This type of acting in which the actor embodies the character is known as the method of acting. Such a way of acting allows the actor to use different techniques that help him to develop the character and give a lifelike performance. Some actors are known for going to extremes to get the character right.

And sometimes, in the quest for that perfection, actors must contend with a myriad of personal and psychological issues. The death of Heath Ledger is a perfect example of a heavy acting toll on the actor. It’s common knowledge that Ledger got so deep into Joker’s character that he couldn’t talk about anything other than things related to Joker. And it ended in his death from prescription drug abuse.

However, method action is not always sadand tragic end. The method of acting has helped many actors discover their true potential, which in turn has helped them win awards and multiple awards. Here are some of the top method players in the industry.

• Jim Carrey

Although Jim Carrey’s predominant acting style is slapstick comedy, while filming Andy Kaufman’s biographical film Man on the Moon, Carrey went to great lengths to ensure that Kaufman’s character and alter ego, Tony Clifton, were absolutely right. And right, he got it. Carrey won a Golden Globe for his brilliant acting in this 1999 film. Carrey reportedly stayed in his character for 24 hours and even if the camera had stopped rolling, he would still act like Kaufman. His antics as the iconic and eccentric American entertainer angered his colleagues, friends, and girlfriend. Luckily, his antics and character were caught on video. The 200-hour video also has moments of Carrey scaring tourists on Universal Studio tours and pranking Danny DeVito.

• Robert De Niro

Robert De Niro is arguably one of the greatest exponents of method trading. For his role as boxer Jake LaMotta on Raging Bull, he gained 60 pounds and learned how to box from the pros to get it right. As De Niro prepared for his role as Max Cady on “Cape Fear,” he realized his character should reflect the fact that he had served a long time in prison. Do you know what he did to show that? He paid a dentist about $20,000 to have his teeth polished up and made them look extremely disgusting. He then lived in Sicily to prepare for the role of the Italian gangster in The Godfather Part II. He also became a real taxi driver for a few weeks, to get the taxi driver’s manner right in his psychological thriller “Taxi Driver”. His obsessive preparation for his characters has earned him twoAcademy Awards and a Golden Globe .

• anne Hathaway

Anne Hathaway has received wide recognition and awards, including the Golden Globe Award , the Screen Actors Guild Award , the BAFTA Award and the Oscarfor Best Supporting Actress for her brilliant performance of Fantine in Tom Hooper’s “Les Misérables”. And when you consider what she went through to make the character perfect, you realize that all the praise she got was well deserved. In preparation for her role, Hathaway lost 25 pounds. At one point during filming of the film, she was only eating two thin squares of dried oatmeal paste a day. She felt that in order to be true to her character, she had to look close to death and reach an extreme state of physical and emotional deprivation. It took her weeks after filming wrapped to feel like herself.

• Choi Min Sik

Choi Min Sik’s most famous film among the Western audiences is “Old Boy”, which has also been named Sik’s best film in his glittering career. The film became a cult hit for the dark and tormented subject matter. In the film, Sik’s character was held in captivity for several long, torturous, and painful years. The character tracked the years by using a piece of hot wire to leave marks on his hot body. And, Sik, to get that particular aspect absolutely right, performed the act on himself multiple times. Yes, you read that right, he actually burned his flesh to make the pain and agony perfect. For another scene in the same film, he ate several live octopods because his character had to do so. While it might not seem like a big deal to others, it was for Sik. Due to the fact that he was a devout Buddhist, Sik had to pray and ask for forgiveness after each recording.

• Hilary Swank

While she’s been off the map for a while, there’s no denying that Hilary Swank is one of the best actresses of her generation. She has won two Academy Awardsfor Best Actress and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In fact, her portrayal of Brandon Teena in the 1999 independent biographical film Boys Don’t Cry is considered one of the finest acting performances. In the film, she played the role of a tormented transgender man who is beaten, raped and murdered by his male acquaintances after they discover he is transgender. Swank auditioned as a young new actress from Nebraska to take on the role. She reportedly lived like Brandon for a month, dressing like him every day, trying to blend in seamlessly with society and thinking like him.

• Shia LaBeouf

Despite his wild antics and fondness for, there’s no denying that Shia LaBeouf is an extraordinary actor who stirs up needless controversy. If he’s up for some serious work, he can do great work and do his interviews. It seems like he is passionate about his art. It is reported that he discontinued acid to understand the effect it would have had on his character during the filming of The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman “Swan in the American war film Fury,” he cut himself. Apparently was he wasn’t satisfied with the artificial cuts made by the make-up artists.During the shooting he kept opening cuts in this film to make him look like a soldier who had endured the war.

• Forest Whitaker

Forest Whitaker belongs to that rare breed of actors who are in the industry because of their passion for the arts and don’t care about other distracting aspects of the industry. Whitaker is one of the few in Hollywood who understands privacy. And the icing on the cake is that he’s a good actor. He has been known to do intense character work to get the character right. Preparing for the role of Ugandan dictator Idi AminIn the film “The Last King of Scotland”lived in Uganda with his family. He is reported to have spent days and nights with Idi’s family and friends trying to figure out every aspect of his personality. In order to make everything as authentic as possible, he became fluent in Swahili. And for his masterful preparation and acting, he was awarded a. Awarded an Oscar , a Golden Globe and a BAFTA .

• Rooney Mara

Rooney Mara went to extreme lengths to ensure that she could perfectly play the role of Lisbeth Salander, the title character in David Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, based on Stieg Larsson’s Millennium book series. She went through a grueling regime to physically prepare for the role. Yes, many actors have undergone physical training to prepare for the role. So what’s the big deal? Her nipples were actually pierced to resemble the book character. She also bleached her eyebrows, had her long brown hair cropped short and dyed black in a style reminiscent of 1970s punk and goth fashion, and pierced each ear four times. In her interviews she has claimed

• Adrien Brody

Adrien Brody was awarded the Academy Award for Best Actor for his masterful portrayal of the Jewish pianist living in the ghetto during World War II in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist. Brody is the only actor under 30 to win an Oscar. Preparing for his role as a Holocaust victim Wladyslaw Szpilman and concert pianist Brody took professional piano lessons and practiced four hours a day in the run-up to filming. He eventually learned to play passages by Frédéric Chopin. His eccentric preparation didn’t stop there, it was just the beginning. He sold his car and his apartment, moved to Europe with just two bags and a keyboard, and even stopped using phones. In order to look like his hungry character, he dropped his weight to 130 pounds and starved himself on purpose to experience the emptiness that comes with starvation.

• Heath Ledger

Heath Ledger earned a cult following with his stunning portrayal of Joker in The Dark Knight. Ledger is reported to have gone into hiding after receiving the role. He locked himself in his apartment for a month to prepare for the famous role. He was so obsessed with his character that he could only sleep two hours a night for a week. He was so obsessed with his character that some of the crew worried about his health. But they couldn’t talk to him about it as Ledger always ignored it when anyone spoke to him. He refused to break character during the shootout and only communicated with those who wished to speak to his character. It is widely believed that his role led to Heath’s death,

• Christian Bale

Christian Bale is another famous actor known to take extreme steps to get into his character. He dropped a staggering 63 pounds to play Trevor Reznik on The Machinist. After that, gaining 100 pounds over the course of a year to prepare for the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, Bale, who credits waking dreaming, gained 42 pounds to meet New York con artist Irving Rosenfeld to play in David O. Russell’s ‘American Hustle’. He even shaved part of his head to mimic Rosenfeld’s baldness. He also herniated a disc in his back by adopting a crouched position for his role that reduced Bale’s actual height by three inches.

• Daniel Day-Lewis

Daniel Day-Lewis is arguably one of the most talented and accomplished actors of his generation. Over the years he has won three Academy Awards for Best Actor, four BAFTA Awards for Best Actor, three Screen Actors Guild Awards , three Critics’ Choice Movie Awards , and two Golden Globe Awards. And his preparation for his roles practically defines the term method acting. While preparing for his role in Last of the Mohicans, he lived in the wild for six months, building his own canoe and hunting animals for his food. While filming for “My Left Foot,” Lewis, who portrayed the paralytic Christie Brown, refused to leave his wheelchair even between scenes so he could truly experience the shortcomings associated with the problem. He was knighted for his services to drama.