Six Times Preparing For A Role Wasn't Really Worth It, And Five Others Where It Absolutely Was

"I hyperventilated the first few times."

A lot has to be done to prepare for a role, and some actors go to extreme lengths to get into character. However, all that preparation doesn't always necessarily pay off.

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So, here are five actors who's extreme preparation paid off, and six others where the work wasn't quite worth it:

1. Daniel Day-Lewis – Gangs of New York

Miramax Films

Where better to start than Mr method himself. Daniel Day-Lewis has employed some pretty intense rituals of preparation for his various roles, for which he's accrued a formidable number of accolades. The one which may be most over the top, however, was for Gangs of New York. 

The actor insisted on wearing period-accurate clothing, despite the bitterly cold conditions. This commitment to the role lead to the actor actually getting pneumonia. It was also reported that the actor, so intent on staying in character, refused modern medicine and was at risk of dying, which is obviously incredibly inadvisable.   

Still though, his performance, and everything he put in to it, brought him the Academy Award for Best Actor, although I'm not sure that's worth pneumonia. 

2. Leonardo Di Caprio – The Revenant

20th Century Studios

It's well known what Leonardo Di Caprio put himself through to embody Hugh Glass in The Revenant, but that makes it no less baffling, and kinda disgusting. The actor revealed that some of the filming process was some of the hardest things he'd ever done: 

"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.”

That certainly does seem like a lot of hard grinding to put in to get into a role, but the actor's efforts were enough to earn him his first Oscar, so I'm sure he thinks it's worth it. 

3. Jamie Foxx – Ray

Universal Pictures

Jamie's portrayal of the great Ray Charles was certainly not an easy job. To even get the role he had to get the approval of the man himself, which he earned by jamming with him at the piano until he gave his consent. But the more intense part was the filming process. For the shoots, some that would last up to 14 hours, Jamie would have his eyes glued shut to truly get into character. 

Of the experience he said: “First we glued my eyelids closed and that was crazy. [I said] 'You gotta get me soap, this is not gonna work!' I hyperventilated the first few times and then they finally got it right and got the method down from five hours to maybe like an hour to get them done and made it easier.”

Jamie's hard work certainly paid off though, with him winning the Oscar, something that he himself was surprised by and didn't take all that seriously. 

4. Halle Berry – Jungle Fever

Universal Pictures

When Halle was starting her acting career, she was intent on not being shoehorned into the "gorgeous girl" character type. Spike Lee gave her a shot for his film Jungle Fever, with the intention of her playing his wife. Halle, however, had other ideas, saying to Spike, "You know, I really am eyeing this crack ho role, can you please let me audition for that?’ And he said, ‘No, no I don’t see you as the crack ho.'"

Well, Halle eventually convinced him, and got the role. In order to immerse herself in the role, however, she decided to not wash herself for the whole time, as she revealed: 

"I didn't smoke crack. I drew the line there but it was 23 years ago so I was brand spanking new and at that time all I could really do was kind of try to be it, to be it so I didn't shower for the whole entire time that we shot that movie, so that was probably about eight weeks."

5. Adrien Brody – The Pianist

Pathé Distribution

Portraying Władysław Szpilman was never going to be an easy job, and it's something that Adrien Brody took seriously. In preparing for the role, he took some drastic actions, as he remembered: “I gave up my apartment, I sold my car, I disconnected the phones, and I left. I took two bags and my keyboard and moved to Europe.”

Not only did he rid himself with his connections and possessions, but he was also on an incredibly strict diet, one which lead him to weighing just 130 pounds at one point. With his preparation and performance, he became the youngest ever winner of Best Actor in a Lead Role at the Oscars, 

On the other side of the coin, there are times that over-preparing doesn't necessarily reap the rewards it seems it might. Here are six examples of it not quite being worth it:

6. Jared Leto – Suicide Squad

Warner Bros. Pictures

Jared Leto's antics in the lead up to his portrayal of the Joker in Suicide Squad are infamous. From sending dead hogs to all of the cast, 'gifting' Margot Robbie a live rat, and not even speaking to Will Smith for the entire time, he certainly went "all in on the Joker" as Will put it. 

The problem with all of this preparation and behaviour? He was only on screen for around 10 minutes. In fact, his antics on set may have contributed to many of his scenes being cut. David Ayer denied that his screen time was cut short due to 'bad performance', but whatever the reason, 10 minutes just doesn't seem worth it for all that prep. 

7. Matt Damon – Courage Under Fire

20th Century Studios

Matt's dedication to becoming Specialist Andrew Ilario lead him to partaking in an extremely dangerous diet, one that he took it upon himself to do. With no dietitian or supervision, his weight loss regime had serious effects on his health, with the actor having to go on “medication for dizziness, lightheadedness, stress, post-traumatic stress disorder.”

While he was thankfully okay in the end, his methods have changed since then, and with the film not exactly pulling up any trees, the toll on his body probably wasn't worth it.  

8. Ian McKellen – The Keep

Paramount Pictures

The legendary actor revealed that this film was his very worst moviemaking experience in his whole career, and the series of calamities included one of the preparations the actor did for the role. 

He explained the misunderstanding that lead to this: “Michael Mann said to me, ‘You’re playing this Romanian.’ So I went to Romania to scout it out, and I learned how to speak with a Romanian accent.”

The problem was, that when he arrived on set, with his Romanian accent ready to go, the director actually wanted him to speak in a Chicago accent, which he couldn't do. 

9. Ryan Gosling – Lovely Bones

Gareth Cattermole / Gareth Cattermole / Getty Images

Talk about over-preparing for a role, in Ryan's case, his preparation essentially lead to his firing. When he was hired for the role of Jack Salmon, he and director Peter Jackson had very different ideas of how the character should look. Ryan believed the character should be around 210 pounds, so he endeavoured to put on 60 pounds. 

When Ryan arrived on set with this new figure, after a routine of drinking melted ice cream when he was thirsty, Peter Jackson didn't see the character he'd envisioned, and ended up recasting the role. To quote Ryan, “Then I was fat and unemployed.”

10. Harris Dickinson – Triangle of Sadness

Lionsgate

Harris' misunderstanding didn't cost him the role, but it did cost him a fair amount of time. Upon understanding the brief of his character, a car mechanic scouted on the street to be a model, he decided to do some research to get into the role. Already knowing a fair amount about fashion, he thus started to read up on cars and being a mechanic. 

Of course, if you've seen the movie, the mechanic element of his character is pretty irrelevant, something he quickly realised once he arrived on set:  "I remember getting on set and everything just got stripped about that story. I felt like a bit of an idiot."

11. Channing Tatum – Hail, Caesar!

Universal Pictures

Okay, maybe it wasn't an ultimate waste of time, but Channing's preparation for Hail Ceasar included three months of intensive training in order for him to nail the dance routine which lasted six minutes on the screen. While his form is excellent (to the very untrained eye), three months seems like a hell of a lot of work for such a short amount of screen time. 

Here's what the actor said about the process: "It's the most I've ever prepped for a six-minute section in a movie… When I'm nervous about something, I drill it to a point that is probably unhealthy, but as long as it works even halfway, I'm happy at the end of the tortuous day."

When else has preparing for a role gone really well or badly? Let us know in the comments below!