1.
Jamie Dornan as soon as stalked a girl with a view to put together to play serial killer Paul Spector in The Fall. “This can be a actually dangerous reveal: I, like, adopted a girl off the prepare in the future to see what it felt prefer to pursue somebody like that. I actually stored my distance,” he revealed to the LA Instances. “She acquired off a couple of stops sooner than I used to be planning, so I stated 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 assist group in preparation for his position in Rabbit Gap. “It’s extremely delicate to go in there, after all it’s. I did the analysis. The gathering could be very quiet. There’s 10 individuals, {couples}. [Their children had passed away] very just lately, it is recent. You are sitting in kind of a circle. Then one individual goes, then two, three, then it will get to me. And by that time you are simply so flushed that you simply simply begin going and giving the main points of the story.”
He stated he “misplaced it” when he was talking. “You actually imagine that you simply simply misplaced a baby. You’re as near actuality in that sense as attainable. I do not wish 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 medicine to organize to play the well-known bicycle owner Lance Armstrong in The Program. “It is not one thing I might suggest to fellow actors,” he stated, declining to call the precise drug. “These are very critical chemical compounds they usually have an effect on your physique in actual methods. For my very own investigation it was necessary for me privately to know it.” Nevertheless, he stated it took him a very long time to bodily and mentally recuperate from taking the medicine.
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 organize, however he implies he did take different medicine. “In all transparency, I rolled with these guys on Alpha Canine, and I purchased their medicine, however it’s a must to ask your self how far you may go and nonetheless come again. I had been shedding buddies to crystal meth. The proximity to it was sufficient that I did not must take that door,” he stated. 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 grime to organize for his position in Lone Survivor. “You set 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 in keeping with what the day is demanding,” Foster stated when requested about his actions. “I do not know. I might need been attempting to assist out the make-up division, or I might need simply needed to eat some grime. It is not like I get up within the morning and be like, ‘You realize what I will do at the moment is simply eat handfuls of grime.’ 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, in keeping with Foster, “simulate[d] operations with reside hearth.”
6.
Don Cheadle stated he bought medicine in order that he might perceive his character in Brooklyn’s Best, although he might have been joking. “After I knew I had the position, I went right down to the native pharmaceutical distributor, acquired a packet, and began slinging medicine. I might by no means performed it earlier than. I am a way actor; I needed to perceive it from the bottom up,” Cheadle informed Blackfilm. Nevertheless, he “determined being an actor was higher than promoting medicine.”
7.
Shia LaBeouf reportedly took acid to organize for his position in The Vital Dying of Charlie Countryman — after which was truly on acid whereas filming some scenes the place his character is on acid. “There is a technique to do an acid journey like Harold & Kumar, and there is a technique to be on acid,” he stated. “What I do know of appearing, Sean Penn truly strapped as much as that (electrical) chair in Useless Man Strolling. These are the blokes that I look as much as.”
8.
He additionally had a tooth pulled out for his position in Fury. After Los Angeles dentists refused to assist him, he says, he “acquired it performed by some man in Reseda subsequent to a Radio Shack, and he did not ask too many questions.” Costar Logan Lerman revealed LaBeouf additionally reduce his personal face proper in entrance of him and stored opening the cuts for the movie. Oh, and LaBeouf refused to bathe, in keeping with one supply, who acknowledged Shia was attempting to “higher perceive how his character would have felt dwelling within the trenches.”
9.
To arrange for his position in Good Time, Robert Pattinson basically went undercover in New York. He acquired 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 the whole time I used to be there, for these two months, and I might simply sleep in my garments,” he revealed.
“There was this lady who lived upstairs, and she or he stored attempting to see what was occurring as a result of she thought I used to be such a weirdo. I stored actually bizarre hours, and I might 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 organize for his position in The Energy of the Canine, studying the best way to herd cows and castrate a bull (amongst different issues) in order that he might convincingly play a rancher. He additionally did not wish 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 “massive boy.”
11.
Ryan Gosling did a littleeee an excessive amount of preparation for the position of George Harvey in The Beautiful Bones, and it ended up costing him the position. After he was solid, he began consuming melted ice cream and gained 60 kilos as a result of he “actually believed [the character] must be 210 kilos.” Nevertheless, 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 solid within the position as an alternative.
12.
On the opposite excessive, Christian Bale misplaced over 60 kilos getting ready for his position in The Machinist by subsisting on a weight loss program of cigarettes and whiskey, together with an apple and a single tin of tuna. He acquired right down to 120 kilos and needed to preserve going to beneath 100 kilos — producers for the movie truly needed to cease him as a result of they anxious it’d severely jeopardize his well being.
13.
Equally, to organize for his position in The Pianist, Adrien Brody misplaced 30 kilos by basically almost ravenous himself and “barely consuming water.” He additionally left his girlfriend, gave up his condominium, bought his automobile, disconnected his telephones, and moved to Europe with two luggage and a keyboard, then spent months getting ready by training 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 tough to a task. For The Jacket, he truly requested to be left alone in a room in a straightjacket so he might perceive how it could really feel for his character.
15.
Oh, and he actually acquired actual braces for Oxygen, saying, “I did not know the way 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 actual fact, he ate so little that he truly began to go blind. McConaughey initially refuted this however later acknowledged, “After I acquired right down to the place I misplaced 43 kilos, I did begin shedding my eyesight. I seen it acutely, and it needed to do with the burden 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 position of Steve Jobs in Jobs that he adopted the Apple founder’s weight loss program of “fruitarianism” — which is mainly vegetarianism with an emphasis on fruits. Kutcher particularly began consuming carrot juice always, as Jobs had reportedly additionally performed. At different instances, he was consuming nothing however grapes. This weight loss program landed him the hospital with pancreatitis twice.
18.
Gary Oldman was equally hospitalized after he ate solely “steamed fish and plenty of melon” to play Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy and finally misplaced 30 kilos to play the position.
19.
Girl 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 (despite the fact that filming solely took a couple of months). Proper from the beginning, she dyed her hair, feeling that she couldn’t use the accent as a blonde. “I began to reside in a manner whereby something that I checked out, something that I touched, I began to take discover of the place and after I might see cash,” she additionally stated, including that she started studying and training “as an train” as a result of she thought ‘discovering her pursuits in life, that I might grow to be a photographer.”
To arrange, Gaga additionally wrote an 80-page biography of Reggiani, carb-loaded with pasta and bread to realize weight for the position, and studied panthers to channel them within the position. After which, throughout filming, Gaga needed to rent a psychiatric nurse on set as a result of she stored coping with vomiting and fatigue after channeling private trauma into scenes.
20.
To arrange to play a trans man in Boys Do not Cry, Hilary Swank lived as a person for 4 weeks. She sure her chest and packed a sock in her pants.
21.
To arrange 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 position preparation. For The Crucible, he lived on the uninhabited hen sanctuary island they had been to movie on. He even helped construct his character’s dwelling. “It appeared that the necessary factor to do was some form of bodily work,” Day-Lewis stated. “So I spent a while on the island, as a result of a lot of the story of these individuals’s lives was contained inside the best way they took possession of that land.”
23.
He additionally lived within the North Carolina wilderness for months to organize for The Final of the Mohicans, studying abilities like monitoring and skinning animals, constructing canoes, constructing canoes, and preventing with numerous 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 organize to play a falsely accused man Within the Title of the Father, Day-Lewis lived in a jail cell for 2 days (some studies counsel 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 position — 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 grew to become an apprentice butcher to learn to reduce 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 trendy drugs as a result of it would not have existed within the nineteenth century.
26.
However maybe his most notorious position 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 together with his foot, like his character did. As soon as on set, he remained in a wheelchair and typically needed to be carried over set items and gear. He spent a lot time hunched in a wheelchair that he truly broke two ribs.
27.
Joaquin Phoenix — who can be recognized for his technique appearing — mainly had his jaw wired partly shut to organize for his character’s behavior of talking of the aspect of his mouth in The Grasp. “I truly 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 pressure my jaw shut on one aspect,” Phoenix revealed. “After a pair weeks, the bands, they weren’t actually sturdy sufficient to form of maintain it, so I ended up eliminating the rubber bands, and I nonetheless had these steel brackets in, and so it made me always conscious of my cheek. You realize, that they had these pointy ideas so that they’d tear up the cheek slightly bit, so I simply then was always conscious of it.”
28.
Lastly, Leonardo DiCaprio went arduous in his preparation for The Revenant, consuming uncooked liver to organize for his character’s weight loss program and even sleeping in an animal carcass. He spent a ton of time within the wilderness, and through the shoot, he endured “freezing chilly and attainable hypothermia always,” going out and in of freezing rivers and tenting in extraordinarily low temperatures. His work paid off — DiCaprio lastly gained an Oscar for the position. However…was all that actually essential?
