17 Shocking Times Actors Went Wayyy Further Than They Needed To For A Movie

It was actually the director of Ray, Taylor Hackford, who suggested this method approach to Jamie, who would have prosthetic eyelids modelled on Charles's own attached to him while he was filming. Oftentimes, Jamie's colleagues would forget he couldn't see him and leave him alone on set to find his way around.

To play Peter Parker, a 15-year-old New Yorker who becomes Spider-Man, Tom went to school for three days during which time he used a fake name and a fake accent. He even told people he was Spider-Man but no one believed him. Tom has said he used those real-life interactions to inform his characterisation of Peter.

Jodie immersed herself in the daily routines of the trainees at Quantico's FBI Academy and she also met with senior FBI officers and serial killer experts to learn more about her role. Her co-star, Scott Glenn, took a different approach and on one occasion listened to a recording of a pair of serial killers torturing and killing a victim, which he later said was probably a step too far.

Apparently Twilight actor Robert Pattinson openly dislikes rehearsing and would rather get to grips with his character on set. During filming of The Lighthouse, he would get himself into a "maddened" state in order to play his character – a drunken sailor who is slowly losing his grip on reality.

Rob played Salvador Dali and was required to do a few sex scenes. In one, he was supposed to simulate masturbating alongside another actor but instead decided to go for it because pretending apparently doesn't have the same effect. In conversation with Germany's Interview magazine he said, "my orgasm face is recorded for eternity."

Whitaker played former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, and allegedly drove his wife and children to distraction by staying in character for so long. He learned the languages of Swahili and Kakwa so he could ad-lib on set, and also consulted with Amin's friends and relatives as well as some of his victims. His performance won him an Academy Award for Best Actor.

To get inside the head of Polish-Jewish musician Wladyslaw Szpilman, who was confined to the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II, Adrien made the decision to go back to basics. He sold most of his worldly possessions, moved to Europe with only two bags, and began a severe dieting regime so as to experience a fraction of what Szpilman went through during the Holocaust.

I guess it comes as no surprise that Natalie spent a long time training to become as good a ballerina as her character in the film. Her gruelling schedule, which even saw her dislocate a rib during rehearsals, left her feeling like she was "literally going to die".

Nick played a sort of philosopher-vagrant, and to research the role spent time living on the streets of Los Angeles. On set, he also ate real dog food twice – once straight out of a bowl, and once from the can!

At the end of the iconic body-swap flick, Jamie – who is playing her teenage daughter Anna at this point – has to play a face-melting guitar solo. And guess what? She learned how to play the guitar and perform the solo herself to make the moment seem more real! Her shredding wasn't used on the soundtrack, but Jamie did say she could have recorded it if she'd been asked to.

Boseman's dedication to T'Challa's accent was unwavering, and it began wayyy before filming even started! Marvel weren't sure if T'Challa (Black Panther) should speak with an African intonation, and wanted Boseman to try an American or British accent, but he strongly believed his character should speak with an accent based in the Xhosa language. Boseman ending up working with a South African dialect coach to get his voice just right.

Often considered by many to be a pioneering influence on the art of method acting, Brando would go to extreme lengths in order to prepare for his roles. To play Ken Wilocek, a soldier who is seriously injured in combat, Brando checked himself into the very same hospital in which his character is rehabilitating in the movie – Birmingham General Army Hospital in Van Nuys, California.

To play the pioneering American author, Depp spent as much time as he could with Thompson. He drank with him, followed Thompson's unusual sleeping pattern, allowed Thompson to cut his hair, and, for some reason, ending up living in Thompson's basement where he would obsessively read his writing archive.

Back in 2003, the Cannes Film Festival went mad after Sevigny was seen to give her co-star and ex-bf Gallo unsimulated fellatio in the final scene of The Brown Bunny. The scene later caused a media scandal, with public scrutiny aimed at Sevigny but not Gallo – shocker. Sevigny remains unapologetic to this day (QUEEN) saying she just wanted to push the envelope.

In order to play the legendary frontman of The Doors, Val Kilmer immersed himself completely in Jim's world, learning how to speak and sing like him, going to his favourite hangouts, even wearing Jim's clothes. Val developed such an in-depth knowledge of who Jim was and how he acted that at one point his former bandmates couldn't even the tell difference between recordings of Jim performing and recordings of Val 80% of the time!

During the shoot for My Left Foot, in which Daniel Day Lewis played an artist with cerebral palsy, he would remain in his chair in between takes and even had crew members feed him; he ended up breaking two ribs in the process.

For The Last of the Mohicans, Daniel insisted on being taught how to skin animals, throw tomahawks, build canoes, and reload muskets while running. He took his rifle everywhere with him – even to Christmas dinner – and abstained from using modern technology whilst on set. Afterwards, Daniel said he struggled to shake off his part in the movie, and even experienced hallucinations and claustrophobia from no longer being able to spend time indoors.