed her hair, feeling that she couldn’t use the accent as a blonde. “I began to dwell in a method whereby something that I checked out, something that I touched, I began to take discover of the place and once I might see cash,” she additionally mentioned, including that she started studying and practising “as an train” as a result of she thought ‘discovering her pursuits in life, that I’d develop into a photographer.”
To organize, Gaga additionally wrote an 80-page biography of Reggiani, carb-loaded with pasta and bread to realize weight for the function, and studied panthers to channel them within the function. After which, throughout filming, Gaga needed to rent a psychiatric nurse on set as a result of she saved coping with vomiting and fatigue after channeling private trauma into scenes.
20.
To organize to play a trans man in Boys Do not Cry, Hilary Swank lived as a person for 4 weeks. She certain her chest and packed a sock in her pants.
21.
To organize to play Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos, Nicole Kidman started smoking cigarettes. “They determined Lucy wanted to have a deep smoker’s voice, so I began smoking,” she revealed. Fortunately, she was in a position to shortly give it up after manufacturing.
22.
Daniel Day-Lewis is especially well-known for his technique appearing and function preparation. For The Crucible, he lived on the uninhabited chicken sanctuary island they had been to movie on. He even helped construct his character’s house. “It appeared that the vital factor to do was some sort of bodily work,” Day-Lewis mentioned. “So I spent a while on the island, as a result of a lot of the story of these folks’s lives was contained inside the way in which they took possession of that land.”
23.
He additionally lived within the North Carolina wilderness for months to arrange for The Final of the Mohicans, studying abilities like monitoring and skinning animals, constructing canoes, constructing canoes, and preventing with varied weapons like tomahawks and a 12-pound flintlock that he might shoot whereas operating (which he had on him always, even throughout his Christmas dinner). He solely ate issues he had killed himself – the director Michael Mann revealed, “If he did not shoot it, he did not eat it.”
24.
In an much more excessive instance, to arrange to play a falsely accused man Within the Identify of the Father, Day-Lewis lived in a jail cell for 2 days (some reviews recommend it was three) with no meals or water; males would additionally knock on the door each 10 minutes so he couldn’t sleep. He additionally had the crew verbally abuse him and throw chilly water on him, and reportedly underwent 9 hours of mock interrogation afterward.
He additionally misplaced 50 kilos for the function — and he spent weeks earlier than filming talking solely in an Irish accent.
25.
He reportedly would exit and decide fights with strangers in Rome whereas filming Gangs of New York, and he turned an apprentice butcher to learn to minimize meat. And whereas filming, Day-Lewis refused to put on a hotter coat as a result of it wasn’t period-accurate and caught pneumonia — he then refused to be handled with fashionable drugs as a result of it would not have existed within the nineteenth century.
26.
However maybe his most notorious function preparation was for My Left Foot. He spent weeks in a wheelchair getting ready to play a person with cerebral palsy, and he was spoon-fed to approximate his character’s expertise consuming. He additionally discovered to color and sort along with his foot, like his character did. As soon as on set, he remained in a wheelchair and generally needed to be carried over set items and tools. He spent a lot time hunched in a wheelchair that he really broke two ribs.
27.
Joaquin Phoenix — who can be identified for his technique appearing — principally had his jaw wired partly shut to arrange for his character’s behavior of talking of the facet of his mouth in The Grasp. “I really went to my dentist and I had them fasten these steel brackets to my enamel on the highest and the underside, after which I wrapped rubber bands round it to power my jaw shut on one facet,” Phoenix revealed. “After a pair weeks, the bands, they weren’t actually robust sufficient to sort of maintain it, so I ended up eliminating the rubber bands, and I nonetheless had these steel brackets in, and so it made me continuously conscious of my cheek. You already know, they’d these pointy suggestions so that they’d tear up the cheek slightly bit, so I simply then was continuously conscious of it.”
28.
Lastly, Leonardo DiCaprio went laborious in his preparation for The Revenant, consuming uncooked liver to arrange for his character’s food plan and even sleeping in an animal carcass. He spent a ton of time within the wilderness, and in the course of the shoot, he endured “freezing chilly and attainable hypothermia continuously,” going out and in of freezing rivers and tenting in extraordinarily low temperatures. His work paid off — DiCaprio lastly gained an Oscar for the function. However…was all that actually vital?
