It's great to give your best to your job, but what if your job can drive you crazy? Actors know this reality firsthand. Some roles have captivated their minds so much that some actors have been unable to cope without specialized help.
And you thought filming a movie was that easy? No way! And the following five examples will clearly demonstrate to you how hard it is sometimes to get used to the roles of some movie characters:
1. Johnny Depp - "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"
A writer without rules and morals, a crazy dreamer Hunter Thompson could trust his head and personality to only one person - Johnny Depp. The actor, in turn, passionately plunged into the unhealthy atmosphere of the gonzo journalist's life: Depp lived with Thompson for several weeks, got up at 8-9 o'clock in the evening, went to bed at about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and wore only the writer's old clothes for filming. As a result, after filming, Johnny admitted that the image of Hunter became a virus for him, which he happily "suffers from."
2. Vera Farmiga - "The Conjuring"
Scary stories always follow serious horror films, and "The Conjuring" was no exception: Vera Farmiga received "messages" from otherworldly forces twice. The first of them - 3 scratches on her laptop - she discovered when she was negotiating the role with the director over the phone, the other - scratches already on her body - she saw after filming, when she returned home. Whether these were real warnings from spirits or consequences of the role is unknown.
3. Bob Hoskins - "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"
The role of private detective Eddie Valiant became the most difficult in the legendary actor's track record. Hoskins had to imagine cartoon characters for 8 months of filming, because Disney images were drawn onto the already shot film. Bob later admitted that the cartoons began to haunt him, which eventually led him to a psychiatrist's office.
4. Val Kilmer - The Doors
For a year, Kilmer wore Jim Morrison's old clothes, watched concert recordings over and over again, trying to imitate the facial expressions, movements and mannerisms of the rock icon, spent entire days listening to The Doors, learned 50 of the artist's songs - he became an exact "fake" of the iconic musician. After filming, the actor said that now he needs outside help to get the character out of his head.
5. Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
A perfectionist to the core, Heath Ledger became a real victim of his role. Preparing for the filming of The Dark Knight, the actor, as if possessed, began to create a diary of the Joker, reflecting in it the multifaceted nature of the difficult character. Ledger's brain plunged into the realm of the fictional hero and "accelerated" so much that he simply could not disconnect from reality. In order to somehow relax, Heath began to take sedatives and sleeping pills, and later painkillers. The actor received the Oscar statuette for Best Supporting Actor posthumously.
6. Adrien Brody, "The Pianist"
The painful experience became a real revelation and rebirth for the actor. Adrian had to give up his car, apartment, and connections with loved ones, but this was not enough to feel his character. Then Brody decided to stop eating. This is what brought him to despair, which he transferred so well to his image. After that, the actor needed about six months to return to normal life.
7. Shelley Duvall, The Shining
The genius Stanley Kubrick always "squeezed" the most truthful emotions out of actors, using unsafe methods. Shelley Duvall felt the full weight of his perfectionism: the actress had to cry for 12 hours, hear endless reproaches addressed to her and endure the neglect of the film crew - all for the sake of natural emotional exhaustion. As a result, Shelley had to "recover" herself after filming with a glass of something strong.
8. Linda Blair, The Exorcist
Linda Blair was only 13 years old when she appeared before the audience as the possessed Regan McNeil. The religious horror was a real shock for the unprepared audience, and young Linda was the most delicious victim of journalists. So, at every interview, the actress was asked questions about God and the devil, heaven and hell, to which the teenager simply had no answers. And so on day after day. Even now, Blair remembers this time with disgust.
9. Janet Leigh, "Psycho"
Janet Leigh became another victim of a movie role: after the legendary film "Psycho", the girl never took a shower again. She allowed herself only to lie in the bathtub, having closed the doors and windows before that. By the way, it was also difficult to enjoy the process, because the actress could not take her eyes off the entrance.
10. Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
The tragic role in the film "Les Miserables" became the most serious acting experiment in the entire career of Oscar-winning Hathaway. The actress had to say goodbye to long hair, and also lose 10 kg in 15-20 days. Such sacrifices also affected the girl's psychological health - Hathaway admitted that it took her weeks to learn to distinguish reality from illusions again.
11. Brad Pitt on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith
During filming, there was widespread speculation that Pitt and Jolie were having an office romance, but the stars denied it for a long time. Pitt was still married to Jennifer Aniston during filming—they had been together since 1998. Just a month after Aniston filed for divorce, Pitt was photographed with Jolie and her son Maddox on a Kenyan beach, proving the actors were more than just friends. Aniston's reaction was fitting: "The world was shocked, and I was shocked."
12. Ben Affleck in Jersey Girl
In the early 2000s, Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were all over the tabloids. They were starring in a film together that first brought them together and then tore them apart. The stars planned a September 2003 wedding while working on the film, but just four days before the wedding, Affleck called it off. Jennifer released a statement saying, “Due to the overwhelming media attention surrounding our wedding, we have decided to postpone it.” By the time Jersey Girl wrapped, so had the romance.
13. Meg Ryan in Proof of Life
In 2000, rumors began to circulate that Meg Ryan had an affair with Russell Crowe on the set of Proof of Life. When the rumors leaked to the press, Meg divorced her husband after nine years of marriage. In her defense, the actress said that her husband was no angel either.
14. Andrew Garfield in Silence
British actor Andrew Garfield received a lot of criticism for his role in Martin Scorsese's Silence. It seems that he paid for the role not only with criticism, but also with his personal life. He was so busy that Emma Stone, who he was dating at the time, dumped him.
15. Kristen Stewart in Snow White and the Huntsman
In July 2012, Us Weekly broke the hearts of millions of Twilight fans when it published photos of then-22-year-old actress Kristen Stewart and director Rupert Sanders. The thing is, Stewart was dating Twilight star Robert Pattinson at the time, and Sanders was married. Both couples broke up with their then-belongings. Then Sanders was fired from the 2016 prequel, Snow White and the Huntsman 2, and Stewart refused to appear.
16. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra
It’s a classic Hollywood fairy tale: Two handsome actors meet on the set of a movie, fall in love, and live happily ever after. Or, in the case of Elizabeth Taylor (Cleopatra) and Richard Burton (Mark Antony), they meet on the set of Cleopatra (1963), experience nonstop drama, get married, get divorced, and get married again. Both were married to other women at the time of filming, so the film broke up two couples at once. Burton and Taylor married in 1964, divorced in 1974, and remarried in 1975, only to divorce for good in 1976.
17. Billy Crudup in "English Beauty"
In 2003, Billy Crudup was filming "Beauty in English." He was dating actress Mary Louise Parker at the time, but that didn't stop him from diving into a new relationship with Claire Danes, even though Parker was 7 months pregnant. The relationship with Danes lasted 4 years.
18. Susie Amis in Titanic
Suzy Amis not only got a contract to star in the mega-blockbuster Titanic, but also the director himself! When Suzy met James Cameron, he was with actress Linda Hamilton. The relationship was complicated - Cameron rushed from one woman to another - sometimes dating Amis, sometimes returning to Hamilton. During this complicated relationship, the director even managed to marry Linda, but eventually divorced her and got together with Suzy Amis. In 2000, they got married and have been living together ever since.
19. Ben Affleck in Gone Girl
Another role and another relationship crisis. This time, Affleck played a writer accused of murder. And it was on this set that he left Jennifer Lopez for Jennifer Garner. And in 2005, they got married. But in 2017, Garner filed for divorce.
20. Billy Bob Thornton in the movie "Pushing Tin"
Back in 1999, Laura Dern was happy with Billy Bob Thornton, or at least she thought so. Thornton was filming "Pushing Twilight," and he was simply "blown away" by Angelina Jolie. The relationship developed very quickly, and two months after they met, Jolie and Thornton got married in Vegas. This union fell apart quite quickly — the couple was no longer together by 2003.
21. Ryan Reynolds in Green Lantern
Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock began dating after meeting on the set of The Proposal, but after filming Green Lantern, Reynolds moved on to Blake Lively, whom he married in 2012.
22. Shia LaBeouf in Nymphomaniac
When filming began, LaBeouf was in a relationship with designer Caroline Faux, but tabloids then began reporting that he had become very close to his Nymphomaniac co-star Mia Goth. The couple initially denied it, but LaBeouf and Goth reportedly married in Las Vegas in 2016.
23. Macaulay Culkin, Home Alone
For his role as the tomboy Kevin in the comedy Home Alone, 10-year-old Macaulay received $100,000, and for the sequel, almost 50 times more. His fees for other high-profile roles, in Richie Rich and The Good Son, were even more impressive. The fabulous sums turned his head... but not the young talent's, but his father's. Kit Culkin appointed himself his son's director and began to personally negotiate with producers and directors. The man asked for astronomical fees (after all, his heir is a star!), and also began to promote his other children into the world of cinema. According to Macaulay's relatives, it was his parent's behavior after the boy's successful roles that ruined his future career. As an adult, Culkin continued to act, but his name was more often mentioned in connection with scandals: unsuccessful romances, drugs, changes in appearance.
24. Alexey Poluyan, "Cargo 200"
The actor's filmography includes almost three dozen roles, but many viewers remember him as Captain Zhurov in the film "Cargo 200" by Alexei Balabanov. Even before working on the set, the man began to have health problems. Just after receiving the role, Alexei was hospitalized with a hernia and underwent an unsuccessful operation - he had to film in a corset. Poluyan did not like to discuss "Cargo 200" with the director or his loved ones, only sometimes saying that he played a bad role - and so he paid. Several times the actor was beaten up on the streets, recognizing him as a maniac policeman, and the man himself had breakdowns and hysterics after especially difficult scenes. "Cargo 200" ruined my life, - the actor said after filming Balabanov's film. Polunyan died at the age of 44 in a village near St. Petersburg, where he moved shortly before his death.
25. Jake Lloyd, The Phantom Menace
It would seem that the role of young Anakin Skywalker should have paved the way for the boy into the world of big cinema, but it turned out to be exactly the opposite. After the premiere of The Phantom Menace, Lloyd's life turned into a nightmare: he was bombarded with requests to give interviews, and people on the streets made the sound of a lightsaber when they looked at little Jake - the incessant excitement forever turned the boy away from an acting career. Two years ago, it turned out that Lloyd was schizophrenic - the young man was placed in a psychiatric hospital for an indefinite period.
26. Vasily Stepanov, "Inhabited Island"
"A new sex symbol, a star, a bright future" - compliments and admiration surrounded the blue-eyed blond after filming the movie "Inhabited Island". But Stepanov later called this work "Bondarchuk's curse": the actor was rejected at castings without explanation, and was not hired for "non-star" work: they said that recognition would interfere. Due to lack of demand, Vasily fell ill with depression, followed by problems in his personal life - his fiancée left the actor. Last year, people started talking about Stepanov again: at the beginning of 2017, Vasily injured his spine, and in the spring he fell out of a window. Now he is trying to return to the profession: the actor starred in the project "Who's Next, Dreamers?" and asked fans to help finance the film.
27. Brandon Lee, The Crow
Bruce Lee's successor has been drawn to creativity since childhood: Brandon played in small productions at school, studied acting in college, and played in plays on the outskirts of New York. His first films, Kung Fu: The Movie and Framed, did not make the aspiring actor famous. People started talking about Lee Jr. after the premiere of the action films Operation Laser and Rapid Fire. The film adaptation of the comic book The Crow could have made Brandon a much more sought-after actor, but fate decreed otherwise. Eight days before the end of filming and two and a half weeks before the actor's wedding, an accident occurred on the set: due to a malfunction in the props, the man was wounded in the stomach. Doctors were unable to save Brandon's life - the role of The Crow turned out to be the last in the life and career of the actor.
28. Alexey Fomkin, "Guest from the Future"
The fate of the Soviet actor was tragic, partly due to his popularity in childhood. As a schoolboy, Alexey starred in the humorous film magazine "Yeralash", where he was noticed by director Pavel Arsenov and invited to play the main role in his film "Guest from the Future" - Kolya Gerasimov was loved by viewers no less than Alisa Selezneva. But due to constant filming, Fomkin began to have problems with his academic performance - the young man graduated from school with an error and was unable to enter the institute. He worked as a loader, and later decided to join the army. It was then, during his service, that the artist began to receive offers from directors, but Alexey could no longer return to the set. A short-term job at the Gorky Moscow Art Theater, dismissal for absenteeism, part-time work as a painter, an addiction to alcohol, a move to the village, a wedding ... And a fire in the apartment of friends, which took Fomkin's life - the 26-year-old young man died in the winter of 1996.
29. Joker, Suicide Squad
A sociopath and Batman's main enemy is supposed to be a mad genius by status. His transformation was influenced by a difficult childhood and abuse from his parents. Well, Jared Leto is known for his mastery of transformation, so he wanted to become the most memorable Joker. He approached the preparation for the role with all responsibility and almost brought himself to rehab. Colleagues in the film recall that sometimes Jared scared them with his antics. For example, he sent them very strange things: Will Smith received a package with bullets, Margot Robbie - a love letter with a live rat, and before one of the scenes, Leto put a severed pig's head on the table...
In addition, Leto did not leave the character even after the end of the shooting day: he walked down the street with green hair, tattoos, scared passers-by with an ominous laugh, recorded video messages for the film crew in the style of his character and specially communicated with psychiatrists and dangerous maniac killers in order to adopt their behavior. Well, the result exceeded all expectations! Jared's Joker turned out to be more than ominous, but he overacted a little, so the audience did not always believe in his image.
30. Boyd "Holy" Swan, "Fury"
Shia LaBeouf hasn't been pleasing his fans with his roles and appearances on the red carpet lately. Every year he's increasingly turning into a homeless-looking hermit, in whom it's almost impossible to recognize the beloved Sam Witwicky from the legendary "Transformers." They say that illegal drugs are to blame, but fans are sure that the actor was knocked down by the role of Boyd Swan from the war film "Fury." LaBeouf's colleagues on the set told horrifying things. In order to get into the role of the patient and meek "Holy Man" as much as possible, Shia didn't wash for several months, lived on a military base, pulled out his tooth, cut his face with a knife and consciously watched horses die. The spectacle is not for the faint of heart. The actor did not explain why he needed such deprivation and torment, but it was because of them that he almost went crazy (or maybe he did go crazy), because his antics after filming left much to be desired. Although close friends claim that the changes in the actor's behavior and his crazy antics began after the release of the film "Nymphomaniac". Who knows, maybe the erotic drama was the impetus for madness, and "Fury" completely undermined Shia's emotional stability?
31. Hannah Schmitz, "The Reader"
In Stephen Daldry's drama, Kate Winslet played 36-year-old tram conductor Hannah Schmitz, who was a former guard at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Kate was able to reliably convey an incredibly complex image, which you can watch on screen endlessly. But at what cost did she achieve such a believable performance? Winslet had a very hard time: for a long time, she could not get out of the role of Hannah. She saw the image of the heroine everywhere, she imagined herself as a prisoner in prison and that she really committed the act for which the heroine of the film was tried. In order to get rid of obsessive ideas and return to a normal way of life, Kate had to work on herself for almost three months. But the result of complete immersion in the image was worth it: the actress received a well-deserved Oscar and became a class A star with impressive fees.
32. Jeanne, "Last Tango in Paris"
At the time of her infamous role, Maria Schneider was only 19 years old. This film broke the psyche of the young and inexperienced actress, even though she turned out to be a real, lively Jeanne who had a good viewer's sympathy. The famous rape scene by Paul (Marlon Brando) using butter instead of lubricant was almost real. The thing is that the girl was not warned about this scene in order to film the true reaction of the young actress. Everything turned out as believable as possible: the actress cried for real on camera... And then she almost went crazy, accusing director Bernardo Bertolucci and her partner in the film, Marlon Brando, of the fact that she - unburdened by moral principles - was no longer taken to act in anything except erotic films. Maria's acting career did not work out, she starred in only a few films, her roles in which few people remembered.
33. Nina Sayers, "Black Swan"
Illusions, duality, paranoia, rivalry – all of this was experienced first-hand by the main character of the psychological thriller, the talented ballerina Nina, who was played amazingly by Natalie Portman. She even won an Oscar as the best actress, but at what cost… Natalie herself does not like to remember what she had to endure and experience during filming and preparation for the role. Firstly, she had to go on a diet to lose 15 kg and look like a miniature ballerina. Secondly, Natalie had to film for 16 hours a day, which periodically led to nervous breakdowns. Thirdly, the actress, like her character, began to suffer from hallucinations, because of which she could not sleep normally. Fourthly, Portman completely abandoned her personal life, lived in constant emotional tension for a year and did nothing else except prepare for the role. According to Natalie, all she could think about during filming was that this hell would end quickly and she could return to a full life. But even here she had to work hard: getting out of character and learning to relax was not easy. If it were not for the support of relatives and friends, perhaps for Portman this experience would have ended in a psychiatric clinic.
34. Brandon Teena, Boys Don't Cry
This role was not easy for Hilary Swank, just like the casting. A huge number of talented actresses, famous and not so famous, tried out for the role of Brandon Teena, but the director chose Hilary. To prepare for the role of a transsexual, Hilary not only had to put a sock in her pants on the set, wear men's clothes, speak in a low voice and bandage her chest - she had to live like that outside of filming. Neighbors were sure that the actress went on vacation, and instead of her, her brother named James lived in the house, which, by the way, is what Hilary introduced herself as. Even after the release of the film and receiving the coveted Oscar, Swank could not get out of the male image for a long time, continued to wear masculine clothes, stopped wearing makeup, cut her hair short and pretended to be a guy. It is unknown whether the actress sought help from psychologists in order to get out of the image, but she still returned to normal life.
