Actors Who Took Method Acting Too Far

1. Heath Ledger

imagesource/denofgeekThe late Heath Ledger unfortunately died directly after filming Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. Ledger locked himself away in a London hotel for a month scribbling out diary entries as the Caped Crusaders arch-nemesis, with many people believing that he took method acting way too far.

2. Kate Winslet

imagesource/artblartAfter portraying a Nazi concentration camp guard in The Reader, Winslet commented, “It’s like I’ve escaped from a serious car accident and need to understand what has just happened,“

admitting it took her months to recover from the role.

3. Daniel Day Lewis

imagesource/slashfilmKnown as the King of modern day method acting, Daniel Day-Lewis has got a long list of movies under his belt. The now retired actor caught pneumonia on the set of Gangs of New York as he refused to wear insulated clothing to really get into character. He also only ate food he caught and killed himself whilst shooting Last of the Mohicans.

4. Robert De Niro

imagesource/imdbRobert De Niro participated in three ring fights as well as gaining 50 pounds on his skinny frame before starring in the Raging Bull. In preparation for Taxi Driver, De Niro worked 12 hour shifts as a New York cabbie and to top it off, he paid a dentist to grind his teeth down in prep for his role as psycho stalker, in Cape Fear.

5. Tom Hanks

imagesource/inewsTom Hanks gained and lost 50 pounds for Cast Away and refused to cut his hair or bathe leading to a staph infection. Then for his role in Green Mile, he repeatedly freaked book author, Stephen King out by constantly staying in role as prison guard, Paul Edgecomb.

6. Leonardo Di Caprio

imagesource/voxDuring filming for The Revenant, Di Caprio (a devout vegetarian) are raw bison, slept in animal carcasses and stood in freezing temperatures to portray frontiersman Hugh Glass. And whilst filming Django Unchained, he shattered glass and cut his hand during a scene before continuing to film, smearing blood on a stunned Kerry Washington.

7. Al Pacino

imagesource/looperAl Pacino pulled over a truck driver and threatened to arrest him for exhaust pollution whilst filming for Scarface. But throughout filming Scent of a Woman, he pretended to be blind, tripping over bushes and all sorts, just to get into role.

8. Johnny Depp

imagesource/imdbDepp spent years studying Hunter S Thompson before starring in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas He even ended up living in Thompson's basement, reading old transcripts and spending as much time with the author as possible. Depp even slept and smoked next to barrels of gunpowder in Thompson's basement...says a lot about their mental state doesn't it.

9. Hilary Swank

imagesource/indiewireBefore starring in Boys Don't Cry, Hilary Swank spent a month living like a man, she cut her hair, binded her breasts and sticking socks down the front of her jeans. Longtime neighbours of Swank, believed she had a brother or cousin staying with her at the time.

10. Mickey Rourke

imagesource/littlewhiteliesIn training for his role in Iron Man 2, as the villainous Ivan Vanko (Whiplash), Rourke spent time in Russian prisons and befriended several inmates to really understand his character. He also studied Russian every day for hours to become Vanko.

11. Rooney Mara

imagesource/indiewireRooney played punk hacker, Lisbeth Salander in Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Mara bleached her eyebrows, chopped all of her hair off and had her brow, lips, nose and nipples pierced as well as learning martial arts, skateboarding and motorcycle riding.

12. Nicholas Cage

imagesource/pintrestDuring filming for Peggy Sue Got Married, Cage lived his life speaking in a weird, high-pitched voice before going on to have four of his teeth pulled out for Birdy, without aneasthesia. Now that is a man committed to his craft!

13. Forest Whitaker

imagesource/eyeforfilmTo fully embody his character in Last King of Scotland, Forest Whitaker learned to speak Swahili. He spent three and a half months in Uganda before shooting the movie. He also spent time with Amin's immediate family, victims and high ranking members of the dictator's regime.

14. Adrien Brody

imagesource/encyclopediabrittanicaAdrien Brody - an already very slender man - lost 30 pounds to play Holocaust survivor Wladyslaw Szipilman in the Pianist. He also taught himself piano and sold his apartment and car during filming to really feel more connected to his character.

15. Dustin Hoffman

imagesource/businessinsiderTo prepare for his role in Kramer Vs Kramer, Hoffman taunted Meryl Street (who played his ex-wife ) about her recently deceased boyfriend and slapped her in the face before a scene. He too stopped himself from sleeping for 72hrs before a scene in which his character hadn't slept for three nights.

16. Michael Caine

imagesource/thedarkknightrisesAt the age of 73, Caine had made over 150 films over the space of 50 years. A secret behind how he brings on the waterworks, is that he thinks of a particularly painful memory. He also practices lines a minimum of 1,000 times before getting to set.

17. Jamie Foxx

imagesource/bamfstyleTo portray blind musician, Ray Charles in Ray, Jamie Foxx glued his eyes shut for 14 hours a day during filming, he also lost 30 pounds to accurately convey Charles' body after he had overcome his heroin addiction. Just like De Niro, Foxx had a dentist chip his teeth to resemble the musician's.

18. Gary Oldman

imagesource/BFIOldman revealed his secret tricks for tapping into emotionally charged scenes - his pain bag, which includes; images of his absent father and photos from his first marriage and son. When preparing for his role as Winston Churchill, Oldman smoked $30,000 worth of cigars, developing stomach issues.

19. Dennis Hopper

imagesource/theplaylistFor his role in Apocalypse Now, Hopper lived off a steady diet of speed, weed and LSD, with some arguing that this wasn't actually method acting, but a full blow drug addiction. Hopper couldn't memorize his lines and whilst his memory was a little all over, he did manage to improvise one of the most memorable monologues in cinematic history.

20. Charlize Theron

imagesource/monsterCharlize Theron underwent a complete physical transformation when she played serial killer, Aileen Wuornos in Monster. During her time filming Atomic Blonde, Theron bruised her ribs, twisted her knee and clenched her teeth so hard she broke two of them.

21. Shia LaBeouf

imagesource/entertainmenttonightShia LaBeouf dropped acid to fully understand the effects of the drug when he played the role of WWII soldier in 2014s Fury. LaBeouf pulled his own teeth out and refused to shower for weeks until Brad Pitt pulled him up on his odor.

22. Marlon Brando

imagesource/eatdrinkfilmsFor his broadway debut in Truckline Cafe, the actor ran up and down flights of stairs before a stagehand dumped an icy bucket of water over his head to simulate his character emerging from the lake. Brando also spent a month in bed before playing the injured WWII lieutenant in The Men.

23. Edward Norton

imagesource/themostinspiringNorton gained 30 pounds and trained in the gym every day for three months before picking up the role of Wes Anderson in American History X and during his early scene in Fight Club, he punched Brad Pitt in the ear to get a more authentic reaction. Pitt's line "You punched me in my ear!" wasn't actually scripted.

24. Anne Hathaway

imagesource/totallyunautorizedAnne Hathaway cut her luscious locks for the role in Les Miserables, in which she played Fantine. Director Tom Hopper tried to talk her out of it, but it luckily paid off, Hathaway won an Oscar for her role in the film. She also lost 25 pounds for the role and performed all of her own songs.

25. Choi Min-Sik

imagesource/imdbSouth Korean actor, Choi, plays a drunken businessman abducted off the streets and held in a windowless hotel room for 15 years in movie Oldboy. To prepare for the movie, he ate an entire Octopus in one take as well as burning himself using a hot wire to bur his flesh for every year the character was imprisoned. Weird.

26. Val Kilmer

imagesource/haphazardstuffIn preparation for his portrayal of Jim Morrison in The Doors, Val Kilmer learned to play 50 of the Lizard King's songs and lived as Morrison for an entire year, dressing in his clothes and embodying the singer's bizarre and strange movements. Kilmer eventually went into therapy to get out of character.

27. Jared Leto

imagesource/thehollywoodreporterLeto pranked cast members in gruesome ways, including gifting a rat to his on-screen love interest, Margot Robbie to get himself into the role of The Joker. He also sent a dead hog to cast mates and gave Will Smith an envelope of bullets and on top of all of that, he refused to speak to any of his cast mates through the entireity of filming.

29. Natalie Portman

imagesource/eonlinePortman trained for 16 hours a day and lost 22 pounds in preparation for Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan in 2010. She also suffered a few injuries and one severe one - a distorted rib - which set production back for a short period of time.

30. Christian Bale

imagesource/empireonlineIt feels like Christian Bale has spent the past decade choosing roles that require him to seriously loose weight or pile it on. He starved himself down to 121 pounds for the Machinist and bulked up to 190 pounds for his role in Batman Begins. And for his role in Vice, Bale scoffed with face with cherry pies to play the role of VP Dick Cheney.