Liked it
Making Movies: Beyond the Call of Duty
Really great actors or actresses will go to any lengths, no matter how extreme, to literally become the characters they play. There are some who certainly went above and beyond the call of duty in order to deliver a stellar performance.
While it is a given that performers must work to prepare to their movie rolls, here are some who did so in unexpected ways. Some are shocking, some are weird and some were even dangerous.
Christian Bale
Christian Bale has to top this list for his devotion to his art. He lost an INCREDIBLE 63 pounds for his role in The Machinist. The results were incredibly dramatic and lent intense authenticity to the film. The extreme weight loss was an obvious source of great concern regarding his health.
Heath Ledger
Heath Ledger already had a history of drug abuse and mental problems and became so immersed in the unstable personality of the character the Joker that many believe that he became unhinged even further as a result. He died of a drug overdose before the film was released and won a posthumous Golden Globe award recently for his performance.
Nicholas Cage and John Travolta
Nicholas Cage and John Travolta did an amazing job in transforming themselves in the movie Face Off. It must have really been a challenge for both Cage and Travolta due to the fact that they had to “get into” the parts of two characters in the same movie. The movie was about two men whose faces were switched. So that meant that each actor had to first learn his own character and then, after the switch was made, had to pretend to be the other character. Confusing, isn’t it? The tremendous challenge was to their acting abilities. This was especially important considering the fact that several clues in numerous scenes pinpointing the true identity of the character based on these body language movements and nuances were used to stir excitement and interest in moviegoers.
Martin Sheen
Martin Sheen wanted his performance to be as authentic as possible, so he stayed drunk for two days in order to prepare for a scene in Apocalypse Now (1979). The scene turned out so realistic that the blood in the broken mirror scene was his own. Some believe the stress of the role contributed to Martin’s heart attack, which occurred while the film was in production.
Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Day-Lewis went to a survival camp in Alabama to prepare to his role in The Last of the Mohicans (1992). There he was pushed to limits as if he were in a boot camp and had to learn how to live off the land by tracking animals and generally living by his wits for weeks at a time.
Meryl Streep
Meryl certainly prepared well for her role in Sophie’s Choice (1982). Not only did he shave her head and lose 25 pounds for the Asuchiwitz scene, she also learned to speak both German and Polish fluently. Learning German was nothing compared to learning the complexities of the Polish language.
Montgomery Clift
Montgomery Clift spent a night locked up on Death Row in the San Quentin Penitentiary to prepare for the last scene in A Place in the Sun (1951), where he was sentenced to death. It is said that it was an experience that left him troubled for the rest of his life.
James Caan
James Caan spent so much time with gangland hoods when researching and preparing for his part as Sonny Corleone in The Godfather (1972), that at one point he was nearly arrested by the FBI during their investigation of the gang.
Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman wanted to see how cops really worked in order to prepare for his role as tough cop Popeye Doyle in The French Connection (1971). In order to make sure he played his role in a realistic way, he spent two weeks in a patrol car doing the rounds with a detective. We are not talking about a few hours here and there. He did this for the detective’s entire shift every day.
Jack Lemmon
To ready himself for his role in Days of Wine and Roses (1962), Jack Lemmon went to Alcoholic Anonymous meetings and even watched alcoholics drying out in hospitals, observing them as they endured the agonizing symptoms of the “DTs.” He became so immersed in the straitjacket scene that director Blake Edwards had to shake him quiet for several minutes after the cameras stopped rolling.
Robert Duvall
Robert Duvall was certainly stellar in his contributions to Tender Mercies (1983). He got a job singing in a Country and Western bar to prepare for his role as a country singer. Not only that, he wrote eight of the songs that are featured in the final print of the movie.
Please let me know if I left someone out and I will be sure to add them.
Other articles by Bren Parks include:
Really great work.
keep it up,
cheers,
denus
Interesting read.
enjoyed reading this fab pics nice one.
Love this! You listed some of my favorite actors. Didn’t realize they went through so much just to make movies!!
It reflects in their paypacket LOL great read, thanks
I enjoyed reading this! Bren, your work never ceases to amaze me!
God bless you, my friend, you have certainly earned it!
Great read! I really enjoyed this article.
Fantastic article, a joy to read.
Nice read there Bren! I know some actors/actresses go above and beyond to try and capture their role, didn’t know most of these went to those lengths.
Great work. Very interesting
Wow, they are amazing. Especially the ones that changed something on their body to make the role credible.
Well done Bren. I love articles about facts in the movies.
Excellent read , I really enjoyed it.
Great list, Bren. No wonder some of these actors are recognized as tops in their field.
Interesting list. There should be many more impressive cases like this. Anyway, they get paid very well for doing this, right?
Bren,
This is very interesting. It is great to see that artist are truly dedicated to their crafts.
Very interesting. I always like Meryl Streep. Great work Bren!
Good researching,very interesting read,and well set up…
a brilliant read well done loved it
I actually knew a couple of these,but yes you always come up with great stuff
Well done–my fave stories incuded Dustin Hoffman in “Rainman” when he spent weeks living with an autistic population; and Val Kilmer whose study of his role as Jim Morrison was so intense that he actively, personally lived the role for months after shooting…finally sought professional help to assist him in finding Val Kilmer again. Oh, the sacrifices!
Great list Bren. Some of my favorite actors.
credentials
In order to prepare for the movie Blood Diamond, Leonardo DiCaprio moved to South Africa for I believe like 8 months in order to pick up the language and accent. Nothing stellar, but def committed to his role!
I liked the pictures. Especially the one where samuel jackson is sneaking up on martin sheen in the murky water…………………… wtf?
Great Read! Thanks!
Like a walk through movie history, some great films among your choices.
HA HA Wicked Article!!!!!!!!!
Great article!
Great work!!!
what about robert de niro butting on all that weight to pllay jake la motta in the later scenes of raging bull?
A very interesting article
I can understand the point of trying to gain experience for a role eg. sitting in on AA meetings or driving around in a patrol car, but having teeth pulled out without anaesthetic – that’s just weird.
I can’t stand him, but Jared Leto did a massive weight gain for Chapter 28, the movie about the guy who killed John Lennon.
Hey this is great!!
These are so-called the profesionals. Well done!
this is sooo interesting…
great article. interesting.
how interesting!
I call that above and beyound,great piece
Great writing. I like your style.
Interesting list of movies!
Great list and interesting things I didn’t know.
Great list! I guess their dedication are what makes them great actors.
wow I realy thought actors lifes were alot easyer that that I realy lerned something today.
great pieace
Excellent work! Hope you dont mind but I have blogged this (with reference to your author page) on
http://www.webphemera.com/2009/01/making-movies-beyond-call-of-duty.html
Hope it helps to increase your circulation!
Interesting read. It just shows how important it is to prepare well and immerse oneself.
Hi, Bren, how are you?
This is a pretty interesting and informative article. It certainly brings to light some of the things people will do for their jobs. Thanks for sharing.
Very interesting read.
Very enjoyable and gluing read. I was wishing for more.
Your wish is my command….:)
Adding more and am waiting to publish…soon I hope already been waiting a day…
What is so funny is that I didn’t really think this was one of my best articles…go figure…so now since it is so popular, I am adding to it.
Stellar! I am wonderstuck, -I had no ideas. Particularly impressed that Ms. Streep learned both German and Polish. German is, well, not too difficult to learn but OMG Polish is a difficult, difficult language!! I am trying to learn to speak/understand Polish. Russian is easier, it seems to, well, follow rules that I can relate to. Polish… not so much. *I* find it impossible that a language written in Latin letter but based upon Old Germanic has so many ‘different’ sounds for familiar-looking letters… sheez! -J’ever listen to two Poles conversing? No joke, -it sounds like lights off at the reptile house OMFG! All those impossible sh/sch/schw/sounds …like two rattlesnakes talking to each other!
But I need to learn this.. my wife is Polish and I’d like to visit the country of her birth someday and not be a total illiterate while I’m there..
You get SU for this.
I am adding Heath Ledger, Chistian Bale and Face Off with Nicholas Cage and John Travolta that will have a video…
Didn’t know many of those things! Most of the were very interesting!
A fine piece, with interesting facts and information. I enjoyed it and the pictures too.
Loved it.
you’re still on the top! job well done!
I have come back to this articles three or four times now… its that good.
Wow, this is so well done! I’m impressed. Bren, this is a great article! Nice work.
An interesting converse to this would be an article of actors who have seemingly done nothing to prepare for a role!
Sean Connery playing Irish cops and Lithuanian USSR submarine captains all as Scottish springs to mind!
I liked this Bren!
All of them are very professional actors.
This is a great piece Bren. Well researched. Good job.
I like the additions, I do wonder what drives them to lose 63lbs, I could do with some of the willpower!
Very interesting article. It shows how professional some actors are. Good work.
“…Sean Connery playing Irish cops and Lithuanian USSR submarine captains all as Scottish springs to mind!”
Yeah, -exactly! Worse that being ‘type-cast’ by a role is being poorly cast to a part that they are unable to create the suspension of disbelief. Also, in “Highlander,” Mr. Connery played a sword-wielding Spaniard… but his accent, um, got in the way of taking him too seriously.
Sean Connery was slated to play Mr. Spock’s brother in that one gawd-awful Star Trek movie but had prior commitments (playing Indiana Jones’ dad, which was filming at around the same time.)
So, they hired ‘near-look-a-like’ actor Lawrence Lukenbill to play the role of “Sybok” and, in honor of having offered the role to Sean Connery, the writers re-named the ‘Eden Plant’ to be called “Sha-ka-ree”, a phonetic corruption of “Sean Connery.”
heath ledger’s death was irrelevant to his preparation for that role. he died because his doctor didnt pay attention to the fact that the several prescription medicines he was giving ledger were going to react with each other and kill him. the prescriptions had nothing to do with the his role as the joker, and i can’t actually imagine any reason that being on prescription drugs would have related to or helped him play that role anyway. other than that, great list.
Charlize Theron in Monster…
Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises…
According to the New York Daily News[4], Viggo Mortensen studied Russian gangsters and their tattoos, and also consulted a documentary on the subject called The Mark of Cain (2000). The tattoos that he wore were, according to the New York Daily News, so real that when he went into a Russian restaurant in London, a Russian couple sitting next to him became very quiet when they saw the tattoos on his hands, but since Mortensen could not speak ten words of Russian the mood of the restaurant changed back to normal.[5] From that day on he washed off his tattoos whenever he went off the set. Mortensen said of the significance of the tattoos:
\”I talked to them about what they meant and where they were on the body, what that said about where they\’d been, what their specialties were, what their ethnic and geographical affiliations were,\” Mortensen says. \”Basically their history, their calling card, is their body.\”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Promises#Tattoos
Yeah, I agree on the Heath Ledger thing.
I don’t see a connection between overdosing and the Joker. He didn’t die for the role and they were in no way connected..?
Heath Ledger and the drugs are very much connected. He died because of an overdose because he slightly lost his mind because of the role. Not only that, he also spent like a week or something by himself in a hotel room practicing his laugh.
You also have Matt Damon, who recently put on 50 pounds of flab to play a fat character. But a few years before, he ran over 13 miles a day for a couple months to get the gaunt took of a heroin addict. I forget the movie names, though.
Great concept. this article is just amazing. i didnt know about any of these. ive seen all these movies and now it just really amazing to have this knowlege. reall really great job with this one.
lets give Danial Day Lewis credit for My Left Foot too!
I love the movies and learning about the actors! I enjoyed the pictures you provided as well. That is pretty intense to live your life like that! Thanks for the info and the article!
Ben Foster allegedly walked around the set of Alpha Dog with his eyes closed at all times so his pupils would appear realistically dilated during his scenes. He played a meth-addict (or cocaine, not sure) in the film.
Hey guys check my article for latest reviews! its on http://electronicwars.blogspot.com/ latest one one defiance
great Article btw!!
I am # 79 to comment and # 71 to like this article… That says it all, does it? Great work, Bren! Here are some topics you don’t read everywhere!
Thanks Patrick
Have you seen my new one about Stars Who Died Undone? I think it blows this one AWAY.
Just click on my name at the bottom of the article and you will see it. It came out today.
Fabulously put together, i shall definitely look up your stars who died undone. keep them coming!
Scarier than the movies themselves!!!
Amazing! This is wonderful and well put. Thanks
Face Off was wack. If you are going to praise Cage and Travolta for playing two different characters then surely Eddie Murphy should be on this list for getting into the mind of the entire Klump family.
just would like to point out that more than one of my posts have been deleted simply because i questioned the validity of this entire post. what ever happened to free speech?
calvin4pres@hotmail.com please comment if you’re upset. ..that is, if you get that chance to read this before it’s deleted.
You should have included johnny depp’s drug usage while preparing for fear and loathing.
Tom Hanks – Cast Away
“My Left Foot” and “Raging Bull?”
In Gangs of New York, there is a scene where the Daniel Day-Lewis character, Bill the Butcher, taps his glass eye with the point of a knife. Day-Lewis practiced actually tapping his own eye with the knife, and a little glassy tapping sound was added to the final cut.
THAT is dedication.
As an amateur actor myself, but a student of acting and its various methods…I must say that there is a difference between committing to a role; immersing oneself in it, and obsessing over it; making the character become a part of your own personality. The latter technique is associated with Method acting, an American style based off the mistranslated works of Constantin Stanislavky. My belief reflects that of Stanislavsky and those who reject the total immersion technique; I think that there should always be a dividing line between the actor and the character. Even if the character loses control, the actor never should. In a book by director Don Richardson, entitled “Acting Without Agony”, he gives two anecdotes involving the great Laurence Olivier. The first illustrates control and separation. Richardson tells of a time that he went with a female friend to see Olivier as King Oedipus in a production of Oedipus. During the final scene after learning that his wife and mother of his 3 children is actually his own mother, King Oedipus stabs out his own eyes and must be led offstage by his daughter Antigone, in the throes of emotional and physical agony. After Olivier disappears from the stage, Richardson’s friend, who is a personal friend of the actor’s, leads Richardson backstage to meet Olivier. When Laurence sees the woman, his demeanor completely changes from a man who is utterly destroyed both physically and emotionally to himself again, quipping “Cocktails in the green room, Babs?”
This proves that it is possible to achieve the emotional height and intensity required for a stage performance (in which everything has to be bigger, compared to film; the camera is much more attuned to the slightest facial nuance than a whole theater of people), without…for example, sleeping with one’s own mother and then gouging one’s eyes out. Just…no. It can’t be done.
Another story, of which there are varying versions, depending on who you ask, occurred on the set of Marathon Man. Olivier and Dustin Hoffman were the leads, Olivier playing the surviving Nazi doctor whom Hoffman was searching for. A scene of torture ensues, in which the doctor pulls out every one of Hoffman’s teeth. As it goes, the day that the scene was meant to be shot, Hoffman would not leave his trailer. For two days this went on, until finally he emerged, haggard, unshaven, drained…not having slept or eaten for three days. When Olivier asked him what the hell he’d been doing, Hoffman replied that he was preparing for the scene. After a moment (dramatic pause, of course), Olivier is quoted as saying “Why don’t you just act it?”
Oooooo burn.
But in the end, I’m not saying that one way is better than the other. I’m too young and inexperienced to know which, if either, is truly better. Perhaps immersing yourself totally and completely in the character until it takes over you allows a more complete and authentic portrayal of a character. However…if I have to act out in grief at the death of my mother, I don’t want to recall the death of a very dear aunt every single time. Acting shouldn’t hurt the actor. It should be exhausting and physically draining, but a role shouldn’t affect the actor to the point that he has trouble finding himself again when the role is over.
In the case of Day-Lewis and Streep, who are without a doubt two of the best actors of the 20th century, they did not do themselves physical and emotional harm in the examples given above. They did not overstep the line between commitment and obsession. Perhaps Ledger did, Sheen and Lemmon took it too far. For Bale, the physical appearance and the effect of emaciation on one’s body would have been difficult to achieve without losing all that weight. But that’s pushing the boundary.
Acting is not about becoming someone else. We can’t truly become someone else…we’re always just pretending. That’s what actors do; pretend. Some just do it better than others.
Christian Bale’s commitment to his profession can also be seen in the Batman movies. After doing The Machinist, he bulked up considerably to play the dark night. If I’m not mistaken, he did one film right after the other.