11 Celebrities Who Released Their Inner Perfectionist to Prepare for a Role

Big salaries and Oscars are not the only things that movie stars aspire to. For many of them, it is much more important to convey the depth of their characters to the audience. That is why some actors and actresses spend a lot of time preparing for their roles. We support this serious approach to the craft and confirm that thanks to the perseverance of some actors, they literally assumed the persona of their characters.

Julia Garner — Inventing Anna

Julia Garner had only 3 weeks to prepare for the role of Anna Delvey-Sorokin before filming began. The real Anna had lived in several countries, which greatly affected her accent. In this short period of time, the actress was able to adopt the specific accent that her character used.

Julia wore fake teeth during the filming to match Anna’s appearance. This was her personal idea, and the director approved it. It was successful — the actress’s face became more similar to the character’s.

In addition, Julia met with Anna herself and noted that she found the girl very sweet and that she had a great sense of humor.

Austin Butler — Elvis

Austin Butler, who plays the lead role in the movie Elvis, spent a lot of time studying archival video recordings. The actor notes that he watched as much footage of Elvis Presley as he could because he felt responsible to Elvis himself, his family, and all of his fans.

In addition, a year before filming, the actor took singing lessons almost every day because he wanted his voice in the movie to be as similar as possible to Presley’s voice.

Emilia Jones — CODA

Emilia Jones had a challenging role — she plays the only hearing member of a family where the parents and older brother of the heroine are deaf. She studied sign language for 9 months to prepare for the role.

In the story, the character helps her parents with fishing and sings in a choir. So basically, for the role, Emilia also learned how to fish and sing.

Kirsten Dunst — The Power of the Dog

Kirsten Dunst took a responsible approach to preparing for the filming, despite her character Rose being a supporting character. She also had to learn to play the piano.

By a fortunate coincidence, the actress’s husband, Jesse Plemons, played one of the main roles in this film. So, the couple rehearsed some scenes together on their own. Kirsten Dunst also noted that sometimes she didn’t talk to anyone on set so that she would have a “lump in her throat,” like her character.

Gwendoline Christie — Game of Thrones

Gwendoline Christie didn’t just want to rely on her physical attributes (most notably, her height) to look like her character. Thanks to persistent training, the actress lost nearly 10 kg for the audition. After being cast, Gwendoline continued to train and gained about 6 kg of muscle mass.

But the toughest challenge for the actress was having to sacrifice her hair for the role. She admits that she cried for 2 hours when her hair was cut. Outside of her character’s persona, Gwendoline looks very feminine — wearing beautiful dresses, makeup, and heels.

Liu Yifei — Mulan

The director of Mulan, Niki Caro, said that the film crew auditioned around 1,000 candidates for the role of Mulan. Liu Yifei’s audition lasted more than 2 hours, but that was not the end of it. After that, the actress was sent to the gym with a coach for an hour and a half to test her physical fitness. And she did an excellent job.

Several months before filming, the entire cast of Mulan and the lead actress trained in a boot camp. Liu Yifei says the training took 6–7 hours every day and was very challenging.

Margot Robbie — Babylon

The movie Babylon tells the story of the 1920s, when Hollywood was transitioning from silent movies to sound films. The character, Nellie, is a party animal and a silent film actress.

To fully embody and remain in character, Margot Robbie partied non-stop. She says she didn’t give herself a moment of rest, constantly inviting friends to her trailer to hang out. After 2 weeks of this lifestyle, the actress returned to a normal routine and noted that she was terribly exhausted from all the parties.

Emma Myers — Wednesday

Emma Myers played Enid — a werewolf girl, best friend, and roommate of Wednesday Addams (here are more amazing facts about Jenna Ortega you might want to read). In the story, she struggles to turn into a werewolf, but by the end of the season, she finally succeeds.

Myers prepared very responsibly for this scene. The actress studied parkour: crawled on all fours and practiced jumping over different objects. Stunt doubles on the set pretended to be sheep, so she could play her werewolf transformation.

Emma Watson — Noah

In Noah, the actress played the pregnant wife of Noah’s son. The actress herself had never given birth, but wanted the pregnancy and childbirth process to look natural in the film. Therefore, she tried to get information about similar experiences from other women and obstetricians, and she also watched films and videos.

Emma Watson asked the costume designers to make her a prosthetic belly with the same weight as that of a pregnant woman carrying twins. The next day, the actress complained to the costume designer that she was very tired and exhausted from wearing the costume, and the costume designer reminded her that the prosthetic belly only weighed as much as a single baby.

Zendaya — The Greatest Showman

The director of the film wanted most of the scenes to be shot without the use of stunt doubles. This is why Zendaya had to learn circus gymnastics before filming. However, as the actress admits, the acrobatic stunts in the film were still challenging for her.

During training, she got used to a certain height of the circus trapeze and safety net. However, there was no safety net on the set that she was used to (there was a different kind of safety measure), and the trapeze was at a different height. But she was able to overcome this and perform the necessary stunts.

Benedict Cumberbatch — The Power of the Dog

To get into the character of Phil, one of the owners of a ranch in Montana, Benedict Cumberbatch went straight to Montana before filming. There, he lived with the family who owned the ranch, and they took him around the state, teaching him cowboy skills like herding and branding cattle, as well as how to ride a horse properly.