Getting in character. Many well-known Hollywood stars use method acting to get into character and to better bring authentic portrayals to the screen.
As Nicole Kidman prepared to play the intimidating Masha in Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers adaptation, which premiered in August 2021, she only spoke with Masha’s thick Russian accent and wouldn’t be addressed by her real name.
“I wanted a very calm, healing energy to emanate all the time. So I remember going over to people and sort of putting my hand on their heart or holding their hand,” she explained during a Television Critics Association panel at the time. “They would talk to me or use my name Nicole, and I would completely ignore it. I’d only respond to Masha.”
The Big Little Lies alum’s accent and mindset didn’t just apply to when she was on set, but even when she went home at the end of each day. She even revealed that her husband, Keith Urban, liked her particular characterization.
“He enjoyed Masha when she came home,” Kidman revealed to E! News that month, “He kind of liked the Russian accent, I have to say.”
The Prom actress isn’t the first actor to go above and beyond for their craft, playing their characters authentically. For instance, Shia LaBeouf joined a regiment of the armed forces and had his tooth removed before shooting Fury.
“Fury is the most meat I’ve ever had to chew on,” the Even Stevens alum revealed to Dazed magazine in November 2014. “David [Ayer, the director] told us right from the gate: ‘I need you to give me everything.’ So the day after I got the job, I joined the U.S. National Guard. I was baptized – accepted Christ in my heart – tattooed my surrender and became a chaplain’s assistant to Captain Yates for the 41st Infantry. I spent a month living on a forward operating base.”
LaBeouf also noted that he pulled out his own tooth, “knifed” his face up, spent several days “watching horses die” and didn’t bathe for four months to better get into character.
Other actors use various tricks to keep up their characterizations in between takes. Grey’s Anatomy star Camilla Luddington retained Jo’ Wilson’s American accent even when the cameras stopped rolling, instead of returning to her native English one.
“I cannot do what Kevin McKidd does and he spends the day flipping back and forth between accents,” the British actress explained via Snapchat, per an August 2017 YouTube recording. “If I did that, then Jo Wilson would sound probably very British, so even when I am not shooting in character, I keep this accent because it’s easier for me to maintain sounding American all day.”
Scroll below to learn which actors embraced method acting for their well-known roles:
For his 2021 film The Power of the Dog, the Sherlock alum quit bathing so that he'd smell as bad he imagined his character would have. "I wanted that layer of stink on me," he told Esquire UK in November 2021. "I wanted people in the room to know what I smelt like. It was hard, though. It wasn’t just in rehearsals. I was going out to eat and meet friends of [director] Jane [Campion] and stuff." He also smoked real cigarettes throughout filming, which added to his particular smell. “That was really hard,” he noted. “Filterless rollies, just take after take after take. I gave myself nicotine poisoning three times. When you have to smoke a lot, it genuinely is horrible.” Loredana Sangiuliano/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
Kidman stayed in character the entire duration of the five-month Nine Perfect Strangers shoot. “I wanted to not meet everybody before we started, so we set it up in the way where that was the first time I would meet everybody,” the Australia native told Variety in August 2021. “I stayed in character so that I could just relate to each person in that way. Otherwise, it would have felt very strange, coming in and chatting and trying to slip into Masha." Vince Valitutti/Hulu
The Oscar winner spent the better part of a year preparing to take on the role of Abraham Lincoln in 2012’s Lincoln. He stayed in character each day, read multiple biographies and autobiographies and even studied photographs of the historical figure. “I looked at them the way you sometimes look at your own reflection in a mirror and wonder who that person is looking back at you,” Day-Lewis told The New York Times that October. Moviestore/Shutterstock
To fully commit to his role in Ray, the Beat Shazam host agreed to wear prosthetic eyelids that were glued over his eyes. "Imagine having your eyes glued shut for 14 hours a day," Foxx told The New York Times what it was like in September 2004. "That's your jail sentence." Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock
When Brody was shooting The Pianist, he sought to understand the mindset of his character, concert pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman. "I gave up my apartment, I sold my car, I disconnected the phones, and I left," he said in a BBC interview in January 2003. "I took two bags and my keyboard and moved to Europe.” To portray Szpilman, who lived in a Warsaw ghetto during the Holocaust, the award-winning actor aimed to understand what starvation would have been like at the time. “I couldn't have acted that without knowing it,” he said. "I've experienced loss, I've experienced sadness in my life, but I didn't know the desperation that comes with hunger." Guy Ferrandis/Focus Features/Studio Canal/Kobal/Shutterstock
When Portman booked the lead in Black Swan, she enrolled in daily ballet lessons to play the trained dancer accurately. She studied under professional ballerinas at the New York City Ballet for several hours each day, swam miles and cross-trained. She told NPR in November 2010 that her toenails fell off, her feet became calloused and she dislocated a rib as a result of training. “There were some nights that I thought I literally was going to die,” Portman explained to the U.K.’s Independent in January 2011. Fox Searchlight/Kobal/Shutterstock
For his role in Fury, LaBeouf embraced the gritty military life, even enlisting in the National Guard, he told Dazed in November 2014. “I spent a month living on a forward operating base,” he told the magazine. “Then I linked up with my cast and went to Fort Irwin. I pulled my tooth out, knifed my face up and spent days watching horses die. I didn’t bathe for four months. I met some tankers who told me that was just the way it was out there – some guys had the same pair of socks on for three years.” Courtesy Sony Pictures Entertainment/YouTube
The Grey’s Anatomy actress swapped her native British accent for an American one to play Dr. Jo Wilson on the medical drama. While it can seem effortless on screen, she once noted that she has to stay in character between takes to avoid losing the accent. “I cannot do what Kevin McKidd does and he spends the day flipping back and forth between accents,” she explained via Snapchat, per an August 2017 YouTube recording. “If I did that then Jo Wilson would sound probably very British. … I keep this accent because it’s easier for me to maintain sounding American all day and that is why some behind-the-scenes videos, I also sound American because I’m [on set].” Rick Rowell/ABC/Kobal/Shutterstock
While the 50 Shades of Grey star was working on The Fall, he followed women around town to understand his tortured character’s mindset. “The first series, I did do a couple of things to try to get inside [his mind],” he told the Los Angeles Times in March 2015. "On the tube, which is our underground system ... This is a really bad reveal: I, like, followed a woman off the train one day to see what it felt like to pursue someone like that.” He continued, “It felt kind of exciting, in a really sort of dirty way. I’m sort of not proud of myself. But I do honestly think I learned something from it because I’ve obviously never done any of that. It was intriguing and interesting to enter that process of ‘what are you following her for?’ and ‘what are you trying to find out?’” Courtesy Netflix/YouTube
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