Many actors have often gone to extreme lengths to fully immerse themselves into their characters, and this includes adding a completely new skill set to their resume.
Sometimes, it's learning a new language or accent. Other times, it's becoming adept at playing a new instrument like the piano or the violin. In other cases, the demands a performer must meet are more of a physical nature, like learning how to dance, fight, or use weapons. Not all of these thespians have won Oscars, but their commitment to these roles undeniably helped them cement their status as extremely versatile actors who can endure long hours of training.
From Margot Robbie learning how to hold her breath underwater for five minutes to Channing Tatum learning how to tap dance, here are 20 actors who gained a new skill for a role.
20 Daniel-Day Lewis Learned To Use A Wheelchair & Put A Record On A Turntable With His Toes For My Left Foot
Daniel Day-Lewis's career speaks for itself. The Irish-British actor boasts three Oscars and multiple other awards. His first Academy Award came in 1990 for his performance as Irish writer Christy Brown, who had cerebral palsy, in My Left Foot. As part of his preparation for the role, Day-Lewis spent most of his time in a wheelchair and learned to put a record on a turntable with his toes. Talk about going to extreme lengths!
19 Ryan Gosling Learned To Build Furniture For His Role In The Notebook
For his Golden Globe-winning role in La La Land, Ryan Gosling learned to play the piano and dance. However, he took on a particular skill well before this. For his turn as Noah Calhoun in the 2004 romantic drama The Notebook, Gosling reportedly learned to build furniture, just like his character. In case you needed any other reason to fall for him, there you have it!
18 Danai Gurira Had To Do A Month Of Sword Training For Her Role On The Walking Dead
Danai Gurira didn't just slay as incredible Wakandan warrior Okoye in Black Panther. She also spent a month sword training to fight zombies as Michonne in AMC's The Walking Dead. This must have been an exciting skill to learn, despite the grueling hours needed for it. But it doesn't seem like much of a surprise that fighting the undead requires a lot of work.
17 Timothee Chalamet Spent Four Hours A Day Learning Italian & Guitar For Call Me By Your Name
French-American actor Timothee Chalamet won the hearts of many in his breakout performance in the 2017 film adaptation of Andre Aciman's romance novel Call Me By Your Name. To play Elio Perlman, Chalamet became fluent in Italian and also learned how to play the guitar and the piano. To say that Chalamet gained an impressive set of abilities at age 22 would be an understatement. (Maybe he'll use these skills again later in his career!)
16 Bryan Cranston Learned How To Actually Cook Drugs For Breaking Bad
To play high school chemistry teacher turned New Mexico drug kingpin Walter White, Bryan Cranston was taught how to actually manufacture the substance his character made on the series. "We were taught how to make meth [by] DEA chemists who were our consultants on the show," Cranston once said in an interview with Howard Stern. "We didn't cook it, but we were told exactly the process at that high level."
15 Adrien Brody Was Taught How To Play The Piano For The Pianist
Adrien Brody broke a record in 2003 when, at age 29, he became the youngest male actor to win a Best Actor Academy Award for his role in Roman Polanski's World War II drama The Pianist, and deservedly so. Brody learned to play the piano from scratch for his role as Polish Jewish radio station pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, and even sold his car and apartment to better put himself in his character's shoes.
14 Natalie Portman Learned To Dance Ballet By Training Nearly 8 Hours A Day For Black Swan
Natalie Portman spent nearly eight hours a day practicing ballet to delve into the character of Nina Sayers for 2010's Black Swan, which earned her a Golden Globe and an Oscar, among other top awards. Portman also reportedly used her psychology degree from Harvard to fully grasp her character's situation and struggles. There's no doubt Portman ended up physically and emotionally exhausted from this role.
13 Jamie Foxx Acted While Wearing Prosthetic Eyelids For His Role In Ray
Jamie Foxx didn't just lose 30 pounds for his Oscar-winning role as legendary blind pianist and singer Ray Charles in 2004. Foxx also wore a pair of prosthetic eyelids throughout the filming process to simulate his character's impairment and was unsurprisingly worn out after this experience. According to Vogue, the actor said he had his eyes "glued shut for 14 hours a day."
12 Margot Robbie Spent Four Hours A Day, Five Days A Week Learning To Ice Skate For I, Tonya
Margot Robbie should have no issue ice skating anywhere should the opportunity arise. The Australian actress spent four hours a day, five days a week practicing the sport for her award-nominated turn as disgraced former Olympic skater Tonya Harding. Of course, a stunt double was used at times, but Robbie nonetheless had to learn the basics of the sport, in addition to putting on an Oregon accent.
11 Jennifer Lawrence Learned How To Chop Wood & Skin Squirrels For Her Role In Winter's Bone
Before she donned a bow and arrow to become Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence earned her first Oscar nomination for playing Ozark teenager Ree Dolly in 2010's Winter's Bone. As part of her role of a young woman who takes care of her two younger siblings while her mother is unresponsive and her father relies on crime to survive, Lawrence learned basic woodland survival skills like chopping wood and skinning squirrels.
10 Shia LaBeouf Joined The National Guard For His Role In Fury
In 2014, Shia LaBeouf had what seemed like a headline-grabbing mental breakdown that involved him putting a paper bag over his head. However, that same year, the former Disney Channel actor starred alongside Brad Pitt and Jon Bernthal in the World War II tank drama Fury. LaBeouf took his role as Boyd "Bible" Swan very seriously, as he joined the U.S. National Guard during the filming process. He spent a month living on a military base and became a chaplain's assistant.
9 Leonardo DiCaprio Learned To Speak The Arikara Indigenous Language For The Revenant
Leonardo DiCaprio went through some severe physical challenges to win his first Oscar in 2016 for playing 19th-century fur trapper Hugh Glass in the neo-Western adventure drama The Revenant. DiCaprio spent days in freezing cold water, ate raw bison liver, and slept in a horse carcass, among other incredible feats. He also learned to speak the indigenous language Arikara (thanks to a dialect coach), as his character's son was mixed-race.
8 John Krasinski Went Through Intense Physical And Weapons Training For 13 Hours
Seeing this photo without any context, it would be hard to believe this is John Krasinski, who first rose to fame by playing endearing paper salesman Jim Harper on The Office. For his role as a Navy SEAL in 2016's 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, Krasinski got ripped and went through intense weapons training to become Jack Silva, one of many men who rushed to Libya's capital after militants attacked the U.S. Consulate in 2012.
7 Idris Elba Learned To Speak In A South African Accent For His Role As Nelson Mandela In Long Walk To Freedom
British hunk Idris Elba first gained acclaim by playing Stringer Bell on HBO's The Wire, and then went on to star in the BBC One series Luther and play bounty hunter Heimdall in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, he also portrayed iconic South African civil rights leader Nelson Mandela in 2013's Long Walk To Freedom. To nail the apartheid figure's accent, Elba reportedly took inspiration from his parents, who are from Sierra Leone.
6 Brad Pitt Learned To Speak In An Irish Accent For Snatch
Brad Pitt has played dozens of different characters throughout his long movie career. One not many people may know or remember, however, is the A-lister's turn as Irish traveller Mickey in Guy Ritchie's 2000 crime drama Snatch. Pitt reportedly approached Ritchie to ask him to be in the film, and he went on to successfully land the part of Mickey the Gypsy. Pitt's accent was so distinct, you probably wouldn't recognize his voice if you heard it.
5 Jesse Eisenberg Learned To Do Magic Tricks For Now You See Me
After playing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2010's The Social Network, Jesse Eisenberg went on to play magician Danny Atlas in 2013's Now You See Me and its less-successful 2016 sequel Now You See Me 2. As part of his preparation for the role as the illusionist and member of the "Four Horsemen," Eisenberg learned some sleight of hand involving cards. Now doesn't that sound like fun?
4 Margot Robbie Learned To Hold Her Breath Underwater For Five Minutes For Suicide Squad
Margot Robbie didn't just go to physical extremes to play Tonya Harding. She also held her breath underwater for a whopping five minutes to play the devilish Harley Quinn in 2016's Suicide Squad. Robbie explained to Jimmy Fallon that she practiced this for four sessions with a free-diver and lowered her metabolic rate. "It's kind of like meditating underwater," said Robbie. Will she get to do this again for Birds of Prey? We'll find out soon!
3 Joseph Gordon-Levitt Learned How To Walk A Tightrope For The Walk
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, aka the man who became famous for his role in 500 Days of Summer and for playing officer John Blake/Robin in The Dark Knight Rises, perhaps achieved one of the most daunting feats on this list. The actor learned to tightrope-walk while playing real-life French artist Philippe Petit in 2015's The Walk, which chronicled Petit's walk between the Twin Towers in 1974.
2 Channing Tatum Learned How To Tap-Dance For Hail Caesar
After two turns as a male stripper in Magic Mike and Magic Mike XXL, (as well as his performance in Step Up) Channing Tatum played Burt Gurney — a Gene Kelly-type actor and dancer — in the Coen Brothers' 2016 comedy Hail, Caesar! For the role, Tatum donned a sailor outfit and spent roughly three months preparing for his six-minute appearance in the film. Talk about dedication for such a small part!
1 Tom Cruise Learned To Skydive At 200 MPH Without A Harness For Mission Impossible: Fallout
After the sixth Mission Impossible film, Fallout, was released in the summer of 2018, it became widely known that Tom Cruise was daring enough to perform many of his own stunts for the film, even though he is now well over 50. One of the many insane things Cruise did as part of his sixth turn as IMF agent Ethan Hunt was skydive at 200 mph without a harness. It seems safe to say Cruise could easily work as just a stunt double if he ever got tired of acting.
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