Getting into a role is all part of the job when it comes to acting. The emotional and physical toll that a part can take on actors can often leave them feeling completely different inside. These stars dove into their new personas without even knowing the impact it would have on them. Just how far would you push yourself to achieve a flawless performance? These actors found out...

Charlize Theron

You might have expected Charlize Theron to lose her mind thanks to her Oscar-winning performance as Aileen Wuornos in Monster, but really, it was Atomic Blonde that sent her off the rails. The 2017 film followed Lorraine Broughton, an elite spy who's willing to use all of her deadly weaponry, wit, and cleverness to keep moving forward. The pursuit of perfection was not very good for her body though...

Atomic Blonde

On the set, Theron had a wish to do all of her own stunts and prove herself as an active actress. However, once push came to shove, she really got pushed and shoved! The actress fell while working and ended up bruising her ribs and even clenched her teeth so aggressively that actually, she broke two of them. These days, Theron doesn't do any of her own stunts.

Christian Bale

Actors will do anything for the perfect part, even starve themselves. Christian Bale put his star power to the test when he accepted a part in The Machinist. He also accepted all the work that came with it. In the course of only four months prior to production, the actor dropped over 60 pounds for the part in Brad Anderson’s psychological thriller. His appearance shocked audiences, but the performance had only just begun...

The Machinist

Getting down to 120 pounds was no simple task. According to a biography on Bale written by Harrison Cheung, the method actor consumed only “water, an apple, and one cup of coffee per day." In addition to his diet, he also changed his lifestyle. Men’s Journal reported that the actor took up chain-smoking cigarettes and drinking whiskey in order to drop pounds quickly. Though it sounds stressful, Bale describes it as "very calming mentally."

Daniel Day-Lewis

A lot of times, actors will adopt a unique diet or daily habit to get into a new role. However, Daniel Day-Lewis took his role in The Last of the Mohicans a step farther. In order to accept the mindset of a wild man, he dedicated six months to living out in the empty wilderness. He earned his title as one of the biggest method actors around thanks to stunts like this, but how did he feel about his time there?

The Last of the Mohicans

For Day-Lewis, this was something worth pursuing. He says that it's methods like this that make acting worth the work. "I think it comes through, the details of discovering a way of life,” the actor said. "There’s no wasted experience. In the discovery of it, you’re becoming at ease with it. Day-Lewis learned how to skin animals, throw tomahawks, build canoes, and reload muskets. He's had a love of the outdoors ever since!

Halle Berry

All is not easy on the way to the top, and no one knows that better than Halle Berry. The now-famous celeb was once a hopeful begging for parts in any role she could score. She asked Spike Lee if he would be gracious enough to let her play a crack addict in his 1991 film Jungle Fever. Lee obliged and Berry got the part she needed to skyrocket to fame. However, that fame was going to come at a creative price. She would do anything to keep the role...

Jungle Fever

While filming the flick, Berry refused to shower or bathe in any way. Doing so meant she would risk losing everything, or so she thought. She was so enamored with the role she had earned that she believed that straying from her character would result in being fired. So, she stayed in character for two weeks straight, losing a little sanity along the way. Hey, anything goes in Hollywood...

Shelley Duvall

The Shining is widely regarded as one of the best films of all time, but Shelley Duvall's experience on set was anything but the best. Kubrick dedicated the duration of his time with Shelley berating her. The director tormented the actress, instructing the cast and crew not to interact with her in order to get her into the part. The movie was shot in chronological order so that Duvall's unraveling would take place both on-screen and in real time.

The Shining

Duvall was forced to cry so often that she kept a water bottle off-screen at all times, which helped her stay hydrated. Her hair was falling out in clumps. Kubrick didn't care though, he even made her do 127 takes of the baseball bat scene. Jack Nicholson said that she was given "the toughest job that any actor I've seen had, because 40% of that movie, she's hysterical."

Ashton Kutcher

Ashton Kutcher really wanted the part of Steve Jobs for the biopic about the inventor's life. He wanted it so badly that he dedicated himself to living life just like the Apple creator did. Allegedly, Jobs had a diet comprised of just fruit. In order to live the same life, the actor tried to do the same thing for the 2013 movie. He got cast in the part, but it didn't come without a hefty price...Ashton Kutcher's sanity. 

Jobs

After a while, Ashton learned why everyone else in the world doesn't exist solely on a diet of just fruit. He became very sick very quickly, both mentally and physically. Severe vitamin deficiencies caused him to be hospitalized. He also experienced a reduction in bone density. He ended up in the emergency room just two days before filming officially started. Amazingly, he was on time for the first day, but he doesn't consume quite as much fruit these days...

Meryl Streep & Dustin Hoffman

With Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman on screen, any movie is bound to succeed. Kramer vs. Kramer was no different, and even earned the leading lady her very first Oscar, though there would be many more to come. The high-intensity divorce drama raised more than just profits though, it also raised tensions. In one particular scene, the two feuding foes brought their drama home from work with them...

Kramer vs. Kramer

Things came to fruition when Hoffman and Streep were in the middle of a very intense fighting scene. In the heat of the moment, Hoffman actually slapped Streep across the face, which was not scripted. Cast and crew alike were completely shocked, and Meryl was stunned into silence. The two finished the film, but Hoffman and Streep remain on bad terms to this day. It is rumored that Meryl even wanted to quit acting due to the event...

Rooney Mara

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo encapsulated audiences for years, both with the thrilling novels and incredible movie adaptation. However, the translation from script to screen was pretty intense for Mara to endure. The actress, once looking as classicly Hollywood as she could, was forced to change everything about her appearance for the role of the titular character. 

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

In order to look the part, Mara had to completely transform into Lisbeth Salander from David Fincher's 2011 film. This involved milestones like cutting her hair, bleaching her eyebrows white, and piercing her body and face in order to get into the headspace of the cyber hacker hero from Stieg Larsson's novels.

"I didn't even have pierced ears," Mara said in an interview. "They put four holes in each ear, and, weirdly, that hurt the most."

Joaquin Phoenix

Joaquin Phoenix shocked everyone when he quit acting for good back in 2008. The longtime actor revealed that his true passion was becoming a DJ, and he switched career paths to becoming a hip-hop creator. During this period, Phoenix gave several bizarre interviews and unusual performances, but there was a secret he was holding onto, one that only a select few people knew about... 

I'm Still Here

As it turns out, the entire thing was an elaborate stunt to help promote his new mockumentary titled I'm Still Here. Phoenix just became this character sort of out of nowhere. It was his friend who saw something special in the strange behavior. 

"It began with me just picking up a little video camera no bigger than your tape recorder and starting to film him," said the friend, "Just trying to see what kind of personality was emerging when the camera was on. It's always so different, who someone is when they're talking to you and who they are when you point light in their face."

Hillary Swank

Million Dollar Baby follows a boxing trainer with issues connecting emotionally. When one young hopeful arrives in Frankie's gym, he has no interest in training the woman. Eventually, he relents and forms a friendship he never expected. Hilary Swank plays boxing hopeful Maggie Fitzgerald, but she would later regret this acting choice...

Million Dollar Baby

Becoming a boxing legend doesn't happen overnight. Hilary Swank's exercise regime for the dramatic film was no simple feat. The workout was so intense that it almost cost the actress her life. At six days a week for three months, he was pushing herself too hard. A doctor informed her that a staph infection was hours away from reaching her heart. She got the infection from a blister in the gym. Hilary Swank was terrified of the gym throughout filming and after, worried she was risking her life again. 

Shia LeBeouf

No one has ever claimed that Shia LeBeouf was the most normal actor in Hollywood, and he doesn't have a perfect reputation, but even Fury co-star Logan Lerman was in awe of the actor. According to Lerman, LeBeouf once cut his own face with a knife so that his character would seem more realistic. He also allegedly fought the cast to get more in the headspace of the role. 

Fury

 Shia didn't stop the madness there. He also pulled a tooth out during filming the flick. Shia also resisted washing or bathing himself for an entire month, as his character wouldn't have been able to access much cleanliness.  He smelled so bad that the crew was tasked with arranging a separate room for the actor during night-time shoots. He had a hard time breaking away from this character after wrapping the film...

Val Kilmer

Val Kilmer compiled some seriously intense research for the role of Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's 1991 film The Doors. The actor learned how to sing and play 50 different songs by The Doors as well as spending several hours in the studio studying Morrison's performances. He believed that by observing hours upon hours of interview footage, he would succeed in capturing the rock legend's essence.

The Doors

Kilmer requested that he only be referred to as Jim by both the cast and crew. Allegedly, the two stars had nearly identical voices. Kilmer even had to go to therapy after wrapping so that he could distance himself from the character again. Paul Rothchild, a rock producer who knew the original Morrison very well, claimed that Kilmer "knows Jim Morrison better than Jim ever knew himself."

Gregory Peck

The Omen of 1976 was the site of many haunted occurrences. It has been noted as one of the most cursed sets in history. Apparently, Harvey Bernhard even brought a cross to set with him each day. Bernhard said, "The devil was at work, and he didn't want that film made."

Nearly everyone lost their mind while filming this. Gregory Peck's son took his own life two months prior to filming, and his plane was later struck by lightning. Mace Neufeld, the film's producer, had the same thing happen to him...

The Omen

Bernhard may have been correct. The day after shooting a safari park scene, an animal handler was killed by a tiger. The assistant of the special effects artist was beheaded in a car accident nearby a road sign that read "Ommen, 66.6 km." The crew also avoided death when they opted out of a plane ride for some aerial shots. That same plane went down during the scheduled flight...

Adrian Brody

Adrian Brody's journey to play Wladyslaw Szpilman, a real-life pianist and Holocaust survivor, was not an easy one. His Academy Award for Best Actor came with a high price. Brody lost a lot of weight to play Szpilman, a starved survivor. Brody only ate two boiled eggs for breakfast, a cup of chicken for lunch, and steamed vegetables for dinner. He did this for two weeks, ending his diet at 130 pounds, very low for the 6'5 actor. 

The Pianist

Brody gave up everything in his life in pursuit of the part. He moved to Europe. He sold his home and car. He isolated himself completely. However, Brody knew that the hunger of the role would be the hardest part.

"I was depressed for a year after The Pianist. And I don't suffer from that, generally. It wasn't just a depression; it was a mourning," Brody told one news outlet.

Heather Langenkamp

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a classic of horror. Wes Craven introduced a villain that would go on to become one of the most iconic criminals in movie history, but he had a hard time getting the film off the ground. Craven told one magazine that studios were "afraid of making a film that had blood in it." Thankfully, New Line Cinema took a chance on the flick, and Heather Langenkamp was cast as Nancy Thompson. She would later regret this casting...

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Langenkamp was in a "chamber of horrors" when she was filming the bathtub scene. A modified tub allowed a man in a scuba suit to lay underneath Langenkamp and make it seem like Krueger's hand was coming out from between Nancy's legs. "So Jim [Doyle, VFX engineer] is blindly plunging that thing between my legs," Langenkamp retold. "One time it's too far to the right, next time it's too far to the left, then it's way too fast—and Wes just patiently waited until he got the take that he wanted."

Bill Skarsgård

Pennywise, the creepy clown who terrorized children in the 2017 film adaptation of Stephen King's It, is one of the scariest roles out there. Skarsgård had a hard time putting on the clown suit and was relieved when filming wrapped. He told Entertainment Weekly that he developed a "destructive relationship" with Pennywise, finding it tiring to enter the mindset of a killer clown. However, Skarsgård later said that Pennywise remained with him long after he left the scene.

It

Allegedly, the actor was experiencing "very strange and vivid Pennywise dreams." He explained to EW that Pennywise was visiting him in his nightmares: "Every night, he came and visited. It was in the shape of either me dealing with him, sort of Pennywise as a separate entity of me, and then also me as Pennywise in circumstances that I didn't appreciate. Like, I'm Pennywise and I'm really upset that I'm out in public and people are looking at me."

Regardless of this mental state, Skarsgård returned to the role in It: Chapter Two.

Liv Tyler

Despite the mixed reviews, The Strangers made a box office hefty profit against its $9 million budget. Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman play a couple kidnapped by three masked strangers who decide who wreak havoc on their holiday vacation getaway. Tyler and Speedman's performances were praised by Variety for "credibly registering every hue of panic." The panic was real behind the scenes too...

The Strangers

Tyler was terrified while filming. "That's what is so real about The Strangers," she recalled. "Like, you'd be in bed at night trying to relax, and all of a sudden you hear a noise and you go, 'What was that!' And you wonder, are you brave enough to go check or not? Imagine if you went to look, and there's a person in a mask standing in your living room with a butcher knife!"

Laura Margolis, who played the "Pin-Up Girl" hostage-taker, revealed that she had been specifically instructed not to let Tyler see her maskless prior to shooting: "She didn't want to have to fake it, and so it was my responsibility to really scare her."

Margot Robbie

Margot Robbie plays a hysterical girl in love very well—see Harley Quinn a la Suicide Squad or Birds of Prey—but she had difficulty in the role of figure skater Tonya Harding. The part was famous for the skater's assault on Nancy Kerrigan that destroyed her career. Robbie fell on hard times physically and emotionally, requiring a weekly MRI and intensive emotional work after wrapping.

I, Tonya

"I had lost my mind," Robbie told Grazia, describing the effects of her mental health after the film ends. "I genuinely thought [Sebastian Stan and I] were these people and we were off the set, running down the street screaming at each other and the cameras are running after us," Robbie said. 

Stan played Jeff Gillooly, Harding's ex-husband. Robbie said that the harmful relationship depicted between Harding and Stan emotionally traumatized Robbie.

Heath Ledger

Heath Ledger's role as the Joker in The Dark Knight landed him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, but Ledger died before he got to claim the award. He passed due to an accidental drug overdose in January 2008 at 28 years old. In the years after his death, it was speculated that the mental exhaustion of prepping for the part had contributed to Ledger's early ending. Members of his family disagree with this concept—but it's hard to deny that Ledger's Joker wasn't terrifying to watch. 

The Dark Knight

Prior to filming, Ledger isolated himself from the outside world, locking himself in a single room for weeks. During this time, Ledger maintained a creepy diary in order to stay in "the realm of a psychopath." The role was challenging and Ledger was forced to break down boundaries between himself and the villain. Even after production had closed, Ledger couldn't separate from the character.

"I probably slept two hours a night," he said in an interview with The New York Times. He later overdosed on sleeping pills...

Vera Farmiga

Prior to signing on for The Conjuring, Vera Farmiga had no idea about her role. Ed and Lorraine Warren were real-life ghost investigators associated with high-profile hauntings. On the night Farmiga began researching Warren's past life, she ended a phone call with director James Wan. She then opened her laptop only to be met with "three digital claw marks, from the upper right diagonal to the lower left."

The Conjuring

The day after Farmiga finished filming The Conjuring, she returned back to her home in New York and woke up to find the same markings on her leg.

"It was these three very distinct—what looks like claw marks—that long nails or long fingertips could make," she said. Farmiga did believe that "there's clear evidence of some strangeness that's occurred. My husband did not do that to me. I did not scratch some mosquito bites. It's inexplicable."

Patrick Wilson

Patrick Wilson is no stranger to horror. He's made appearances in all kinds of scary flicks, like the Insidious movies, Bone Tomahawk, Hard Candy, and of course, The Conjuring. Although he got through the first one without issue, The Conjuring 2 gave Wilson a fright. During filming, a large floor-to-ceiling curtain started swaying despite the lack of fans, doors, and open windows on set.  "You didn't even hear any hair, but you watched these curtains sort of violently going," said the actor.

The Conjuring 2

The incident scared the cast and crew. Eventually, they even had a priest come and bless the set, just for good measure. Wilson admits that the moment was "pretty trippy" to observe. Since working on these supernatural projects, Wilson thinks that his own house may now be affected by the paranormal.

"I've heard people on two different occasions say they've heard kids' laughter in the middle of the night in my house," Wilson told The Independent.

Bob Hoskins

Bob Hoskins had a long and impressive film career, but he's most likely best remembered by 90s kids for his portrayal of P.I. Eddie Valiant. The alcoholic gumshoe in Who Framed Roger Rabbit meant Hoskins spent hours every day acting with his imaginary co-stars who came in during animation. Spending eight months communicating with characters he didn't see took a toll on his psyche, and Hoskins wasn't immune.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

In order to make his performance perfect, Hoskins "learned how to hallucinate" that Roger and the other characters were actually by his side on set. By the time filming had closed, Hoskins often found himself speaking to his friends in empty rooms, even hallucinating that the animated rabbit was in there with him. Hoskins was advised by his psychologists to take a break from acting while he reoriented himself.

Kit Harington

None of the actors who auditioned on Game of Thrones could have predicted the success of the show, but Kit Harington got most of the high pressure. Harington's character, Jon Snow, became the show's central protagonist over time—and Harington had a hard time handling the stress as King of the North. 

"It wasn't a very good time in my life," Harington told Variety. "I felt I had to feel that I was the most fortunate person in the world when actually, I felt very vulnerable."

Game of Thrones

"I had a shaky time in my life around there—like I think a lot of people do in their 20s," he recalled. "That was a time when I started therapy and started talking to people. I had felt very unsafe, and I wasn't talking to anyone."

Not long after filming on the series finale had wrapped, Harington checked himself into a "wellness retreat," where he worked on "personal issues." According to an interview with Page Six, the actor sought help for exhaustion, stress, and alcohol abuse.

Ryan Reynolds

The 2005 remake of The Amityville Horror gave way to some serious skepticism in the spooky. A number of bizarre occurrences slowed production down tremendously, such as a dead fisherman that washed up on shore right as the cast and crew were about to start filming. Just before the press tour began, Ronald DeFeo Jr., the inspiration for Reynolds' character George Lutz, passed away suddenly.

The Amityville Horror

"I think a lot of people make that stuff up to sell their movie, but there was some weird stuff that happened," Reynolds retold interviews. He added that most of the cast and crew were waking up early in the morning, which is when the Amityville murders happened. Reynolds also hated the house where the movie was filmed.

"It's terrifying," he said. "You walk up and it's just upsetting. There's something about the house that's upsetting. There's something about the colors around it. Everything was just a little upsetting."

Dylan O'Brien

In 2016, teen heartthrob Dylan O'Brien suffered an incident on the set of The Maze Runner that could have ruined not only his career, but his entire life. O'Brien was performing a stunt that went tragically off the rails. The actor was thrown from one vehicle and hit by another in a freak accident. O'Brien was left with a concussion and a severe facial fracture, which left him in a "really fragile, vulnerable state."

The Maze Runner

O'Brien said it was a "rough year," but he credits his then-girlfriend and supportive family for helping him with his quick recovery.

"The first time I saw my face I was like, 'That's it,'" he said. "Spending that six months out of it and in recovery so far away from it, you're in a state of questioning everything. I absolutely went through a period of not knowing what my future was going to be."

Jodie Foster

Anthony Hopkins' legendary performance as prolific serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter scared more than just his audience. Although Hopkins was introduced to Jodie Foster prior to filming for a table read, she was so terrified of the killer character that she refused to say another word to him off-camera for the duration of the shoot. Foster went out of her way to dodge Hopkins: "We got to the end of the movie and really never had a conversation," she said. "I avoided him as best as I could."

The Silence of the Lambs

Hopkins took home an Academy Award for Best Actor, but away from the camera lens, he nowhere near as cool or collected as his performance had made him seem. On the final day of shooting, Hopkins approached Foster, who had a tear in her eye. She said, "I was really scared of you," to which he said, "I was really scared of you!" No one escaped this film without a frightful friend!

Sarah Paulson

Sarah Paulson earned a lot of critical acclaim for her performances in shows like American Horror Story and The People vs. O.J. Simpson, but with Paulson's skyrocketing success came a nasty habit: smoking cigarettes. Paulson didn't smoke until her roles asked for it. It was all downhill from there...

The People vs. O.J. Simpson and American Horror Story

Once he tried her first few cigarettes, Paulson found herself looking forward to the scenes that required her to light up a cigarette. Marcia Clark, who Paulson was playing in the Netflix hit The People vs. O.J. Simpson, was a known chair-smoker in real life. Paulson said the ordeal was "a real situation" as she developed a nicotine addiction. 

Jeffrey Dean Morgan

He may be hardcore in The Walking Dead, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan when filming The Possession. He and the other actors were so disturbed by the real story of the dybbuk box that they worked hard to keep malicious spirits away. Although Morgan described himself as a nonbeliever, he admitted that there were a number of unexplained occurrences on set.

"Lots of lightbulbs exploding," Morgan said. "Just overall kind of creepiness... 'Don't mock the box' was sort of the mantra that we lived by while filming this."

The Possession

The real dybbuk box was the subject of an article found in the 1994 Los Angeles Times. The box served as inspiration for the film. Foolishly, someone offered to bring the real deal to set, but Morgan flat-out refused. He was totally unwilling to risk the potential consequences: "If you go and look at what has happened to people that have had contact with an actual dybbuk box, it's not good stuff... why risk that?"

Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp jumped at the opportunity to depict Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, whom he considered a personal role model. In preparing himself for the film, Depp sought to learn everything he could about Thompson's mannerisms and lifestyle. He even moved himself into Thompson's basement to get as close to the investigator as possible.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

By the time production began, it seemed like Depp had fully become Thompson's character. Depp and Benicio del Toro were so committed to their roles that the cast and crew thought they might actually be on drugs the whole time, and Depp remained in "Thompson mode" almost a full year after wrapping. The two remained friends until Thompson took his own life in 2005; Depp donated $3 million to shoot Thompson's remains from a cannon.

Marilyn Burns

Tobe Hooper was a ruthless writer-director on this project. When Texas Chain Saw Massacre film was on the big screen, people were literally scared out of their seats—but he also managed to panic the entire cast. In order to capture their authentic reactions, Hooper made the executive decision to hide Leatherface's hideous features until it was time to start rolling.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Poor Marilyn Burns had no idea what was in store for her at the dinner table. Hooper confirmed that the dinner scene was easily the most intense part of the film. In fact, the cast and crew had all gone "slightly insane by then."

"The whole dinner scene is burned into my memory," he said. "I just think because of the misery of it. At that point, we were really just on the verge of mental collapse. And Marilyn told me how awful it was for her because she was terrified—just being tied to a chair and then having these men looming over her constantly, she said it was really unnerving."

Keira Knightley

Keira Knightley was only 17 when she starred in the first Pirates of the Caribbean film? Knightley was fast-tracked to stardom, but the teenager wasn't ready for the limelight just yet. "It's amazing looking back at it from the outside—you're like, 'Whoa, that was hit after hit,'" she said. "But, from the inside, all you're hearing is the criticism. I literally felt like I was worthless."

After being thrust into the center stage, Knightley removed herself from the public eye for a full year, becoming a recluse to avoid being attacked by tabloids at every turn. Knightley was hidden for three months at a time in her home.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

Knightley returned to work, but she had developed PTSD in the meantime. Even though she had won an Academy Award for Best Actress for Pride and Prejudice, Knightley couldn't help but feel like a phony. She even underwent hypnotherapy to prevent panic attacks before she attended the 2008 BAFTAs.

"I felt pretty much like actually I didn't exist and I was this weird creature with this weird face that people seemed to respond to in quite an extreme way," Knightley recalled.

Michael B. Jordan

Black Panther was a global sensation, earning well over a billion dollars. Michael B. Jordan played one of Marvel's most memorable and diabolical villains, Erik Killmonger, a war-hungry usurper. Although many fans sympathized with the heartbroken Killmonger, the role took quite a toll on Jordan. Jordan wasn't used to playing an antagonist.

"I was never in a character for that long of a period of time and was, I guess, that dark, that lonely, that painful," Jordan said on The Bill Simmons Podcast.

Black Panther

He attempted to return to "life as usual" after filming had finally wrapped, but it wasn't that easy. Eventually, Jordan started seeing a psychologist to help remove himself from the depressing mindset.

"I found myself kind of in the routine of being isolated and went out of my way to make sure I was by myself," he recalled. "Once I got finished wrapping the movie, it took me some time to talk through how I was feeling and why I was feeling so sad and like, a little bit depressed."

James Cromwell

In 1995, James Cromwell's experience as a farmer on the set of Babe transformed his life in several ways. Before the film, Cromwell had toyed with the idea of vegetarianism over the years, but he soon realized that just saying no to meat wasn't enough. Cromwell described the turning point during production that led him to veganism: watching a little baby piglet be gently placed on a patch of grass.

Babe

"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," Cromwell told one news source. "I said, 'I don't want any part of this. I am out.'"

 Since starring in Babe, Cromwell has become an outspoken environmental activist and an animal rights activist, even leading to multiple arrests in the name of helping creatures. He especially loves pigs. They've earned a special place in his heart.

Colin Firth

To play the part of George VI, the soon-to-be King of England, Colin Firth had to work very hard to perfect his stutter. He hired a vocal coach and studied the recordings of George VI in order to mimic his speech patterns, mannerisms, and nervous tics. In real life, George VI never overcame his traumatic stutter, but it was Firth who nearly developed one himself.

The King's Speech

Almost a full year following the film's premiere, Firth admitted in an interview that his part from The King's Speech had left him with a minor speech impediment. The actor found himself occasionally lapsing into a stammer during casual conversation from time to time. Fortunately, he appears to have figured it out in the years since the filming. 

Isabelle Adjani

The subway scene in Andrzej Zulawski's 1981 Possession is known by film fans to be a quintessential piece of horror. In fact, horror buffs everywhere praise it. If you haven't seen the flick yet, keep in mind, it's not for the faint of heart—or for the weak of stomach.

Possession

Adjani won a César Award for her role as Anna but it was so physically and emotionally draining that it permanently left the actress traumatized. She later told a magazine interview that she would never perform a role like that one ever again, saying that it took her "years of therapy" to recover from something people enjoyed onscreen.

Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant

For years, fans of Leo believed that the actor would never win an Oscar, but the work finally paid off when he demonstrated his talents in The Revenant. It earned him long-awaited recognition from the Academy. To prepare for the part, DiCaprio slept inside of a dead animal carcass to survive the cold. He also consumed raw bison meat and regularly swam in frozen lakes.

"If a cat has nine lives, I think I've used a few," he told Wired.

Janet Leigh - Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock may have changed the horror industry forever, but the director was well known for terrorizing women in his films. Although Psycho is a classic staple of the genre, Janet Leigh was deeply hurt by her experience on set. Leigh, who played Marion Crane, uncovered a phobia of showers after she was "stabbed" in the infamous scene. Leigh took only baths after working on the movie, always making sure to keep the curtain drawn back, and always faced the door.

Tippi Hedren - The Birds

In the final scene of Hitchcock's The Birds, Tippi Hedren is attacked by droves of flying feathered beasts. If she seemed scared, know that she wasn't acting. Without warning, Hitchcock launched dozens of birds at Hedren to see what her authentic reaction would be. The actress later said that Hitchcock put her in a "mental prison." 

Keanu Reeves - The Matrix

The set of The Matrix was totally cursed. Actress and singer Aaliyah had been cast in the role of Zee,  but she died in a plane crash at the age of 22. Gloria Foster played The Oracle, but then she also passed away. Keanu Reeves' girlfriend Jennifer Syme gave birth to a stillborn before she lost her life in a car accident right after filming wrapped. Reeves' sister also suffered from leukemia during production. Reeves spent $24 million of his own salary to keep the cameras shooting.

Mia Farrow - Rosemary's Baby

Mia Farrow suffered just as much as her terrified character in Rosemary's Baby. For one particular scene, Farrow, a well-known vegetarian, was forced to consume raw liver by director Roman Polanski. While that may seem disgusting enough, Polanski didn't just make her do it one time—Farrow was forced to eat the liver repeatedly until Polanski was satisfied with the final cut.

Heather Donahue - The Blair Witch Project

The cast of The Blair Witch Project was basically dumped in the woods and tormented relentlessly for days on end. In order to catch an authentic reaction, the directors stalked the actors during the day and attacked their tents at night. They also fed them less and less so they'd lose their minds over the course of shooting.

However, due to the film's unusual marketing strategy, Heather Donahue had to pretend to be dead. "My obituary was published when I was 24," she wrote in The Guardian. "It's a complicated thing to be dead when you're still very much alive and eager to make a name for yourself."

Anne Hathaway - Les Misérables

Anne Hathaway really was miserable when filming Les Misérables. In order to drop pounds for the role, Hathaway stuck to a strict diet of dried oatmeal paste. She also left her hubby in the U.S. so she could envelop herself in the character's dark mentality. Her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" brought critics to tears and earned her an Academy Award nomination, but Hathaway spent the majority of filming in a state of depression.

JoBeth Williams - Poltergeist

Poltergeist is known as one of the most haunted movie sets in history because it involved actual dead bodies. Steven Spielberg wanted to use real human cadavers as props, and JoBeth Williams was terrified to learn that the bobbing heads beside her in the pool were once very much alive. Repeatedly, Williams would come home from shooting to find that all of the frames on her walls were crooked. 

George Clooney - Syriana

George Clooney nearly died on the set of Syriana. The actor was badly hurt in a trick stunt gone wrong—he ended up breaking his back. He later claimed that the injury was so painful that he considered suicide.

"I was at a point where I thought, 'I can't exist like this. I can't actually live,'" he told Huffington Post. "I was lying in a hospital bed with an IV in my arm, unable to move, having these headaches where it feels like you're having a stroke, and for a short three-week period, I started to think, 'I may have to do something drastic about this.'"

Veronica Cartwright - Alien

If the chest-bursting scene in Alien disturbed you, then imagine how the cast felt. Director Ridley Scott wanted to keep everyone in the dark about the scene in order to make sure their reactions were real. "If an actor is just acting terrified, you can't get the genuine look of raw, animal fear," he said.

Sigourney Weaver said that she was so worried about John Hurt that she forgot they were even part of a movie. Veronica Cartwright passed out cold. "You see this thing start to come out, so we all get sucked in, we lean forward to check it out... all of a sudden it comes out. I tell you, none of us expected it. It came out and twisted around," she recalled.

Maika Monroe - It Follows

Maika Monroe as Jay Height in the critically acclaimed horror film It Follows immersed the actress in the world of horror, but she couldn't have predicted just how bad the role would hurt her. "It was a very difficult shoot," she said. "Every day was another battle to face just in terms of acting and the screaming and crying and running. All of that every day is very tiresome."

The shooting could last every night for 12 hours straight in "very creepy." It was very difficult for her to endure the wheelchair scene, which took place on the last day of filming.

Isla Fisher - Now You See Me

Now You See Me may have been a magical movie, but Isla Fishercertainly didn't love it. During the scene where Hensley is submerged in a tank of water and starts to drown, Fisher was supposed to be able to release herself.

"My chain got stuck," Fisher revealed. "I had to swim to the bottom; I couldn't get up. Everyone thought I was acting fabulously. I was actually drowning. No one realized I was actually struggling." Thankfully the crew figured it out in time to save her!

Linda Blair - The Exorcist

Linda Blair was only 13 years old when she found herself as the face of The Exorcist in 1973.

"To me, The Exorcist was a work of fiction," she recalled in an interview. "I didn't realize then that it dealt with anything in reality, and so when the press kept asking me about all the devil stuff, it just kept adding to the pressure I was under, and it was just an awful thing to go through as a teenager."

Diane Kruger - Inglorious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino loves taking things too far. Diane Kruger played Bridget von Hammersmark, a film actress in Nazi Germany and a spy for the Allies in 2009's Inglorious Basterds. During the scene in which her character is strangled, Tarantino didn't yell "cut" in time for Kruger to be safe. Kruger passed out from lack of oxygen very quickly.

Kruger later recalled the incident, recognizing that it was an accident and asserting that working with Tarantino was nothing other than "pure joy."

Jennifer Lawrence - The Hunger Games

Jennifer Lawrence rose to fame through her role as the arrow slinging Katniss Everdeen in the film adaptation of The Hunger Games. Despite Lawrence's widespread fame, she didn't leave the franchise unscathed. While filming a scene where her character sprints through a tunnel, one of the fog machines got screwed up. The tunnel filled up with smoke, suffocating Lawrence nearly to death.

Martin Sheen & Francis Ford Coppola - Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now earned critical acclaim but was a total nightmare to film. Marlon Brando had gained a tremendous amount of weight without telling anyone, didn't read the script, would only be shot in dark lighting, and attempted to make up all of his lines. Director Francis Ford Coppola had a seizure, a nervous breakdown, and suicidal thoughts. Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack in the sweltering jungle. Yikes!

Malcolm Dowell - A Clockwork Orange

In Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange a scene takes place where Alex is brainwashed. Malcolm McDowell really did have to keep his eyes pinned open for every single take during this part. Unfortunately, the device really scratched his cornea and caused him to suffer from temporary blindness. McDowell also broke his ribs during the filming of the humiliation stage show. All for the art!

Kyle Richards - Halloween

Kyle Richards from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was a child actress in John Carpenter's Halloween at the age of 9. After seeing the slasher film's premiere, Richards was so scared that she had to sleep with her mom for six years, haunted by the possibility of someone hiding under her bed or behind the curtains. Richards stayed away from acting for decades...

Ellen Sandweiss - The Evil Dead 

When Ellen Sandweiss agreed to be in the 1979 horror flick The Evil Dead, she didn't know what she was signing up for.

"That scene initially was supposed to just be a 'tree attack' scene, the rape part kind of evolved as we were shooting it," Sandweiss recalled. "It was pretty grueling, shooting in the cold, in the middle of the night, getting scraped up by trees, not a whole lot of fun. People were quite shocked when they saw it, but not quite as shocked as I was."

The Evil Dead was banned in the UK until the year 2000.

Amanda Wyss - A Nightmare on Elm Street

Heather Langenkamp was one of a few others who had difficulty on A Nightmare on Elm Street. Amanda Wyss played Tina Grey, the first teen to die in the film. For Wyss, this didn't feel like movie magic.

"The first spin around [the room] felt like I was falling, even though I was on the floor. Then I felt that if I wasn’t falling, everything was going to fall on me. It was terrible. We had to stop. The terror in my death scene was 75 percent real."

Jim Caviezel - The Passion of the Christ

Assistant director Jan Michelini was struck by lightning twice during filming this godlike movie, but he wasn't the only one with bad luck. Jim Caviezel played Jesus, and flesh was torn from his body during the whipping scene. He even dislocated his shoulder while carrying the heavy wooden cross. Caviezel, somehow, was also struck by lightning. He also suffered from both hypothermia, a lung infection, migrarines, skin infections, and pneumonia. Whoa.

Margaret Hamilton - The Wizard of Oz

At the start of filming, Buddy Ebsen (the Tin Man) had to spend two weeks recovering in an oxygen tent after aluminum dust from his makeup coated his lungs. Bert Lahr (the Cowardly Lion) was also forced to wear a 90-pound costume made of actual lion skin in the California summer. Margaret Hamilton(the Wicked Witch of the West) caught fire when a stunt went wrong, scalding the actress with second-degree and third-degree burns. 

Natalie Portman - Black Swan

Natalie Portman followed a training regimen for Black Swan—and she pushed herself so hard that she felt like she was on the verge of death. Portman dislocated a rib during her 8-hour daily rehearsals and lost 20 pounds for the role. She only ever ate carrots and almonds. Portman was desperate to achieve perfection. She won an Oscar for her performance, but: "There were some nights that I thought I literally was going to die," she said.

Drew Barrymore - Scream

Barrymore had an idea of how to get her adrenaline pumping in preparation for the seven-day-long shoot: she told Wes Craven her "secrets," which he would then relay to her in private, thus making her cry. Barrymore hoped to hyperventilate, and day after day, Craven managed to prod her into sobbing and shrieking and sprinting all over the set for her part. 

"It was intense," she said. "I remember driving home the night I wrapped and I was beat. I was exhausted."