When Characters Play Actors
Published on January 21, 2022
Calvin Naraghi
The main job of an actor is to take on a persona and pretend to be someone they’re not. But where does the line fall between pretending to be someone and actually becoming them? Usually an actor would deliver a stellar performance and move onto their next character. But in some rare cases, actors instead go above and beyond the call, leading them into dangerous, unhealthy, and ludicrous situations to achieve the perfect shot or scene. Though the extra effort does typically heighten the art, one has to wonder why the actor’s health and safety falls second to their characters.
Christian Bale in The Machinist (2004) and Batman Begins (2005).
A prime example is this of Christian Bale. He is a 6-foot man who puts his health on the line over and over again as he deems it a necessary sacrifice for an amazing film. Over the last two decades, Bale has found ways to do the impossible and to forge himself into any and all shapes for the characters he takes on. This has ranged from his size in The Machinist (2004) , where he weighs a mere 119 lbs, to American Hustle (2013) at 210 lbs. The real health risk is not just the change in his weight, but how quickly he does it and the methods he takes to achieve it. Looking at the period between 2004 and 2006 alone, Bale jumps from 119 lbs (Machinist) to 190 lbs of muscle (Dark Knight Rises) and then back down to 135 lbs (Rescue Dawn). Whether it is through near starvation, Olympic-level body building, or calorie overloading, his body is being put through a great deal that could ultimately cause damage in the future.
While his efforts are praised and the results speak for themselves, at what point does his and other actors’ safety come first? Why not CGI his face on a smaller person, similar to Chris Evans in Captain America: The First Avenger? Or better yet, find someone who already fits the image to play the role. At some point, it is hard to say you are just pretending to be a character, when you look in the mirror and start seeing them stare back at you. When the filming stops and you find yourself with no make up to wipe off or a mask to remove, and yet you still do not see yourself. At this point, the character and actor are closer than one might think.
Carrying from this is the idea of method acting, wherein an actor gets into the mindset for a role by acting and living as that character would, whether it be living in the woods, pretending to be blind, or driving a taxi around NYC. In relation to the question when does pretending become being, method acting helps us further define that line.
Tom Hanks in Castaway (2000).
Many actors find this method helpful in channeling a character. But sometimes it lands them in dire situations that were easily avoidable. Tom Hanks, filming Castaway, refused to bathe during shooting. This resulted in him getting a staph infection. We also see this with Adrian Brody in The Pianist, where on top of mastering piano, he also gave up his earthly possessions to embody the sense of loneliness and gratitude his character felt. By the end of filming a movie, the process of method acting leaves a little piece of the character with the actor. Which, in a way, sounds sincere, but it also dilutes the complete separation that should be built between actors and the character they play.
How far is too far? Some might say that if the movie turns out amazing and the performer leaves fully intact, the end justifies the means. However, in a case where the immersive acting results in mental and/or physical therapy, where does the jury lie? In the case of The Shining, Shelley Duvall endured drastic horrors that never graced the screen, including performing over 100 takes of swinging the bat on the stairs, causing her voice to strain and hands to splinter, and being withheld scene information in order to get genuine fear responses. All in all, filming the movie broke down her mental health, much like what happens to her character Wendy in the movie. Even though the world Kubrick created was fake, the experiences of the character were too close to that of the actress.
Tom Cruise perfoming a stunt himself in Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation (2015).
Physical health is often at risk, too. This includes the extreme stunts that actors perform, even when it is not necessary for them to do so. Tom Cruise is famous for this. The Mission: Impossible actor keeps finding ways to increase the dangers he subjects himself to. Some examples are strapping himself to the outside of a cargo plane taking off on a runway and diving into an underwater vault for multiple minutes at a time. Though there are the options of stuntmen, CGI, and green screens, he continually chooses the path less followed. He does this simply for the thrill of it or wanting the scene to look more authentic; either way, he risks his life for these movies in a way that is truly baffling. It is impressive, to say the least, but is a movie worth the risk? With every Mission: Impossible movie, it becomes harder and harder to see where Tom Cruise ends and Ethan Hunt begins.
Other instances of physically adapting for a role deserve an honorable mention. For Suicide Squad, Margot Robbie trained to hold her breath for 6 minutes for an underwater scene. Leonardio Di Caprio ate raw bison and slept in an animal carcass in preparation for The Revenant. It is amazing what actors will put themselves through to for the sake of film. Hopefully in the future, with the constant improvement of CGI, stunt doubles and cinematography, the risks will eventually become unnecessary, even for those actors who love to tempt fate.