I was absolutely amazed by Charlize Theron's transformation from the beautiful woman she is into the homely woman Aileen Wuornos was.Charlize was absolutely unrecognizable.Plus,she gained alot of weight for the role.
Can anyone think of any other movie star who has done something extreme for the role?

(HeHe only a real Michael J. Fox freak would know this :p )

I'm not sure if you mean to prepare or actually doing their art but Michael J. Fox almost hanged himself in a scene in "Back to the future: III".

Also there is an Australian comedy duo named "Lano & Woodley". They mostly do physical humour, and there is this extremely well done diving board piece done at a local pool where Frank (Woodley) does these amazing dives off all the diving boards (this is one of the funniest things I have ever seen in a TV show. Recommend it to everyone! :D ) any way, I think he broke 3 ribs while filming this scene.

One of the undisputed kings of suffering for his craft is Robert DeNiro.

In "Raging Bull," he went through extensive physical training to portray boxer Jake Lamotta. He then entered three genuine Brooklyn boxing matches and won two of them. Then he gained sixty pounds to portray the older washed up version of the character.

Deniro pulled the same weight gaining stunt to portray gangster Al Capone in the "Untouchables."

Adrien Brody, already a pretty skinny guy, dropped close to 20 pounds for his role as a holocaust survivor in "The Pianist."

Vincent Dinofrio gained 70 pounds for his role in "Full Metal Jacket."

Elizabeth Taylor in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" She made this in 1965, and gained weight for the part- she's playing a 52 year old woman- she doesn't look 52, but whoever did the costumes and makeup succeeded in removing Taylor's beauty and turning her into a truly vulgar woman. A cinematographer was fired during the first days of filming for attempting to beautify her.

The famous one would be Nicole Kidman for 'The Hours'. The tabloids wouldn't shut up about the nose forever!

there was one tv star who shot himself accidentally on the set of a tv show.

Vic Morrow (dad of Jennifer Jason Leigh) was decapitated when filming the Twilight Zone movie back in 1982

Brandon Lee was killed on the set of The Crow

there was one tv star who shot himself accidentally on the set of a tv show.



Actor John-Erik Hexum who starred in the short lived series "Cover Up" was killed on the set when he shot himself with a prop gun.

Martin Lawrence almost died of a heat stroke when he wore a body suit while filming "Big Momma's House". Of course, it probably wasn't a good idea for him to still wear the suit after shooting was over each day and go jogging in it in 95 degree weather. . .

I guess you can say Hillary Swank suffered when she turned herself into a boy for the role of Teena Brandon/Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry.

I'd also say Demi Moore for her role in GI Jane,becuase she shaved her head.

Matt Damon dropped a considerable amount of weight for his role in Saving Private Ryan.

Actor John-Erik Hexum who starred in the short lived series "Cover Up" was killed on the set when he shot himself with a prop gun.

I won't ever forget the night I heard about that. Over the years, people have been.. less than kind about him. :(

On Conan Sylvester STallone mentioned he went on a weight diet, and also wwent on one to lose some intelligence since he was playing a not so smart boxer for Rock,y he was eating shellfish. Then Conan asked him if there were any scripts he never used, and Sylvester said he came up with one where a rock star has to constantly eat bananas or he'll die then Conan says "aybe you were on shellfish high when you wrote that one" :rotflmao:

I guess you can say Hillary Swank suffered when she turned herself into a boy for the role of Teena Brandon/Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry.

She also suffered while training for Million Dollar Baby. She developed a bacterial infection in her foot that could have been very serious. I guess the doctor told her if she would have waited any longer, she would have been in the hospital for a month, and it could have killed her if it went to her heart.

I guess any actor or actress who has to wear heavy special effects makeup would fit into this category.
The alien characters on the various Star Trek shows required HOURS of makeup application (and removal) each day. I remember reading that Michael Dorn, who played the Klingon Worf would have to show up hours before the rest of the cast so he could get all his latex makeup on - imagine having to do that day after day for ten years!

During the filming of The Passion, Jim Caviezel was struck by lightning, suffered from hypothermia, dislocated his shoulder, and was hit with whips, among other things. Also Iv'e heard of many stunt people getting killed during the filming of several movies, so unfortunately I'm sure many of them suffered.

I remembered another one:

Tom Hanks gained 30 pounds for "A League Of Their Own."

Also, Tom hanks lost 50 pounds for the movie "Cast Away." They filmed the first part of the movie then production shut down for a year so Hanks could lose the weight through diet and excercise. He also let his hair grow out and stopped shaving.

Ewan McGregor lost 30 lbs for Trainspotting

In the Last Samurai or whatever that movie is called, Tom Cruise almost got decapitated because he like slipped or something and the guy he was fighting with barely stopped the sword from hitting him in time...something weird like that.

I remember hearing that someone was killed during the flood scene of the silent film Noah's Arc - I believe that was the first death caused by a movie.

Peter O'Toole's motorcycle scene of Lawrence of Arabia had a huge mishap. The director admitted that only one tiny little wire that didn't break kept their star from joining Lawrence.

Ann-Margret had that huge multi-story fall while onstage giving a concert. But she survived and still looks annoyingly perfect. ;)

Natalie Wood had a disfigured wrist which she aquired during a film accident in a river scene. As a result she always wore a bracelet over the wrist and always feared the water.

Renee Zellweger complained nonstop about the amount of weight she put on for Bridget Jones, but I thought she actually looked better being rounder and more normal looking. John Travolta put on weight for Primary Colors but didn't seem to have any trouble losing it. Shelley Winters put on an extreme amount of weight specifically for The Poseidon Adventure but never lost it. She still claims that she was the only cast member of that film to not survive the damages ;)

Renee Zellweger complained nonstop about the amount of weight she put on for Bridget Jones, but I thought she actually looked better being rounder and more normal looking.


I agree. She's way to skinny in real life.

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Sylvester Stallone (right) gained 40 pounds and worked for SAG minimum wages for Cop Land ('97). Oddly enough one of his co-stars was Robert De Niro who also worked for the same wages, but didn't gained weight this time around.

Nicole Kidman broke/bruised some ribs during Moulin Rouge and did some scenes while still in a wheelchair. And Dustin Hoffman somehow lost part of his thumb while filming Finding Neverland and had to act several days while on morphene (sp?)

Lucy Lawless shattered her pelvis during some Xena episode and couldn't act for awhile - so the writers had her character be transformed into another person's body :crazy: :lol:

Oh, and remember how Dick York was battling his back problems all through Bewitched? Similar thing. He injured it during a movie he made years before, and he kept acting despite the pain until he finally gave up and Darrin suddenly looked an awful lot like Dick Seargant.

Lucy Lawless shattered her pelvis during some Xena episode and couldn't act for awhile - so the writers had her character be transformed into another person's body :crazy: :lol:


:lol: I remember that. Also on "Hurcules" Kevin Sorbo was seriously injured and they wrote him off the show for a while - in one episode his spirit was in a pig!

As much as I liked Kevin Sorbo on that series, they did some very funny episodes when he wasn't there. They really gave some of the supporting performers a chance to shine.

Elizabeth Taylor fell off a horse as a young girl during the filming of National Velvet. She had a back injury that has caused her suffering her entire life.

Recently, Christina Applegate broke her foot during the Broadway play My Sweet Charity.