7 Actors Who Learned Specialized Skills For Their Roles

They might've been acting, but these stars were not faking their talents on set

These already talented stars have added some incredible skills to their résumés.

While preparing for some of their most recognizable roles, actors like Cillian Murphy, Jenna Ortega and Margot Robbie trained in areas that can't be confined to a script. Some stars took up sports and instruments, while others tapped into more hyper-specific abilities, like Joseph Gordon-Levitt's foray into wire-walking.

Check out some of the most impressive ways that actors committed to doing their characters justice.

Cillian Murphy Learned to Lecture in Dutch for 'Oppenheimer'

Cillian Murphy went to extreme lengths in his effort to bring J. Robert Oppenheimer out of history books and onto the big screen in Christopher Nolan's 2023 flick. The Irish star physically and mentally transformed for the role, but one of his most impressive feats was learning to give an advanced physics lecture entirely spoken in Dutch.

In her book Unleashing Oppenheimer: Inside Christopher Nolan's Explosive Atomic-Age Thriller, author Jada Yuan detailed the Murphy's big undertaking for a relatively short scene in the film. As the actor told Deadline just before the film's release in July, he enlisted the help of Nolan’s Dutch cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema.

“He recorded it and then I slowed it down so I just learned it phonetically over three months," Murphy said.

Speaking to Yuan, Murphy explained that the lecture was something he'd never forget since he listened to it so many times. “I can still say it,” he added, although he admitted that’s the extent of his grasp of the language.

Kate Winslet Learned to Free-Dive for 'Avatar: The Way of Water'

In an impressive show of commitment, Kate Winslet learned to hold her breath for several minutes while preparing for Avatar's long-awaited sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water. While all of the film's stars were trained to film underwater, director James Cameron felt Winslet's character Ronal needed to be the the most confident without air.

"Kate's character is someone who grew up underwater as an ocean-adapted Na'vi — they're so physically different from the forest Na'vi, that we'd almost classify them as a subspecies," Cameron told The New York Times in October 2022. "So she had to be utterly calm underwater, and it turned out that she was a natural."

In fact, Winslet became so confident in her free-diving skills that she decided to break Tom Cruise's record for the longest amount of time a person has held their breath for a movie. The Oscar winner told Total Film that she has a video of her surfacing after the seven minutes and 15 seconds she spent without air.

"Well, I didn't have to hold my breath for over seven minutes," Winslet explained to the outlet. "It's just that the opportunity to set a record presented itself."

Jenna Ortega Learn to Play the Cello for 'Wednesday'

Jenna Ortega had big, creepy, kooky shoes to fill when she took on the role of Wednesday Addams in Tim Burton's Netflix series Wednesday. The young star did not disappoint in her portrayal of the sinister school girl, a role she inherited from actresses like Christina Ricci and the late Lisa Loring (the former of whom appeared in the 2022 series as one of Wednesday's school teachers).

In this latest Addams Family spinoff, Wednesday played the cello on multiple occasions, a skill Ortega learned specifically for the role. The actress shared how she took up the instrument in a November 2022 interview with Wired.

"I started working on the cello about two months before we started shooting," she explained, adding that she "probably couldn't play too well now" since she'd been busy working away from home. She continued, "It is something that I want to continue to pursue. I have immense respect for anybody who plays the cello. I think it's such a delightful instrument."

Jennifer Lawrence Learned Ballet for 'Red Sparrow'

Jennifer Lawrence underwent intensive ballet training to prepare for her 2018 role as a Russian ballerina-turned-spy in Red Sparrow. In a featurette for the film, the actress emphasized the importance of her proper footwork.

In preparation, Lawrence said she worked with a ballet instructor "six days a week, three hours a day." And beyond the professional technique, the Hunger Games star was also tasked with emulating a ballerina's everyday behavior beyond the studio.

“The way they carry themselves, the way they handle themselves and the way they work. It was something that was constantly on my mind even after we wrapped all the dancing," Lawrence said.

(Lawrence may not be the first actress who comes to mind when you think of ballet films, but the elegant dance form wasn't as foreign to Natalie Portman. The Black Swan star studied ballet from ages 4 to 12 years old, according to NPR.)

Margot Robbie Learned to Figure Skate for 'I, Tonya'

Gearing up for her Oscar-nominated performance as Tonya Harding in the 2017 biopic I, Tonya, Margot Robbie transformed on ice. While the Australian actress was familiar with ice hockey moves, she needed to adopt the figure skating techniques seen in the Olympics.

Relearning the moves turned out to be trickier than expected, but according to the film's director Craig Gillespie, Robbie went above and beyond the basics.

“She started skating 3 or 4 times a week for five months and she was incredibly diligent about it,” Gillespie told PEOPLE in 2018. “The amount of stuff that she could do was amazing. For that end sequence when she comes out on the ice, those 30 or 40 seconds with all those turns and spins, that’s all Margot. She managed to be in it so much more than I expected.”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Learned Tightrope Walking for 'The Walk'

Joseph Gordon-Levitt didn't actually risk his life while filming The Walk, but he prepared to anyway. The biopic tells the story of French artist Philippe Petit's unauthorized high-wire walk between the Twin Towers in 1974, and Gordon-Levitt was lucky enough to learn from the risk-taker himself.

During an episode of Conan, the actor opened up about his daunting new skill. While he never braved heights as high as the World Trade Center towers (which stood at around 1,360 feet tall), Gordon-Levitt practiced on a six-foot wire. While he says he had to wear a safety harness "because of insurance reasons," the star did practice without the protection upon Petit's encouragement.

"This is the kind of teacher he is," Gordon-Levitt explained on Conan O'Brien's talk show. "He wanted me to really feel at least a hint of the fear of what it's like to be up there without any safety measures."

Keanu Reeves Learned to Surf for 'Point Break'

Back in 1991, Dennis Jarvis, the self-proclaimed "surf doctor of Hollywood," told Entertainment Weekly how he taught Keanu Reeves to hang 10 for Point Break. According to Jarvis, the actor "definitely hadn't surfed before." (Reeves' costar Patrick Swayze, on the other hand, had dabbled a bit).

Luckily, Reeves wasn't playing a pro surfer, and his awkward moves fit his role as FBI agent Johnny Utah, who goes undercover to investigate the surf community. But even though he didn't need to learn the sport inside and out, Jarvis said he continued catching waves post-production. The surf guru even built his most-improved pupil a custom board!

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