Acting is not like any other job where you can get home after your work shift and forget about the work. Even though actors sometimes have it easy because their job pays much more than any working professional’s job but there are some things that only actors go through. Sometimes a role can be so intense that the actor faces certain challenges during and after they have performed it. These are some actors who felt that a role in their career truly changed them.
Linda Blair- The Exorcist:
‘The Exorcist’ is one of the most successful horror movies of all time and the child star Linda Blair surprised everyone with her amazing performance. She was 13 when she starred in the movie and admits it was all professional and she just did her job as an actor. The problem arose when the movie released and a 13-year-old Linda got targeted by the media and religious groups and she had to face questions about anti-Christianity, faith, and possession. She wasn’t ready for it and got really disturbed by the whole thing.
Janet Leigh- Psycho:
Another disturbing yet brilliant film of all time is Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘psycho’ which is truly an iconic work of cinema. The movie has a scene which everyone who has watched the movie would remember, the shower scene! The scene shows actress Janet Leigh getting stabbed while she is totally vulnerable in a shower. The scene might be memorable for us but it became horrifying for the actress. She developed a phobia of showers and it haunted her for many years after the movie.
Adrien Brody- The Pianist:
We often hear how sometimes actors go to great lengths for their roles and method acting can be really extreme. Well, Adrian Brody took things a step further when he wanted to get into his character for the pianist. He sold his house and car and broke up with his longtime girlfriend just to experience loss. After the movie came out Brody admitted he went into depression for a long time and even an Oscar couldn’t help him get out of it.
Tippi Hedren- Birds:
Another actress who was traumatized after starring in a Hitchcock movie was Tippi Hedren who starred in the movie ‘Birds’. In the final scene, her character was to be attacked by a bunch of birds while she screamed. Hitchcock wanted the scene to look as real as possible and so the actress was really attacked by real birds and the screams were real too. She was terrorized by the episode and went into a trauma.
Bob Hoskins- Who Framed Roger Rabbit:
So Bob Hoskins was really loved for his role in this movie and he had to imagine characters while acting because they were supposed to be animated. He had to visualize characters all the time to act and this proved to be too disturbing for him. He started hallucinating and talking to himself for a long time. His doctors advised him to take a long break which affected his career.
Anne Hathaway- Les Miserables:
The role that won Hathaway an Oscar didn’t bring her any happiness while she was filming it. A naturally skinny Hathaway had to lose a lot of weight and shave off her head for the role. As her role was very depressing it disturbed her psychologically and she often cried when she went home because she became so disturbed by it. Also losing so much weight when you are already skinny has its effects on your health too.
Jennifer Carpenter- The Exorcism of Emily Rose:
Another actress who went through a lot while filming a horror movie is Jennifer Carpenter. She admitted that while she was filming the movie a lot of creepy stuff happened to her at home. One such phenomenon was her radio randomly turning on in the middle of the night. “Two or three times when I was going to sleep my radio came on by itself,” she said. She wasn’t the only one who experienced such things as some of her co-stars admitted things were happening with them too.
Hugh Laurie- House:
Hugh Laurie is a great actor and has fooled many people with his amazing American accent when he is actually British. That’s how he got the role for the show ‘House’ when he spoke in an American accent in the audition and the makers were highly impressed. In the show, Laurie has to walk with a limp for his character and after so many seasons he admitted he actually started limping in real life. It became so natural to him that sometimes he forgot he could walk normally.
Shelley Duvall- The Shining:
The most successful horror flick of all time is ‘the shining’ and the actors did a great job in it. Shelley Duvall was praised for her work but many don’t know that this movie eventually ended her career. Actress Shelley Duvall wasn’t faking her cries in the famous baseball bat scene as the director Stanley Kubrick had her redo the traumatizing scene more than a hundred times. This started to take its toll on the young actress. She walked away from that experience with a supreme dislike for Kubrick and a forever altered mind. Duvall has suffered from mental illness in the intervening years.
Heath Ledger- The Dark Knight:
Well, you knew this was coming as we are all aware of Ledger’s determination that made this role iconic. Before taking on the role Ledger was actually warned by Jack Nicholson that he should say no as it would be a really disturbing role but Ledger still did it. To understand a psychopath’s mind he kept a diary and lived in isolation. He often popped on set even on the days he had an off and stayed in character freaking everyone out. Towards the end of filming, he was warned by people that he had gone too far when he was battling depression. In fact, it was a mixture of painkillers and sedatives that ultimately caused Ledger’s death. The last entry in his diary before his death read “Bye Bye”.
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