Method playacting is one way of life that actors and actresses get into character . This approach is look at one of the good in Hollywood . However , it assume a lot of off - screen preparedness . It typically requires actors and actresses to transform themselves physically for part . They will develop the same mannerisms and body linguistic process and some will even lose a considerable amount of weight to really get into the character . grant to Lee Strasberg , “ Method acting is what all worker have always done whenever they acted well . ” That being said , let ’s take a look at some of the most extreme method acting actor and actresses !
7. Michelle Williams
To play Marilyn Monroe inMy Week with Marilyn , Michelle Williams immersed herself in research . She read books about her , read the books that the icon liked to read , plunge herself in books on method acting , and convey recordings of the actress ’ phonation on her iPod . She also watched a mint of Monroe ’s movies .
“ I start withThe Prince and the Showgirl , ” she told the National Post . “ I started watch that movie while my girl was in shoal , occupy as much as I could , pausing it , trying to emulate what I had fancy , made a lot of mistakes , all clueless , and then , one day , things start to fare together . ”
Williams did n’t stop there . She also rigged herself up in costumes that Monroe would wear , which included a tight garb , a button - up bandeau and high heel , and did her best to imitate her famous slinky walk . To do this , she tie her knees together .
6. Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman did n’t intend to go method inBlack Swan . However , that is what she terminate up doing . To prepare for the role , she groom for five hours a Clarence Day for six months prior to cinematography , doing ballet , transverse - training , and swim . Just like her graphic symbol in the pic , she barely ate and misplace 20 pounds a result . “ I was barely run through , I was lick 16 hours a day . I was almost method acting without intending to . I do marvel now how people can do this kind of theatrical role when they have a menage , ” she told the Daily Mail . “ It was more difficult than anything I ’ve ever experience before . I like to go home and be myself but with this one I did n’t get the probability . It did n’t leave me . ”
Portman ’s portrayal of the private-enterprise ballerina was pretty convincing . She took home the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance .
5. Christian Bale
For his role in the psychological thrillerThe Machinist , Christian Bale really committed himself to his grapheme , Trevor Reznik . He suffer 63 Egyptian pound for the part by living off of coffee and apples . When film ended , he only weighed 121 British pound .
According to Bale , he had n’t worked for a while prior to landing this role . “ I just had n’t found playscript that I ’d really been interested in . So I was really break down for something to go far . Then when this one did , I just did n’t need to put it down . I finished it and , upon the variety of Book of Revelation that you get at the terminal , I immediately wanted to go back and re - visit it , to take a look at what clues I could have gotten throughout , ” he tell BBC . “ There are an direful circumstances , but they ’re really nicely done because they ’re very , very pernicious . Sometimes you get a really great character and the moving picture ai n’t so great ; this one seemed to me to be a really great character and a potentially great film as well . ”
4. Hilary Swank
Hilary Swank took her part as a transgendered humanity inBoys Do n’t Cryvery seriously . The relatively unknown actress prepared for the role by dressing and living as a man for a calendar month . This include wrapping her titty in tension bandages and putting socks down the front of her pant . She also reduced her body fat to seven percentage to accentuate her facial structure and refused to be seen by the casting or crew out of costume . Her neighbors reportedly did n’t recognize her when she would be coming in and out of her apartment – they thought she was a manlike relative .
“ I walked around trying to pass as a male child for five weeks before filming that moving-picture show , ” she say . “ Seeing what worked and what did n’t work , and losing a caboodle of trunk blubber so that my face would be tenuous . My neighbors thought that I was my cousin-german Billy from Iowa . ”
3. Forest Whitaker
Forest Whitaker went method acting when he portrayed the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin inThe Last Martin Luther King of Scotland . He gained 50 pound , learn Swahili , and master Amin ’s East African Dialect . He also read books about him , watched news clips and docudrama that featured him , and spent fourth dimension in Uganda group meeting with his friends , relative , generals , and victim .
“ I went there with the purpose of understanding what it was like to be Ugandan … I sat with Idi Amin ’s brother underneath a large mango tree tree and he tell me stories about what Idi was like and how he used to fall to Ithiel Town and pull together soccer or rugby games . It all helped me with picture out the way he behaved and the way he thought , so that 24 hours a twenty-four hour period , even in my dreaming , I was totally consumed by the character of Idi Amin , ” Whitaker say The Guardian . “ It was n’t until the motion-picture show was over that I resolve I could lease go of the character , so the first affair I did was take a cascade because I figured I could launder him off by scrub myself . I was in a elbow room by myself , so I started yelling to get his vocalisation out of me and get my own vocalism back . ”
2. Jared Leto
To accurately present a drug addicted transgender woman inDallas Buyers Club , Jared Leto drop dead method . He lost 30 pounds , shaved his eyebrows , waxed his intact torso , and stayed in pull on- and off - Seth . He made sure to be in graphic symbol 24 - hours a day and even met with people in the transgender residential area to get feedback on how to make his functioning more real .
Matthew McConaughey , his co - star from the film , had nothing but congratulations for Leto . “ Some citizenry may have been put off with Jared ’s ideal of being in - character the integral time . Well , too unsound , it was in effect for him and it was honorable for me ; it would have been well-situated for an actor to caricaturize in this theatrical role , but Jared kept Rayon grounded in her eccentricity . Jared went for ‘ human , ’ and that made him so much easier to act with , and more true , ” he said . Leto ’s performance ended up acquire him the Oscar , Golden Globe , and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor .
1. Eddie Redmayne
Eddie Redmayne delved late into Stephen Hawking ’s life to limn him inThe Theory of Everything . He expend six months research and watching interview footage of the illustrious physicist . He also worked with a movement coach to beguile Hawking ’s physicality . In addition , Redmayne consulted aesculapian textbooks and talked to nurses who worked with Hawking over the years to translate how his status has evolved . “ I prepped four months . It was acute . I visited London ’s clinic , where they treated him . I fulfil others afflicted . I familiarized myself to work out specifics . This was a privilege , but it was highly intimidating . I was very nervous . With a coach I worked condition sure muscles never before used , ” he told Page Six .
All the hard work is definitely paying off . Redmayne has won the Golden Globe Award , the Screen Actors Guild Award , the Oscar and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor for his performance .
