Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the greatest actors in history or one of the most insane depending upon who you talk to.
– For his role as paralyzed poet Christy Brown in My Left Foot (1989), Day-Lewis refused to move from his wheelchair and had the crew lift him over obstacles. He insisted his meals be spoon-fed to him. Several weeks of slouching in the wheelchair resulted in two broken ribs and a Best Actor Oscar.
– For his role as Nathaniel Hawkeye in Last of The Mohicans (1992) Day-Lewis lived in isolation in the Alabama wilderness where he tracked, hunted and skinned animals for food. As director Michael Mann told Time magazine: “If he didn’t shoot it, he didn’t eat it.”
– As Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, Day-Lewis prepared for a year before shooting began and stayed in character even when the cameras weren’t rolling. He demanded that everyone on set – including director Steven Spielberg – call him “Mr. President” and would not let English cast members speak to him in their own accents, for fear that it might throw him off.
A real pain in the butt to work with to be sure. However, Day-Lewis’ dedication to his craft has certainly paid off, earning him another Best Actor win for Lincoln (2012).
Actor Christian Bale’s weight fluctuates with his roles. For The Machinist (2005), Bale dropped a whopping 63 pounds and it was not at the request or demand of the director.
At 6 feet tall he weighed 185 pounds, which is average for his height. For The Machinist, Bale received virtually no weight loss guidance. After meeting with a doctor only once, he simply took matters into his own hands.
His diet consisted of one can of tuna and one apple per day. Bale thought as long as he felt okay he could simply keep going. He reached 120 pounds and it’s rumored that he wanted to go even further, but producers warned him against it, fearing it would seriously damage his health.
Less than five months later, Bale bulked up for his role in Batman Begins (2005) by gaining almost 100 pounds. His weight gain was healthier than his previous weight loss – he ate a high-carb diet and returned to a regimen of three-hour training sessions to gain 60 pounds of muscle and eventually added on another 39 pounds during filming.
Another actor in the Batman franchise, Health Ledger, also took his craft seriously, but his immersion may have played a part in his death.
To play Batman’s arch-nemesis The Joker, Ledger locked himself in a hotel room for a month and barely slept. He created a diary filled with images of clippings from Batman comics, pictures from Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, playing cards, pictures of clowns and more.
As shooting commenced, Ledger told reporters he “slept an average of two hours a night” while playing “a psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy. I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going.”
By the time he started his next movie, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Ledger was suffering from chronic insomnia, pneumonia, and exhaustion. On a break from the movie, he went back to New York to recuperate, but on January 22, 2008 he was found dead from what is believed to be an accidental overdose.
Long before run-of-the-mill comedies like Meet The Fockers (2004) were part of his repertoire, Robert De Niro’s immersion into his characters rivaled that of Daniel Day-Lewis.
– De Niro lived in Sicily for several months prior to playing a young Vito Corleone inGodfather II (1974). There he learned the language and dialect necessary to build the character of a young Vito Corleone, for which he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
– For Raging Bull (1980), De Niro gained 60 pounds to play middleweight boxer Jake La Motta. He also endured rigorous boxing training, administered by none other than LaMotta himself. Director Martin Scorcese feared for De Niro’s life after he started to suffer from respiratory problems due to his excessive weight gain and production was shut down for a time. De Niro received a Best Actor Oscar for Raging Bull.
– While shooting Taxi Driver (1976), De Niro obtained a cab driver’s license (pictured above) and picked up fares while on breaks from the movie.
– Wearing prosthetic teeth wasn’t enough for De Niro to get into the mindset of Cape Fear(1991) sociopath Max Cady. To play him, De Niro underwent a complete transformation, which included paying several thousand dollars to have his teeth ground down and deformed.
Now that’s dedication, folks!
Several actresses auditioned to be Brandon Teena, a female-to-male transgender who was murdered in 1993 and the main character depicted in 1999’s Boys Don’t Cry. Hilary Swank showed up in her then husband’s clothes and a cowboy hat and landed the role.
A month before shooting, Swank lived as a man. She cut her hair short, bound her breasts and even stuffed a sock in her underwear – “trying to disguise my femininity as best as I could” – to pass as a boy. She spoke low voice, and introduced herself to neighbors and friends as Hilary’s brother, James.
Like most on our list, her dedication paid off – she too won a Best Actress Oscar in 2000.
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