We've all had tough days at the office. But some actors, dedicated to giving it their
all, took their work a few steps too far. Though these critically-acclaimed, often award-winning
performances are a delight to watch, the experience of preparing for and recovering from these
roles did a number on the actors involved, and left a lasting impression — not always
for the positive. Here are several actors who went the extra
mile for their craft. Isabelle Adjani - Possession Any horror buff knows the subway scene in
Andrzej Zulawski's 1981 Possession to be one of the most horrifying, shocking moments of
body horror ever to grace the silver screen. And if you haven't seen the film, buckle up,
you're in for a treat. Isabelle Adjani won a César Award for her
performance, but the intense physical and emotional demands of the role made for an
extremely difficult recuperation. Adjani later told a French magazine that it
took her "years of therapy" to get Anna out of her system, and that she would never again
attempt another role like it. Adrien Brody - The Pianist Though Brody's physical transformation for
2002's The Pianist is obvious, the actor has also discussed the enormous mental and emotional
strain of portraying a Holocaust survivor, which earned him the Academy Award for Best
Actor in 2003. "Y'know, my experiences of making this film
made me very aware of the sadness and dehumanization of people at times of war." To prepare for the role, Brody gave up his
apartment, sold his car, disconnected his phones, and moved to Europe. But it was the emotional effect of intense
hunger during his extreme crash diet that he found the most surprising and difficult
challenge to deal with. Brody told the BBC, "I've experienced loss, I've experienced sadness
in my life, but I didn't know the desperation that comes with hunger." There were moments when he wasn't sure he'd
get out of the experience with his sanity intact, saying it took a year and a half to,
quote, "settle back into things." Colin Firth - The King's Speech Colin Firth plays the future King of England,
George the Sixth, in the Oscar-winning The King's Speech, and has to give a number of
speeches in addition to a number of other royal duties. The film has a villain of sorts in the form
of a near-debilitating stammer that ruins nearly every speech George gives until he
hires a vocal coach. "Prince Albert … Frederick … Arthur … George." Firth himself also worked closely with a voice
coach and watched recordings of George speaking to better emulate both his vocal shortcomings,
as well as his physical mannerisms and nervous tics when stammering. Firth immersed himself so deeply in the role
that he admitted in an interview that he still occasionally lapsed into the stammer when
speaking casually, even briefly stammering during the interview itself. It's worth noting that this happened in May
of 2011, a full eight months after the film premiered in September of the previous year. Judging by how flawlessly he enunciated every
syllable in Kingsman: The Secret Service while taking down thugs with an umbrella in 2014,
it looks like Firth has since gotten over the stammer. Hugh Laurie - House During the casting process of House, the producers
famously explained that they wanted a "quintessentially American actor" to play Dr. House, shortly
before hiring British actor Hugh Laurie. Laurie apparently got the role because his
American accent on his audition tape was so convincing nobody realized he was British
— the director of the pilot even pointed to the tape and said, "See, this is what I
want: an American guy." "I was expecting you in my office 20 minutes
ago." "Really? That's odd, because I had no intention of
being in your office 20 minutes ago." Laurie also really went for it when it came
to walking with a limp to portray the cane-using House. So much so, the actor still walked with a
limp in 2015 after eight straight years of pretending to have one on set. Laurie also reportedly attempted to ease the
load on his leg by occasionally switching the leg had a limp, something he claims nobody
ever noticed or called him on during filming or in the years since show ended. Apparently Laurie's acting is so good he can
make people overlook both his British-ness and the fact he didn't always limp with the
same leg, despite that being a defining aspect of the character. Bob Hoskins - Who Framed Roger Rabbit One of late British actor Bob Hoskins' most
famous roles was that of alcoholic L.A. gumshoe Eddie Valiant in the film Who Framed Roger
Rabbit. Hoskins had to spend several hours a day for
eight months talking to and acting alongside cartoon characters who weren't really there. "Scotch on the rocks. And I mean ice!" Hoskins would later note that he "learned
how to hallucinate" that Roger and the other characters were actually there to cope with
the dissonance of constantly hearing their voices but never seeing them while filming. When shooting finally ended, Hoskins found
himself constantly talking to himself and even hallucinating that Roger was sitting
in the same room for months afterwards, prompting his doctor to advise him to take a much needed
break from acting. Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight Ledger's performance as the Joker in The Dark
Knight was so chilling that it landed him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor—tragically,
it was a posthumous award, as Ledger had died of an accidental drug overdose in January
2008. "Does it depress you, commissioner, to know just
how alone you really are?" In the years that followed his premature death,
rumors swirled that the preparation for the dark role had contributed to Ledger's demise. Before filming began, Ledger put himself in
strict isolation, keeping a diary of disturbing images to enter "the realm of a psychopath." He sometimes only slept "two hours a night,"
while filming, according to a November 2007 interview with The New York Times. It was a mixture of "painkillers, anti-anxiety
drugs and sleeping pills" that ultimately caused Ledger's death just two months later. Charlie Hunnam - American TV & Movies Charlie Hunnam has played everything from
a soccer hooligan to a giant robot pilot, and he's known for his extraordinarily convincing
American accent, making him one of a handful of chameleon-like British actors able to convincingly
pass as American in his various roles. "You rescued her. You raised her. You're not protecting her now. You are holding her back." Years of living in the States, however, took
their toll on Hunnam's actual, real-life accent, and when he appeared on TV in 2013 to plug
a movie on Conan, he spoke with a bizarre amalgamation of various American dialects
that prompted confusion and mockery, especially in Hunnam's native U.K. "I went out just as he was rounding the side
of the house, and he stopped, I looked at him, and said, 'So we got business, motherf-----?'" Hunnam spoke about this in 2017 when he admitted
that his accent—or lack thereof—had gotten so bad that when he signed on to star in King
Arthur: Legend of the Sword, he had to hire a dialect coach to re-learn how to speak with
an English accent. "For the first time in my career my name was
above the title. It said, 'Charlie Hunnam, BOOM, King Arthur.' I said, 'Here we go.'" Janet Leigh - Psycho Academy Award-winning actress Janet Leigh
is known mainly for one role: playing the character who gets stabbed to death in a shower
early on in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. The scene terrified millions, including Leigh—after
filming wrapped, she never felt comfortable in a shower again. In interviews Leigh noted that she "stopped
taking showers" after watching the scene. "I still... I still don't take showers, that the truth." On the rare occasion she had to take a shower,
she would only use it briefly while staring directly at the door—and she wouldn't even
draw the shower curtain. James Cromwell - Babe James Cromwell is the kind of actor whose
appearance is so distinctive most people know his face, but not his name. He scored one of his few leading film roles
in 1995's Babe, in which he was upstaged by a talking pig—but it all worked out, given
that it was not only a massive hit, but it changed Cromwell's life, turning him from
a guy who occasionally flirted with vegetarianism into a vegan. Cromwell has called the experience of making
the film a turning point in his life, recalling in an interview with Vice that he was profoundly
affected by seeing a small piglet react to being put onto a patch of grass. He said, quote, "When that little pig was
put down on that big pitch and saw the blue sky and the green grass and the sea, that
pig just took off. I said, I don't want any part of this. I am out." Cromwell has been an ardent supporter of animal
rights ever since—especially pigs, which, understandably, now have a special place in
his heart thanks to Babe and its sequel, Babe II: A Pig in the City. "I know that I'm aware of their suffering,
and I know I have an obligation to talk about their suffering, and to do something about
their suffering." Christopher McDonald - Happy Gilmore Christopher McDonald isn't exactly a household
name, but his performance in Happy Gilmore is so memorable that generations of filmgoers
can't look at a picture of his face without blurting out "Hey, it's Shooter McGavin!" That's just one role out of many in a solid
career, but it looks like McDonald doesn't mind being forever associated with the hot-headed
golf pro. McDonald told the A.V. Club he took the role basically because he
enjoyed playing golf—and won a tournament shortly after being offered the script. He was hesitant at first, saying he wasn't
eager to get back on a film set after shooting two movies back to back, but being paid to
play golf and hang out with Adam Sandler seemed like a pretty sweet deal. According to McDonald, his "golf game got
sick" since he played for five hours a day, six days a week while filming, and as an added
bonus, now that he's synonymous with Shooter McGavin, he basically gets to play golf for
free for the rest of his life. "Damn you people! This is golf, not a rock concert!" Thanks for watching! Click the Looper icon to subscribe to our
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