Buzz
Method acting has remained a dominant style ever since Marlon Brando famously brought Stanley Kowalski to life in Elia Kazan's 1951 film version of A Streetcar Named Desire. While many renowned actors have embraced this technique to fully immerse themselves in their roles, some have taken it to alarming extremes. A few have gone so far as to stay in character for far too long, ignore societal norms, and alienate their co-stars with behavior that many would deem questionable at best.
10. Ashton Kutcher Developed Pancreatitis
In the wake of Apple founder Steve Jobs’s sudden passing in 2011, Hollywood studios were eager to capitalize on his life story, casting major stars to don turtlenecks and rake in profits, regardless of the story's entertainment value.
Joshua Michael Stern’s biographical film Jobs was one of the first to hit theaters in 2013, featuring Ashton Kutcher as the young Steve Jobs. Kutcher, eager to transition from comedic roles to more serious work, threw himself into the role, mimicking as many aspects of Jobs's life as possible. Unfortunately, his attempt to follow Jobs’s strict fruitarian diet ended in disaster, with Kutcher's body unable to handle the extreme regimen.
Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, Steve Jobs turned to alternative medicine and swore by a daily regimen of fruits and vegetables. In a bitter twist of fate, Ashton Kutcher’s attempt to follow this exact diet, which included a constant intake of carrot juice, ended up sending him to the hospital with pancreatitis.
9. Michael Fassbender Starved Himself
Steve McQueen's directorial debut, Hunger, made a powerful impact in 2008, setting the stage for his career centered on hard-hitting themes of social turmoil. The film depicts the 1981 Irish hunger strike by republican prisoners during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, with Michael Fassbender portraying Bobby Sands, a member of the Irish Republican Army who tragically died in HM Prison Maze.
As Fassbender’s first major dramatic role, he committed fully to the character, thoroughly researching and preparing. However, he and McQueen decided that to truly capture the harrowing reality of Sands’s hunger strike, he would have to experience it himself. Despite advice from a nutritionist to not consume fewer than 900 calories a day, Fassbender, determined to lose weight, went down to just 600 calories while maintaining his acting commitments. Surviving on only a few packets of berries and a single sardine per day for four weeks, he lost more than 50 pounds (22.6 kilograms) and became a shadow of his former self.
8. Dustin Hoffman Harassed His Co-Stars
A landmark in the legal drama genre, Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) delivered unforgettable performances, particularly from Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman, who portray the estranged couple in a fierce custody battle.
Having already established himself as a respected actor with significant dramatic roles, Hoffman fully embraced the character of Ted Kramer, a deeply flawed, self-centered workaholic, contrasting sharply with his own personality. His portrayal of this character was marked by a determination and intensity that went beyond what was filmed.
To extract the most out of each moment on screen, Hoffman pushed his co-stars to their emotional limits, especially Streep. In pursuit of raw, real-world tension, he often insulted her, slapped her in scenes, and made cruel remarks about her late boyfriend. Even more troubling, he upset seven-year-old actor Justin Henry by telling him that he would never see his friends from the film crew again.
7. Jamie Foxx Had to Literally Glue His Eyes Shut
Ray Charles is a musical icon, and when casting his 2004 biopic Ray, director Taylor Hackford knew that it was essential to find someone who could fully embody the complexity of Charles—from his musical passion to his unique physicality.
When Jamie Foxx was first cast as the lead in the biopic of Ray Charles, many might have thought him an unconventional choice. However, Foxx committed himself wholeheartedly to the role, delving into the music and studying Charles’s vocal and physical traits. His dedication ultimately earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor. Yet, there was one particularly bold challenge he faced during production that may have pushed things too far.
To authentically portray Ray Charles, who had been blind since childhood, Foxx decided to simulate the experience of blindness. He initially enlisted the help of the makeup team to glue his eyes shut, hoping to capture the essence of Charles’s visual impairment. However, this approach proved unworkable, and the crew settled on using prosthetics, which still left Foxx unable to see for the remainder of the shoot.
6. Jim Carrey Pretended to Be Possessed
Jim Carrey’s experience on the set of the Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon (1999) was far from easygoing. Rather than simply playing the role of Kaufman and paying tribute to the eccentric comedian, Carrey fully embraced method acting, creating a whirlwind of chaotic and uncomfortable personas for both the cast and crew during production.
As explored in Chris Smith’s 2017 documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, Carrey never broke character. He didn’t just embody Kaufman but also slipped into Kaufman’s various alter-egos at a moment’s notice, including Tony Clifton, a brash and offensive lounge singer. Carrey even went so far as to purchase and drive Clifton’s convertible in real life, fully immersing himself in the role.
Claiming to be possessed by the spirit of the late comedian, Jim Carrey stirred up tensions on set, frustrating director Miloš Forman, who later remarked that he had never worked with Carrey. Perhaps the most unsettling incident occurred when Carrey stayed in character while interacting with Andy Kaufman’s parents, Stanley and Carol. Fortunately, they took it in stride and tried their best to accommodate him.
5. Adrien Brody Let Go of His Former Life
Roman Polanski’s powerful Holocaust drama, *The Pianist* (2002), was never going to be an easy ride for its cast. But lead actor Adrien Brody, who portrayed the real-life Jewish pianist, composer, and Holocaust survivor Władysław Szpilman, took his dedication to another level.
To fully immerse himself in Szpilman’s experience, Brody abandoned his Hollywood lifestyle before filming. He sold his car, ended his relationship, cut off his social connections, adopted a strict routine of piano practice to perfect his craft, and even followed a starvation diet. He became so consumed by the role that he fell physically and mentally ill and struggled to regain his health after filming, describing his days spent 'crashing on friends’ couches, trying to rebuild his life.'
Luckily, all of this effort led to him winning the Academy Award for Best Actor, making him the youngest and only actor under 30 to earn the honor. Without that recognition, the sacrifices he made could have seemed overly extreme.
4. Shia LaBeouf Self-Mutilated for the Role
In the lead-up to his ultimately doomed *Suicide Squad* (2016), director David Ayer was focused on making more intimate, gritty films with a talented ensemble. One of his major successes was *Fury* (2014), a WWII drama featuring stars like Brad Pitt, Jason Isaacs, Jon Bernthal, Scott Eastwood, and, of course, Shia LaBeouf.
Ayer’s commitment to authenticity was shaped by his family’s military history and extensive research. However, one actor on set took his dedication to the extreme. While Pitt, Bernthal, and the others were no strangers to the hard work required, LaBeouf went even further, living as though he were truly fighting on the front lines.
The actor refused to shower or shave throughout the filming, repelling his castmates and drawing the ire of Pitt, the group's de facto leader. But that was just the beginning. LaBeouf went as far as having a tooth pulled to get into character and even cut his own face between takes, leaving a series of open wounds that he maintained for the duration of the shoot.
3. Jared Leto Sent Used Condoms as Gifts
The cautionary tale for method actors everywhere came from David Ayer’s *Suicide Squad* (2016). The film boasted an impressive cast, including Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Will Smith as Deadshot, and Jared Leto in the highly debated role of the Joker—a character that has nearly supplanted *Hamlet* as the ultimate role for male actors.
Following his Oscar win for *Dallas Buyers Club* (2014), Leto dove into the role with extreme fervor, forgetting that he was starring in a superhero movie and treating the Joker persona as a new identity to embody wherever he went.
Leto stayed in character as the chaotic Joker throughout the entire production, aiming to create an atmosphere of fear and unpredictability. The frontman of *Thirty Seconds to Mars* kept a distance from his co-stars, refusing to interact with them outside of his character, and sent a bizarre assortment of gifts, including rats, bullets, anal beads, and used condoms. Unfortunately, his performance was erratic, the movie bombed with critics, and his behavior was widely criticized within the film community.
2. Leonardo DiCaprio Slept Inside an Animal Carcass
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s survival epic *The Revenant* (2015) tested the limits of both the director and his star, Leonardo DiCaprio. Iñárritu, known for his contemporary psychological dramas that explored the intersection of Mexican and American cultures (as well as directing a *Harry Potter* film), took a sharp turn and transported audiences back to the early 1800s, telling the tale of fur trapper Hugh Glass. DiCaprio, ever committed to pushing the boundaries of his craft and earning Academy recognition, was the perfect choice to bring Glass’s harrowing journey to life.
DiCaprio, determined to secure that elusive Oscar, went to extreme lengths for his role. While the film demanded shooting in freezing temperatures—something most people would shy away from—the *Titanic* star pushed the boundaries even further. He repeatedly plunged into icy rivers, braving the risk of hypothermia, spent nights in actual animal carcasses, and consumed raw bison liver, just like in the film. Had he not won the Academy Award for Best Actor that year, it's hard to imagine what other extremes he might have gone to.
1. Robert Pattinson Soaked His Pants
Robert Eggers’s *The Lighthouse*, shot in the unique 1.19:1 aspect ratio and presented in black and white, is a disorienting and haunting film. The dialogue and speech patterns authentically reflect the isolated life of lighthouse keepers in late-1800s New England. The film's unsettling atmosphere is heightened by the performances of Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, who embody two keepers slowly losing their sanity in seclusion.
But one actor took his immersion in the role a step too far. Pattinson, normally mild-mannered, fully embraced his character’s descent into madness, bringing it with him between takes while shooting for hours at a real lighthouse.
Before filming, the actor would sit on the floor growling, mumbling to himself, and even eating dirt. When it came time for the scenes in which the wickies were drunk on kerosene, Pattinson took things further by vomiting and wetting himself—much to the displeasure of Dafoe, who threatened to leave the set in response.
