What are the actors willing to go to?

But the fighters of the old school did things for the sake of recreating emotions on the screen, something that citizens with a weak psyche should not do without prior preparation.

For Michelle Pfeiffer, the role of Catwoman in Batman in 1992 has become a landmark. There is an episode in the picture when she catches a bird, puts it in her mouth, but changes her mind about eating and releases the bird.

The bird was real, not made of rubber or drawn with graphics. The film crew was in awe and delight after Pfeiffer’s act. And the actress herself later recalled her impulse with horror, noting that she would never again and never for anything. Thank God, the scene was filmed in the first take: it is unlikely that a feathered little thing would want to get into a human mouth again, even if it is so beautiful.

20-year-old beauty Halle Berry was denied an audition for a role in the film “Jungle Fever” in 1991: the girl was too beautiful and charming in her healthy youth, because the main character was a downgraded drug addict with all the consequences.

But you can’t fool Berry on the chaff: she swore to the director that she would ensure an exact hit in the image. And she provided: she stopped washing. What shocked the screen partner: Samuel L. Jackson recalled with horror how Berry reeked of sweat. But the refusal to wash gave the actress a chance and a role that became the starting point of her career.

Normal people go to the dentist to fix defects. And master Robert De Niro went to the dentist with the opposite goal: to worsen his teeth in order to look authentic and realistic in the image of a maniac in the movie Cape Fear. Any whim, as they say, for your money. And although it cost the actor 20 thousand dollars to return everything to normal, the well-deserved Oscar compensated for his moral and physical torment.

It’s not just silly teenage girls who wear themselves out because of their supposedly fat figure. Any nymphet will give odds to Christian Bale. A tall, strong man over 180 cm tall lost weight for his role in the film “The Machinist” from 84 to critical 55 kg!

Shortly after The Machinist, Bale took part in the filming of Salvation Dawn (2006). He had to restore the mass in a short time for a convincing image of a military man who had been in captivity. The creepiest part of the movie was the maggot-eating episode, which was intended to show the highest degree of desperation.

Tony Todd, for the filming of Candyman in 1992, agreed to have insects crawling on him. And insects are very biting – bees. He played the role of an evil spirit that turned from a ghost into a real-life urban legend. Since computer graphics were in their infancy at the time, Tony was bitten by the striped hummers about 20 times. But he did not complain and did not grumble. Only more than a quarter of a century after the release of the film, Todd admitted that self-interest helped him endure the execution: he was paid $ 1,000 for each bite.

In “The Revenant” in 2015, the graphics, of course, were already on the level. But DiCaprio, who played the main role, categorically advocated realism, supporting the director’s intention. The fact that Leo lost weight and grew a beard is trifles. In order to get used to the image, he spent hours in the cold and climbed into the carcass of an animal. The episode where the character eats raw liver was also not a prop. DiCaprio explained that he refused a funny piece of plasticine, because his stage partner, an Indian, ate a real one. And he was uncomfortable playing under such conditions.

The natural physiological reaction of a person unaccustomed to such a diet was included in the film. By the way, his shooting lasted a total of 9 months, although the filming process itself took three times less time. This had to be done due to the remote location for shooting, weather conditions and the need to use only natural light.

Would you do something like that for a role?