Inside Hollywood stars’ most intense preparations for movies

It was a long nine months on the set of The Revenant for Leonardo DiCaprio. The 2015 drama followed the journey of frontiersman Hugh Glass who is injured by a bear and abandoned by his crew.

To get into the headspace of a man fighting for survival, Leonardo slept inside a prop horse carcass, ate raw bison liver and dove in and out of freezing rivers. The star role earned Leo his first Oscar for Best Actor, and surely a well-deserved shower (or two). 

Charlie Sheen takes the prize for the shortest role with the most intense preparation process. His scene in ’80s classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off only lasts a few minutes, but that didn’t stop Charlie from taking an extra few steps in bringing the charming addict to life.

To get an authentically dishevelled look, the actor stayed up for over 48 hours. No eye makeup required for the exhausted look that gave the character a memorable edge and perfectly set off his bad boy persona. 

Bringing one of the music industry’s most iconic artists to life was a tough task for acclaimed actor Jamie Foxx. His preparation involved fasting for a week to shed 30 pounds, followed by daily workouts and a strict diet.

To experience Ray’s blindness, Jamie wore prosthetic eyelids glued over his eyes. While the role won Jamie an Oscar for Best Actor, he suffered panic attacks during early shooting and was occasionally left on set by crew who forgot he couldn’t see.

Natalie Portman’s star role in Black Swan examined the pressures of perfection. Likely a relatable experience for the lead actress who trained with former New York City ballerina Mary Helen Bowers six days a week for more than a year prior to filming.

Swimming and cross-training ensured Natalie kept up her strength outside of training, helping the actress perform the choreography herself, earning an Oscar in the process.

Daniel Day-Lewis is famous for his love of method acting, and his preparation for the role of Christy Brown, a man with cerebral palsy, was no different. The actor spent time with disabled patients at the Sandymount School Clinic and decided to implement similar restrictions in his own life while filming.

The actor remained in his prop wheelchair and was spoon-fed by the crew, as well as being carried around on set. He won an Oscar for the role but his hunched posture while sat in the wheelchair led to him fracturing his ribs.

Plenty of celebrities undertake changes to their physical appearance in preparation for the role, but starring in an adaptation of a beloved novel brings extra pressure to conform with reader’s imagined characters. 

Rooney didn’t shy away from the task, piercing her face, one of her nipples, as well as bleaching her eyebrows and chopping off her hair. With martial arts classes, skateboarding and motorcycle lessons as well as a finely honed Swedish accent, the actress left none of her on-screen success to chance.

Adrien Brody took things to the extreme during his preparation for 2002’s The Pianist. He sold his car, relinquished his apartment and headed off to Europe with just two bags of belongings to his name.

He lost 30 pounds in six weeks with an intense diet and weighed just 130 pounds at his lightest through filming. Piano lessons and dialect instruction completed the transformation and earned Adrien an Oscar.