Here Are 21 Times Actors Went Above And Beyond For A Role

    In order to make Breaking Bad as realistic as possible, Bryan Cranston was taught how to actually cook meth.

    Nora Dominick
    by Nora Dominick

    BuzzFeed Staff

    1. While preparing to play Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Tom Holland actually enrolled in high school in the Bronx.

    Marvel

    Holland said, "No one knew who I was or what I was doing. I had a fake name and a fake accent. I went to school for three days, I think. It was really fun."

    2. While preparing to play Elio in Call Me By Your Name, Timothée Chalamet spent four hours a day learning Italian, piano, and guitar.

    Sony Pictures Classics

    He also arrived five weeks early on location in Crema, Italy, in order to get in character.

    3. In order to make Breaking Bad as realistic as possible, Bryan Cranston was taught how to actually cook meth.

    AMC

    In an interview with Howard Stern, Cranston revealed, "We were taught how to make meth [by] DEA chemists who were our consultants on the show. We didn't cook it, but we were told exactly the process at that high level."

    4. While filming Blue Valentine, Michelle Williams, Ryan Gosling, and Faith Wladyka lived as a family in their characters' house for a month.

    Hunting Lane Films

    In an interview with NPR, Gosling said, "We also celebrated fake Christmas, baked birthday cakes, and bought birthday presents...We did whatever we could do to create real memories, so when it came time to shoot the [last] part of the film, we were drawing on real memories."

    5. After booking the role of Boyd "Bible" Swan in Fury, Shia LaBeouf joined the US National Guard.

    Columbia Pictures

    In an interview with Dazed, LaBeouf said, "So the day after I got the job, I joined the US National Guard. I was baptized, and became 
a chaplain’s assistant to Captain Yates for the 41st Infantry. I spent a month living on a forward operating base."

    6. For his role of Killmonger in Black Panther, Michael B. Jordan kept a journal detailing the character's thoughts.

    Marvel

    Jordan revealed that he keeps journals for all of his roles, but Killmonger's was a particularly dark journal. He said, "It was a very sad journal, not having his mom growing up, [being] in and out of the system [in] foster care, foster homes and whatnot."

    7. For the final season of Game of Thrones, Emilia Clarke dyed her hair blonde in order to fully immerse herself in Daenerys Targaryen's world.

    HBO, Instagram: @emilia_clarke / Via instagram.com

    In an Instagram post showcasing the new hair style, Clarke wrote "Mother of dragons meet Emilia. Emilia meet mother of dragons."

    8. When she was cast as Michonne on The Walking Dead, Danai Gurira had a month of intense sword training so that Michonne's katana skills looked authentic on screen.

    AMC

    After learning the proper way to sword fight, Gurira had to change the style a bit because Michonne was self-taught.

    9. In order to play Wladyslaw Szpilman in The Pianist, Adrien Brody famously sold his car and his apartment and left for filming with only two bags.

    Focus Features

    Brody made the decision to strip his life to the very basics in order to understand what his character went through.

    10. While filming The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio battled hypothermia multiple times while filming several scenes where he had to be submerged in freezing cold water.

    20th Century Fox

    In an interview with Yahoo, DiCaprio said, "I can name 30 or 40 sequences that were some of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do... [I was] enduring freezing cold and possible hypothermia constantly."

    11. When she was cast as Eleven in Stranger Things, Millie Bobby Brown actually shaved her head for the role.

    Netflix, Instagram: @milliebobbybrown / Via instagram.com

    In an Instagram post about the process, Brown wrote, "I realized that now; I have a job to do and that is to inspire other girls that your image or exterior part is not what I think is important. "

    12. While preparing to play Noah in The Notebook, Ryan Gosling learned how to build furniture like the character. Some of his work was even featured in the movie.

    New Line Cinema

    Gosling actually built the dining room table that Noah and Allie eat dinner at.

    13. For her role as Vivian in Jungle Fever, Halle Berry visited a crack house in order to better understand her character. She also didn't shower for two weeks.

    Universal Pictures

    In an interview on The Wendy Williams Show, Berry hilarious said, "Ask Sam Jackson! He had to get a whiff of it."

    14. While preparing for his role of The Joker in The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger locked himself in a London hotel room for a month in order to get inside the character's head.

    Warner Bros.

    The late actor told Empire, "I sat around in a hotel room in London for about a month, locked myself away, formed a little diary and experimented with voices — it was important to try to find a somewhat iconic voice and laugh."

    15. In order to play Tonya Harding in I, Tonya, Margot Robbie spent four hours a day, five days a week, learning to ice skate.

    Neon

    In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Robbie recalled, "We were just a few weeks from shooting, and I was still struggling to find my outside edges. I just thought I was never going to get them, and then, one day, it just clicked."

    16. To prepare for her role of Marcia Clark in American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson, Sarah Paulson found the perfume Clark wore IRL and would smell it before filming began.

    FX

    In an interview with Variety, Paulson said, "I would always just inhale my wrist feverishly right before action...It smelled like the bargain basement of Macy's throw out perfume."

    17. Amanda Brugel, who plays Rita in The Handmaid's Tale, actually puts rocks in her left shoe to help define her character's walk.

    Hulu

    Brugel said the rocks in her shoe help define Rita's "Martha-swagger."

    18. The cast of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest would sleep overnight in the hospital where they filmed.

    United Artists

    Cast members were also paired up with actual patients so they could shadow their day-to-day lives in the mental hospital.

    19. In the upcoming film Mission Impossible: Fallout, Tom Cruise skydived at 200 mph, without a harness, for one of the stunts in the film.

    Paramount Pictures

    His co-star Simon Pegg said the shots were nerve-racking to watch. He said, "The difference between you [the audience] seeing these stunts and us seeing them is that you know that Tom lived."

    20. In order to prepare for her role as Clarice in The Silence of the Lambs, Jodie Foster spent time as a trainee at Quantico and worked closely with the serial killer division of the FBI.

    Orion Pictures

    In an interview with Empire, Foster said the one thing she learned at Quantico was, "You can't rely on the MOs (Methods of Operation) when investigating serial killers... Killers have been known to travel 3,000 miles to kill somebody and then travel 3,000 miles back. There are no clues. Makes no sense."

    21. For his role in My Left Foot, Daniel Day Lewis remained in his wheelchair in between takes and even had crew members feed him.

    Palace Pictures

    For playing Christy Brown, an artist with cerebral palsy, he also taught himself to put a record on a turntable with his toes.