We've all had tough days at the office. But some actors, dedicated to giving it their all, took their work a few steps too far. Though these critically-acclaimed, often award-winning performances are a delight to watch, the experience of preparing for and recovering from these roles did a number on the actors involved, and left a lasting impression — not always for the positive. Here are several actors who went the extra mile for their craft...
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00:00We've all had tough days at the office, but some actors dedicated to giving it their all
00:04took their work a few steps too far.
00:06Though these critically acclaimed, often award-winning performances are a delight to watch, the experience
00:11of preparing for and recovering from these roles did a number on the actors involved,
00:15and left a lasting impression, not always for the positive.
00:18Here are several actors who went the extra mile for their craft.
00:21Isabella Gianni, Possession
00:23Any horror buff knows the subway scene in Andrzej Zalewski's 1981 Possession to be one
00:28of the most horrifying, shocking moments of body horror ever to grace the silver screen.
00:32And if you haven't seen the film, buckle up, you're in for a treat.
00:35Isabella Gianni won a Caesar Award for her performance, but the intense physical and
00:39emotional demands of the role made for an extremely difficult recuperation.
00:43Gianni later told a French magazine that it took her years of therapy to get on and out
00:46of her system, and that she would never again attempt another role like it.
00:50Adrian Brody, The Pianist
00:52Though Brody's physical transformation for 2002's The Pianist is obvious, the actor has
00:57also discussed the enormous mental and emotional strain of portraying a Holocaust survivor,
01:01which earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2003.
01:04You know, my experiences of making this film made me very aware of the sadness and the
01:11dehumanization of people at times of war."
01:13To prepare for the role, Brody gave up his apartment, sold his car, disconnected his
01:17phones, and moved to Europe.
01:18But it was the emotional effect of intense hunger during his extreme crash diet that
01:22he found the most surprising and difficult challenge to deal with.
01:25Brody told the BBC,
01:26"...I've experienced loss, I've experienced sadness in my life, but I didn't know the
01:30desperation that comes with hunger."
01:32There were moments when he wasn't sure he'd get out of the experience with his sanity
01:35intact, saying it took a year and a half to, quote, "...settle back into things."
01:39Colin Firth, The King's Speech
01:42Colin Firth plays the future king of England, George VI, in the Oscar-winning The King's
01:46Speech, and has to give a number of speeches in addition to a number of other royal duties.
01:50The film has a villain of sorts in the form of a near-debilitating stammer that ruins
01:54nearly every speech George gives until he hires a vocal coach.
01:57"...Franz Albert, Frederick, Arthur, George."
02:02Firth himself also worked closely with the voice coach and watched recordings of George
02:06speaking to better emulate both his vocal shortcomings as well as his physical mannerisms
02:10and nervous tics when stammering.
02:12Firth immersed himself so deeply in the role that he admitted in an interview that he still
02:15occasionally lapsed into the stammer when speaking casually, even briefly stammering
02:19during the interview itself.
02:21It's worth noting that this happened in May of 2011, a full eight months after the film
02:25premiered in September of the previous year.
02:26Judging by how flawlessly he enunciated every syllable in Kingsman, The Secret Service while
02:31taking down thugs with an umbrella in 2014, it looks like Firth has since gotten over
02:35the stammer.
02:36Hugh Laurie, House
02:38During the casting process of House, the producers famously explained that they wanted a quintessentially
02:43American actor to play Dr. House, shortly before hiring British actor Hugh Laurie.
02:47Laurie apparently got the role because his American accent on his audition tape was so
02:50convincing nobody realized he was British.
02:53The director of the pilot even pointed to the tape and said,
02:55"'See?
02:56This is what I want.
02:57An American guy.'"
02:58"'I was expecting you in my office 20 minutes ago.'
02:59"'Really?
03:00That's awful because I had no intention of being in your office 20 minutes ago.'"
03:05Laurie also really went for it when it came to walking with a limp to portray the cane-using
03:09House.
03:10So much so, the actor still walked with a limp in 2015 after eight straight years of
03:13pretending to have one on set.
03:15Laurie also reportedly attempted to ease the load on his leg by occasionally switching
03:18the leg with a limp, something he claims nobody ever noticed or called him on during filming
03:22or in the years since the show ended.
03:24Apparently, Laurie's acting is so good he can make people overlook both his Britishness
03:28and the fact he didn't always limp with the same leg, despite that being a defining aspect
03:32of the character.
03:33Bob Hoskins, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
03:35One of late British actor Bob Hoskins' most famous roles was that of alcoholic L.A. gumshoe
03:40Eddie Valant in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
03:42Hoskins had to spend several hours a day for eight months talking to and acting alongside
03:46cartoon characters who weren't really there.
03:48"'Scotch on the rocks, and I mean ice!"
03:53Hoskins would later note that he learned how to hallucinate that Roger and the other characters
03:56were actually there to cope with the dissonance of constantly hearing their voices but never
04:00seeing them while filming.
04:02When shooting finally ended, Hoskins found himself constantly talking to himself and
04:05even hallucinating that Roger was sitting in the same room for months afterwards, prompting
04:09his doctor to advise him to take a much-needed break from acting.
04:12Keith Ledger, The Dark Knight
04:14Ledger's performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight was so chilling that it landed him
04:18an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
04:20Tragically, it was a posthumous award, as Ledger had died of an accidental overdose
04:23in January 2008.
04:25"'Does it depress you, Commissioner, to know just how alone you really are?'
04:33In the years that followed his premature death, rumors swirled that the preparation for the
04:37dark role had contributed to Ledger's demise.
04:40Before filming began, Ledger put himself in a strict isolation, keeping a diary of
04:43disturbing images to enter the realm of a psychopath.
04:46He sometimes only slept two hours a night while filming, according to a November 2007
04:50interview with The New York Times.
04:52It was a mixture of painkillers, anti-anxiety drugs, and sleeping pills that ultimately
04:56caused Ledger's death just two months later.
04:58Charlie Hunnam, American TV and Movies
05:00Charlie Hunnam has played everything from a soccer hooligan to a giant robot pilot,
05:04and he's known for his extraordinarily convincing American accent, making him one of a handful
05:08of chameleon-like British actors able to convincingly pass as American in his various
05:12roles.
05:13"'You rescued her.
05:14You raised her.
05:15You're not protecting her now.
05:19You are holding her back.'"
05:21Years of living in the States, however, took their toll on Hunnam's actual, real-life accent,
05:25and when he appeared on TV in 2013 to plug a movie on Conan, he spoke with a bizarre
05:29amalgamation of various American dialects that prompted confusion and mockery, especially
05:34in Hunnam's native UK.
05:35"'And I went out just as he was rounding the side of the house, and he stopped, and
05:39I looked at him, and I said, "'So we got business, motherf----?''
05:44Hunnam spoke about this in 2017 when he admitted that his accent, or lack thereof, had gotten
05:49so bad that when he signed on to star in King Arthur, Legend of the Sword, he had to hire
05:52a dialect coach to re-learn how to speak with an English accent.
05:55"'The first time in my career, my name was above the title.
05:58It said, Charlie Hunnam, boom, King Arthur.
06:01I said, here we go.'"
06:03Janet Leigh, Psycho
06:05Academy Award-winning actress Janet Leigh is known mainly for one role, playing the
06:09character who gets stabbed to death in a shower early on in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.
06:13The scene terrified millions, including Leigh.
06:16After filming wrapped, she never felt comfortable in a shower again.
06:19In interviews, Leigh noted that she stopped taking showers, after watching the scene.
06:23"'I still, I still don't take showers, that's the truth.'"
06:27On the rare occasion she had to take a shower, she would only use it briefly while staring
06:30directly at the door, and she wouldn't even draw the shower curtain.
06:33James Cromwell, Babe
06:35James Cromwell is the kind of actor whose appearance is so distinctive most people know
06:39his face, but not his name.
06:40He scored one of his few leading film roles in 1995's Babe, in which he was upstaged by
06:45a talking pig.
06:46But it all worked out, given that it was not only a massive hit, but it changed Cromwell's
06:49life, turning him from a guy who occasionally flirted with vegetarianism into a vegan.
06:53Cromwell has called the experience of making the film a turning point in his life, recalling
06:57in an interview with Vice that he was profoundly affected by seeing a small piglet react to
07:01being put onto a patch of grass.
07:02He said, quote,
07:03"'When that little pig was put down on that big pitch and saw the blue sky and the green
07:07grass and the sea, that pig just took off,' and said,
07:10"'I don't want any part of this.
07:11I'm out.'"
07:12Cromwell has been an ardent supporter of animal rights ever since, especially pigs, which,
07:16understandably, now have a small place in his heart thanks to Babe and its sequel, Babe
07:202, A Pig in the City.
07:21"'I know that I'm aware of their suffering, and I know that I have an obligation to talk
07:26about their suffering, and to do something about their suffering.'"
07:31Christopher McDonald – Happy Gilmore
07:33Christopher McDonald isn't exactly a household name, but his performance in Happy Gilmore
07:36is so memorable that generations of filmgoers can't look at a picture of his face without
07:40blurting out,
07:41"'Hey, it's Shooter McGavin!'
07:42That's just one role out of many in a solid career, but it looks like McDonald doesn't
07:45mind being forever associated with a hot-headed golf pro.
07:49McDonald told The A.V.
07:50Club he took the role basically because he enjoyed playing golf, and won a tournament
07:53shortly after being offered the script.
07:55He was hesitant at first, saying he wasn't eager to get back on a film set after shooting
07:58two movies back-to-back, but being paid to play golf and hang out with Adam Sandler seemed
08:02like a pretty sweet deal.
08:04According to McDonald, his golf game got sick, since he played for five hours a day, six
08:07days a week while filming.
08:08And, as an added bonus, now that he's synonymous with Shooter McGavin, he basically gets to
08:13play golf for free for the rest of his life.
08:16Damn you people, this is golf!
08:18Not a rock concert!