Celebrities Who Play The Part Off Screen, Too

Dreamcatcher Mon Jul 13, 2009 9:53 pm

Dreamcatcher: Posts : 64
Join date : 2009-07-11
Location : US

Post n°1

Celebrities Who Play The Part Off Screen, Too

Dreamcatcher Mon Jul 13, 2009 9:53 pm

It has JA as the cover story, but I think it's just more fun facts. I certainly didn't know about a lot of them.
http://www.thefrisky.com/site/slides/246-celebrities-who-have-turned-to-method-acting/P0/

	Jennifer Aniston In her next flick, “The Bounty,” Jennifer Aniston is playing a New York Daily News reporter. And to make this seem as realistic as possible, the movie’s director went so far as to film scenes directly in the Daily News offices. So over the weekend, Aniston and a small army of extras joined the paper’s newsroom staff and roamed the halls and typed at computers, pretending to be real journalists. [NY Daily News] Cool, but we kind of wish Jennifer had gone all the way and actually been a reporter for a few days. Or maybe she could have written headlines for the paper, and worked on her pun skills? Either way, here are some actors and actresses who’ve completely dove headfirst into roles.
	To be like Wladyslaw Szpilman, the character he played in “The Pianist,” Adrien Brody spent four hours a day practicing the piano until he could play Chopin. In an interview with the BBC about preparing for the role he said, “I gave up my apartment, I sold my car, I disconnected the phones, and I left. I took two bags and my keyboard and moved to Europe.” As if that wasn’t enough he also crash dieted until his 6’5” frame weighed about 130 lbs. [Netscape
	For her role in “No Reservations,” Catherine Zeta-Jones went undercover as a chef in New York City’s Fiamma Italian Restaurant. For a week, she worked as a chef preparing food for unsuspecting patrons. She also spent one evening as a waitress and, although she was unrecognized by diners, she did get a few “you look so much like Catherine Zeta Jones” comments, to which she replied, “Oh, I get that all the time.” [Independent]
	To prepare for her role as a stripper and single-mom in “Powder Blue,” Jessica Biel spent two months prior to filming in full character immersion. She requested that friends and family ignore her calls so that she could feel the shunning of a single mom and she also borrowed her friends’ infant child to care for on her own. I can’t even imagine being the friend who agreed to let Biel take their child to practice for a role. [Zimbio]
	The missing tooth that Ed Helms sported as a dentist in “The Hangover” was not the result of a good makeup department. It was actually Helms’ missing tooth! His adult tooth never grew in, so he had an implant put in place when he was 16. After trying out several missing teeth techniques for the role, nothing worked quite as well as the real thing. “I wasn’t eager to take out my implant because my mouth is healthy, but I talked to my dentist … and he was like, ‘Yeah we can do it!’ My dentist was really into it,” Helms told People. [Bricks And Stones]
	Daniel Day Lewis is one of the most intense method actors of our time. When shooting a film, he is in character both on and off set. For “In The Name of the Father,” he lived in an abandoned prison cell and only ate the rations of food provided. For “The Crucible,” he built his character’s house using 17th century tools and lived in the film’s replica village without electricity or running water. For “The Boxer,” he trained twice a day, seven days a week and practically turned professional. Most recently, for “Gangs of New York,” Lewis learned to be a butcher. He also caught pneumonia while shooting, but wouldn’t wear a warming coat because no such thing existed during the timing of the movie. One word: Intense. [Independent]
	Daryl Hannah, Sandra Oh, and Jennifer Tilly were just some of the actors in “Dancing At The Blue Iguana” who were required to do method acting for their roles. The script of the film was heavily based on improvisation. Director Michael Radford gave each actress a general outline of the character that they would play and they were asked to research the role on their own. After a period of time the actors created the final script in front of the cameras. [Apollo Guide]
	Robert de Niro is also known for his extreme role preparation. After he landed the lead part, de Niro worked as a taxi driver for a month before making film history in “Taxi Driver.” [Independent]
	Reese Witherspoon most certainly did not come out of the womb with a voice as beautiful as June Carter, the wife of Johnny Cash for her role in “Walk The Line.” In order to sound like the country singer, Witherspoon spent several months working with producer ‘T Bone’ Burnett to train vocally and also learn to play the autoharp. [Independent]