Trending Now
Now, you might be sitting there thinking that there’s no way to over prepare for a job or a role. You might be one of those people who believes preparation is essential and the only way to give 100% to your work, and while I won’t argue that point, I do think that sometimes people can go overboard.
These 7 actors (for these specific roles) are good examples, I think, but you take a look and tell me what you think!
7. Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant.
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox
Leo must have really believed this was his shot at the Oscar (which is did win), because he literally slept inside animal carcasses to prepare for the role.
He also camped out in the wilderness, went for swims in frozen rivers, and ate raw bison.
6. Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York.
Image Credit: Miramax Films
Daniel Day-Lewis is a famous method actor, but he went to extremes to prepare for Scorsese’s ultra-violent period piece.
There were reports that he walked around Rome, Italy in character picking fights with random strangers.
He also became an apprentice to a butcher, all of which did result in an Oscar nomination for his efforts.
5. Christopher Lee in Lord of the Rings.
Image Credit: Warner Bros.
Lee was a massive fan of the fantasy series before getting cast in the film adaptation, and afterward, made sure to reread all the books on an annual basis.
He’s also the only actor in the series that met Tolkien and had always dreamed of being cast in the film adaptations when they inevitably happened.
4. Lady Gaga in House of Gucci.
Image Credit: MGM
Gaga stayed in character for 18 months, even when the camera wasn’t rolling – accent and all.
She also watched videos of foxes and panthers to help channel the personality for the role, and says she began to “live in a way whereby anything that she looked at, she started to take notice where and when she could see money.”
3. Brie Larson in Room.
Image Credit: Elevation Pictures
In the movie, Larson portrays a young mother who has been held captive for years. In reality, she spent a month locked inside her home, and afterward met with psychologists to learn about the trauma of captivity, wrote diary entries as if she were the character, and did other art exercises to put herself in the right headspace.
She and Jacob Tremblay, who played her onscreen son, hung out for weeks ahead of filming, making toys and playing with them on the set.
2. Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire.
Image Credit: Warner Bros.
After Anne Rice made it publicly known that she was unhappy with Cruise’s casting as Lestat, the actor went out of his way to prove that he was worthy of the trust.
He carefully read not only that particular book but all of Rice’s books to prepare. In addition, he lost weight, spent time leading a hedonistic lifestyle in Paris (sounds like a real downer, right?) and learned how to play the piano besides.
1. Jared Leto in Suicide Squad.
Image Credit: Warner Bros.
In this infamous example, Leto went above and beyond preparing for his role as the Joker, doing odd things like sending strange gifts (a live rat, anyone?) to his cast mates but avoiding interacting with them in person.
He also brought a dead hog to the set in order to “create a dynamic, to create an element of surprise, of spontaneity, and to really break down any kind of walls that may be there” because he didn’t believe the Joker respected people’s boundaries.
He also freaked out people in Manhattan trying out his Joker laugh around town and spent time with criminals and people who had been institutionalized to really try to understand the mind of a madman.
See what I mean? You can absolutely go too far in any endeavor.
Have you ever way over prepared for something? Tell us what it was and how you realized you’d done too much down in the comments!
