Each actor finds his own way to “get to know” the character he has to play, and sometimes this requires that in a short time they have to master some skill that the character they are playing possesses, but they don’t have it – yet. Many of them see this as a challenge, and it’s amazing what some of the most famous actors have learned and overcome for the role.
Keanu Reeves learned to surf because of the movie “Point Break”. Dennis Jarvis, the surfer who taught him, said that Keanu had never tried the sport before, but that he wanted to learn in order to play his character as well as possible. Kean liked surfing so much that even after filming the movie, he continued to practice this sport.
Natalie Portman did ballet as a child and thought that would be enough for her role in the movie “Black Swan”. However, when filming began, the actress realized that she had overestimated her skills and that she still needed to be much better at it for this role. Portman started learning to dance ballet, five hours a day, in order to master this very difficult dance. It’s clear that her hard work paid off, given that she also won the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in this film.
It is common knowledge that Tom Cruise almost never uses stuntmen, even for very demanding and dangerous scenes in movies. It was the same when he was filming the sixth installment of the franchise “Mission: Impossible: The Divergence”. Namely, in order to be allowed to fly the plane during filming, Cruise had to fly a minimum of 2,000 hours before the start of filming, like all other pilots. He did it in record time.
Robert De Niro’s role in Taxi Driver is one of the best acting roles of all time. Throughout his career, De Niro has been known to push the boundaries and make extreme moves to get into character. So for this film, he devoted himself completely to the study of mental illness, but that’s not all. He decided to get a real taxi driver’s license, and drove passengers around New York for 12 hours every day until he was fully prepared for the role of Travis Bickle.
Forest Whitaker did a fantastic job playing Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator in The Last King of Scotland. To prepare for the role, he learned Swahili so he could better work with the Ugandan actors and extras on set. In addition, the actor gained 50 kilograms to look more like the notorious dictator.
Riz Ahmed learned sign language for a role in the movie “Sound of Metal”. His character in this film gradually loses his hearing, which is why he is forced to learn sign language. Riz Ahmed mastered it, and he said that he was helped by sign language teachers and deaf people with whom he communicated.
Since “Green Book” is a film about pianist and composer Don Shirley, the plan was always for the actor playing him to learn to play the piano, if he didn’t already. Mahershala Ali is the actor chosen for this role. He dedicated himself so much to this role that instead of an hour of piano, he insisted that his lessons last as long as three hours and that he had them every day.
There were many characteristics of silent film legend Charlie Chaplin – one of them was that he carried his violin with him almost everywhere he went. To accurately portray the actor, Robert Downey Jr. learned to play this instrument. The film “Chaplin” from 1992, directed by Richard Attenborough, won three Oscars, and his efforts paid off.
The biopic “I, Tonya” tells the story of figure skater Tonya Harding and her relationship with the attack on her rival. Margot Robbie, of course, learned to figure skate for the main role. Before shooting the film, the actress spent four hours a day, five days a week, for five full months.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy learned the indigenous language for the movie “The Returner”. DiCaprio’s character travels through the wilderness that is home to the indigenous Arikara people. An indigenous culture consultant taught DiCaprio and the rest of the cast the language.
The young actor Timothée Chalamet learned to speak Italian fluently in order to portray his role in the movie “Call Me by Your Name” as well as possible. Although he could only learn his part of the text, he decided to take the hard way and learned to speak Italian fluently.
Hollywood star Bradley Cooper recently filmed his second directorial venture – the production “Maestro”, which tells about the life and work of the famous composer Leonard Bernstein. During a screening of this film in Los Angeles, Cooper revealed that he spent an incredible six years learning to conduct, in order to prepare as well as possible for filming.
A scene that lasts a full six minutes in Cooper’s life took six years. Namely, he spent all that time learning to conduct, in order to portray the famous composer as faithfully as possible, that is, his conducting of the symphony orchestra in 1976 in Ely Cathedral.
– I was so worried about that scene because we were doing it live. It was a recording with the London Symphony Orchestra. I was recorded live, I had to conduct. I spent six years learning how to conduct six minutes and 21 seconds – he explained.
To prepare, Cooper watched a recording of Bernstein conducting the London Symphony Orchestra and studied with the help of teachers who encouraged him along the way.
– I was terrified, absolutely terrified. So much so that I probably wouldn’t have been able to enjoy these scenes if I hadn’t studied so much – he added.
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