15 Things I Just Learned About Actors And What They Did To Completely Nail A Role
If you thought all actors did was run lines to perfect a scene, prepare for the wildest wake up call of your life! Here are just a few examples I learned about this year:
1.Jennifer Lawrence — Winter's Bone
While many fans remember watching Jennifer as Katniss Everdeen going to extreme measures to survive in The Hunger Games, but Jennifer seemed to do the same thing for her role in the 2010 coming-of-age film Winter's Bone. She revealed she learned how to skin and gut a dead squirrel, so she could do so on-screen.
2.Brad Pitt — Fight Club
In order to really take this 1999 American cult classic to the next level, Brad voluntarily had a dentist chip pieces from his front teeth to play a character heavily involved in illegal brawls. After filming finished, Brad went right back to the dentist to get his winning smile back.
3.Charlize Theron — Monster
In this 2003 biographical crime drama, Charlize portrays serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute who murdered seven of her clients. To completely channel her real-life character, Charlize shaved her eyebrows, wore prosthetic teeth, and made sure her hair was thinned and repeatedly fried her ends.
4.Jamie Dornan — The Fall
He probably should've kept this information to himself, but Jamie admitted to following a woman off the train to put him in the right mindset for his role as a serial killer. He said he kept his distance as he followed her around a couple street corners. “It felt kind of exciting, in a really sort of dirty way,” Jamie told the LA Times.
5.Rooney Mara — The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (US)
Rooney starred in the US film adaptation of the popular Swedish fictional series about a hacker hired to help solve a murder. For this 2011, neo-noir psychological thriller, Rooney went as far as getting her nipples pierced to match the character's description in the book trilogy. But because her character is covered in tattoos and piercings, Rooney also got four ear piercings, as well as her lip and nose.
6.Bryan Cranston — Breaking Bad
There's a reason why Bryan looked so convincing as an illegal drug chemist in this 2008 crime drama series. Bryan and Aaron Paul were both taught how to make meth by DEA chemists, who were also consultants on the show. Bryan admitted they didn't actually cook the meth, but they were instructed on the detailed process.
7.Chloë Sevigny — The Brown Bunny
Chloë gave audiences the shock of their lives when she decided to actually perform oral sex on her co-star Vincent Gallo, who also happened to be the director and her boyfriend at the time. While there's no problem with consensual sex acts being performed on-screen, viewers of the 2003 experimental road drama were not ready.
8.Jamie Foxx — Ray
Excuse my bias, but Ray is one of the best biographical films of all time. Jamie truly embodied the iconic musician, from his mannerisms to the music itself. To truly capture the essence of Ray Charles, Jamie lost 30 pounds for the role and even wore prosthetic eyelids, which he had glued shut for 14 hours a day. Jamie later admitted to having panic attacks because of it.
9.Nicole Kidman — The Paperboy
Have you ever heard the notion that you should pee on a jellyfish sting to relieve the pain? Well, that popular myth brings us to the next scene on our list. In this 2012 American crime drama, Zac Efron's character is stung by a jellyfish. And instead of faking the stunt, Nicole chose the authentic route — she urinated on Zac's face!
10.Halle Berry — Jungle Fever
To really set the smell — I mean tone — of her role as a crackhead in Spike Lee's 1991 romantic drama, Halle opted to forego showering for about eight weeks. Although she admitted, "certain body parts got washed," she didn't bathe for the entire time they shot the film.
11.Choi Min-sik — Oldboy
If you're a fan of action movies, then there's a strong chance you've seen this 2003 neo-noir film. Choi performed most of his own stunts while playing a man who's been imprisoned for 15 years. And one of the stunts just so happened to be one of the most-talked about scenes in the film: Choi eating a live octopus. In fact, because they had to do four separate takes, Choi ended up eating four. Choi is also a Buddhist and a vegetarian, so he apologized to the sea creatures and said a prayer for each octopus before putting them in his mouth.
12.Rosamund Pike — Gone Girl
If, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," then Rosamund's character in this 2014 psychological thriller was that times 100! In one of her most memorable scenes, Rosamund seduces her ex and then proceeds to slit his throat with a box cutter. And in order to prepare herself for that, Rosamund practiced using box cutter on a pig carcass at a local butcher shop just to "understand what it would be like."
13.Michelle Williams — My Week with Mariyln
Marilyn Monroe was known for a lot of things and one of them was her distinct walk. As a way to capture her signature wiggle, Michelle walked around with a belt tied around her knees.
14.John David Washington — Tenet
For this 2020 sci-fi action film, John David plays a CIA agent participating in an extraction operation. For this special role, he not only learned how to talk backwards, but John David was also taught how to blink, walk, fight, block, and run backwards.
15.Ruth Wilson — Dark River
While preparing to play a farmer in this 2017 dark British drama, Ruth did the obvious and decided to work on a farm in Yorkshire to learn the ins and outs of the trade. What wasn't so obvious were the skills she picked up, which included but weren't limited to castrating lambs, clipping feet, and shearing sheep.
