Every actor has a process that helps them better portray the characters they've been assigned. One technique many actors use is method acting. Although this process can help actors better understand their characters, it can be a particularly dangerous experience, depending on the life of the character and how far the actor goes.
In extreme cases, method acting can prevent actors from ever switching out of character mode. One of the more talked-about cases is when Heath Ledger locked himself in his apartment for a month to prepare for his role as the Joker. Other actors have also gone to extreme lengths for their roles, but some took it too far.
10 Tom Hanks Got A Staph Infection During The Filming Of Cast Away
Tom Hanks is known for his incredible acting range for roles like Fred Rogers and Forrest Gump. Hanks also stars in the 2000 survival drama Cast Away as a FedEx worker named Chuck Noland. Chuck survives a plane crash and four years on a remote island in the South Pacific with his volleyball companion, Wilson.
To prepare for his role, Hanks gained 50 pounds to play Chuck before the plane crash, then lost 55 pounds to play Chuck on the island. During filming, Hanks developed a staph infection from a cut on his leg. This infection could have been fatal considering his lack of hygiene to better portray Chuck.
9 Leonardo DiCaprio Finally Won An Oscar For The Revenant
Leonardo DiCaprio is notorious in the film industry for the long-running joke about his Academy Award curse. However, he broke the record when he won Best Actor for the 2015 film The Revenant. DiCaprio stars as Hugh Glass, a frontiersman in the mid-1800s who faces the obstacles of the daunting wilderness and seeks revenge for his son's death.
DiCaprio went to extremes in preparation for his role. He ate raw bison and slept in animal carcasses during a physically demanding filming process for The Revenant.
8 Adrien Brody Got Rid Of Almost Everything He Owned For The Pianist
The Pianist is a 2002 biographical war drama based on the eponymous autographical novel by Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish-Jewish pianist and composer who details his survival during the Holocaust. Adrien Brody stars in the lead role as Szpilman and earns an Academy Award for Best Actor for his stellar performance.
Brody went to great lengths to prepare for his portrayal of Szpilman. He learned how to play piano, lost 30 pounds, and sold his apartment and almost all of his possessions. Brody and his long-term girlfriend even broke up, which took the method acting even further.
7 Jamie Foxx Had Panic Attacks When He Glued His Eyelids Shut For Ray
Ray is a 2004 biographical film that follows 30 years of Ray Charles' life as a famous R&B musician, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s. Unfortunately, Charles died months before Ray's premiere. Jamie Foxx portrayed Charles, which earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Since Charles was blind, Foxx agreed to glue his eyelids shut. He even wore prosthetic eyelids modeled after Charles' for over 14 hours a day during filming. Foxx, who played all the piano parts in Ray, initially freaked out at the experience and even had panic attacks.
6 Nicolas Cage Got His Teeth Pulled Out Without Anesthetic
Birdy is a 1984 drama directed by Alan Parker and based on William Wharton's 1978 eponymous novel. Birdy follows Matthew Modine in the titular role and Nicolas Cage's Alfonso "Al" Columbato as two teens during the 1960s in Philadelphia. The two friends frequently reminisce about their harrowing experiences during the Vietnam War.
Al Columbato becomes injured after a bomb explosion. To prepare for his role, Cage kept his head bandaged for five continuous weeks and got his two front teeth pulled out without anesthetic. This was done to better understand the pain that soldiers in Vietnam experienced.
5 Daniel Day-Lewis Would Text In Lincoln's Tone
Lincoln is a 2012 biographical film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg. Lincoln details Former President Abraham Lincoln's life from January 1865 until his assassination in April. Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Abraham Lincoln, opposite Sally Field as First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln.
Day-Lewis, who received the Academy Award for Best Actor for this role, didn't go to the extreme lengths that other actors did. However, he frequently texted people and signed the messages "Yours, A." He would also speak using language that Lincoln would use, which would constantly confuse his friends.
4 Sylvester Stallone Spent Nine Days In The ICU
The fourth installment of the Rocky franchise would test Sylvester Stallone's limits in his physically demanding role as Rocky Balboa. Stallone's success as an action film star led to him being placed in dangerous positions while filming. However, some of those instances were from Stallone's creative decisions.
Stallone wanted fighting scenes to look real in Rocky IV. He encouraged Dolph Lundgren, who played Ivan Drago, to punch him. Lundgren's uppercut landed Stallone in the ICU for nine days, and filming was put on hold for two weeks.
3 Dustin Hoffman Went Too Far During Kramer Vs. Kramer
Kramer Vs. Kramer is a 1979 legal drama written and directed by Robert Benton, based on Avery Corman's 1977 novel with the same title. Kramer Vs. Kramer became the highest-grossing film of 1979 and earned a whopping $173 million on an $8 million budget.
Kramer Vs. Kramer details the messy divorce between Dustin Hoffman's character and Meryl Streep's, and their resulting parenting methods. To make their on-screen arguments appear more realistic, Hoffman slapped Streep across the cheek and would throw many insults her way, sometimes even involving her dead boyfriend.
2 Ashton Kutcher Developed Pancreatitis Twice During Jobs
The 2013 biographical film Jobs follows the early days of Apple until the launch of the iPod in 2001. Ashton Kutcher portrays Steve Jobs and Josh Gad plays Steve Wozniak, the co-founders of Apple Computers. Jobs shows their early collaboration, which created one of the biggest technology companies.
Kutcher spent many hours researching Jobs' life, and even landed himself in the hospital after trying to mimic Jobs' eating habits. "He also only ate grapes at one point. We ended up in the hospital, twice, with pancreatitis," stated Mila Kunis, Kutcher's wife who disagreed with method acting.
1 Jamie Dornan Stalked A Woman At The Subway Station
The Fall is a crime drama television series starring Jamie Dornan as the serial killer Paul Spector and Gillian Anderson as Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson. To better understand the mind of a serial killer, Dornan participated in a particularly creepy practice when he purposely followed a woman at the London Underground.
"I kept my distance … she got off a few stops earlier than I was planning so I said right, I have to commit to this. I followed her around a couple of street corners and then was like: what are you doing? It felt kind of exciting, in a sort of dirty way. I’m sort of not proud of myself. But I do honestly think I learned something from it because I’ve obviously never done any of that," stated Dornan to the LA Times.