10 Actors Who Probably Shouldn’t Have Too Much Empathy With Their Characters

In trying to achieve perfection in a role, some actors, especially the most perfectionists, are sincerely willing to do anything to become one with their character. To such an extent that sometimes it is not enough for them to simply transfer stories, sensations, discomfort or emotions to the big screen simply through the game, but they try to experience them themselves even outside the set, during the day, in order to identify themselves 100%. and give the performances as much realism as possible. However, it happens that in order to achieve this goal, some stars definitely go beyond professionalism and the so-called action methodto completely go crazy with the role … or almost! From those who forgot their accent, to those who lived like a bum, to the famous star who even had four teeth removed just for the sake of filming a movie! In today’s gallery discover 10 actors who probably shouldn’t have empathized too much with their characters

To play transgender boy Brandon Teena in Boys Don’t Cry, Hilary Swank did more than just act: she literally transformed. For about a month, the actress lived like a man, calling herself a man’s name, dressing in men’s clothes, talking like a man and hiding her chest with a bandage. The transformation was so realistic that it was difficult for her to return to normal life herself, and the neighbors even believed that a distant relative was visiting her!

It’s no news that Shia LaBeouf usually empathizes with his characters until he nearly goes crazy, but on the set of Fury, he really gave it his all. Since his character did not have the opportunity to wash, the actor decided to make it as realistic as possible. You read it right: for over a month he greeted the shower, appearing on a dirty and smelly film set. Colleagues must not have been pleased!

Knowing everything he did to achieve the perfect performance, it’s no surprise that Adrien Brody won an Oscar for The Pianist. In fact, the actor, in order to try to recreate in his life the discomfort and drama that his character experienced, decided to live as much as possible, like him, throwing away the phone, selling the apartment and even the car, in order to become practically a Tramp! To make it even more believable, he also stopped eating to the point where he weighed only 59 kg with a height of 1.80 m when he arrived on set, putting his health at risk.

Completely crazy or overly professional? Judgment is yours. To best portray his character in The Bird, Nicolas Cage had four of his teeth removed. That’s right, a good four, because the Vietnam veteran he played lost them. Not only that, the actor walked around with a bandaged head for five weeks, even off set, to get used to his character’s headbands!

We already know the ups and downs that made him talk about filming Gangs of New York, but Daniel Day-Lewis went a little further with My Left Foot. To better portray his paralyzed character, the actor refused to get out of his wheelchair during filming, forcing the crew to carry him around the set even during breaks. On top of that, he spent six months all alone in the forest, hunting animals to survive!

Just as the protagonist of Black Swan was obsessed with striving for perfection in her interpretation of Black Swan, so Natalie Portman developed a kind of obsession with her character, which had to be as realistic as possible. Already studying ballet, it was not difficult for the actress to shoot most of the dance scenes, which led her to complete identification with Nina. So much so that she said she was hard to get rid of after filming, so much so that for a while she felt more like her character than the real Natalie. Worrying!

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was something of a flop when it came out, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t have a lot of work to do. Especially from protagonist Johnny Depp, who, feeling especially inspired by the book it’s based on, decided to literally put it to the test. It took him several years to get into the role, even going to live – four months – in the basement of the writer Hunter S. Thompson to imitate him and turn into his double: he slept at the same time, ate the same, took hard drugs, also shaved, drove his own car and even wore unwashed clothes… 30 years!

His interpretation of the Joker will be remembered as one of the best ever, but filming The Dark Knight was definitely not a walk for Heath Ledger. To prepare for the role, the actor isolated himself in a hotel room for more than a month, where in addition to honing the villain’s laugh, he kept a whole diary of crazy and meaningless sentences. Once on set, he began to terrorize the rest of the cast due to his over-empathy, going so far as to ignore anyone who called him by his first name instead of the Joker’s. Looking back, it wasn’t easy to get out of character.

All the physical challenges that Leonardo DiCaprio had to overcome on the set of The Revenant are now history, but on a psychological level, identifying with his character was no walk in the park! Suffice it to say that the actor has been a committed vegetarian for many years, but in order to achieve perfection in the interpretation that brought him an Oscar, he began to eat buffalo meat … raw! Moreover, it appears that the very low temperatures he was subjected to even forced him to risk his life.

When it comes to work, the Oscar-winning star is second to none. After a masterful performance in The Reader, with which, unsurprisingly, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, it took Kate Winslet about two months to “come out” of her image. In fact, throughout the filming period, in order to make the German accent of the main character as true as possible, she began to speak the same way 24 hours a day, even when telling her children bedtime stories! It took a long time for the accent to disappear completely!

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