Most stars are told to “break a leg” before they step out on stage (or set) – but for many actors, there’s far more that goes into getting into character for a role.
It’s pretty mind-blowing to see how far Hollywood’s most talented will go to nail a role – without ever knowing if it will pay off at the box office, or come award’s season.
Speaking of celebrities, hear about why some of them have ditched Hollywood altogether below:
From yo-yo dieting, to rigorous training schedules, and total lifestyle changes, here are 5 actors who went to extreme lengths to get in character.
Christian Bale
Christian Bale is well-known for stacking on, and quickly shedding kilograms in the name of a movie role. For 2004’s The Machinist, Bale dropped almost 30kgs. For the 2018 film Vice, Bale went down the opposite route. In preparing for his role as Dick Cheney, the actor told Variety he just “a lot of pies” to bulk up and get into character.
We even did the grim maths to tally up every single kilo he’s burned off or stacked on over the course of his illustrious career.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Speaking of his role in the 2015 Oscar-winning flick The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio said, “I can name 30 or 40 sequences that were some of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do.”
“Whether it’s going in and out of frozen rivers, or sleeping in animal carcasses, or what I ate on set. [I was] enduring freezing cold and possible hypothermia constantly.”
The good news is, Leo’s work in the film scored him the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 2016 Oscars making it all worth it.
Natalie Portman
In preparing for her role in the 2010 film Black Swan, Natalie Portman trained for a year with New York City ballet dancers. According to NPR, “by the end, Portman was dancing several hours a day, swimming miles and cross-training, losing almost 20 pounds in the process.”
“Her body, she says, paid a price: Her toenails fell off, her feet became calloused and she dislocated a rib during a lift.”
Shia LaBeouf
In a 2014 interview with Dazed, LeBeouf said Fury director David Ayer “told us right from the gate: ‘I need you to give me everything.’ So the day I joined the U.S. National Guard. I was baptised—accepted Christ in my heart—tattooed my surrender and became a chaplain’s assistant to Captain Yates for the 41st Infantry. I spent a month living on a forward operating base.”
“Then I linked up with my cast and went to Fort Irwin. I pulled my tooth out, knifed my face up, and spent days watching horses die. I didn’t bathe for four months.”
Now, that is commitment.
Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron really has done it all when it comes to preparing for a movie role. For the 2003 film Monster, Theron tattooed her face and put on 13kgs, for 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, the actor shaved her head, and in preparation for the 2005 movie North Country, Theron reportedly spent 12-hour shifts in a mine.
Honourable mention has to go to Penn Badgley, who finds it “shockingly simple” to get into character as creepy stalker Joe Goldberg in You. Also, Jacob Elordi – who got emo for The Kissing Booth 2 with some pretty extreme (and crushing) tactics.
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