5 Times Hollywood A-Listers Took Method Acting Way Too Far

5. Leonardo DiCaprio — The Revenant

To properly play Hugh Glass, the fur trapper and main character of The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio went for long and exhausting outdoor practice, camping in the wild alone to learn to withstand harsh climates and deal with freezing cold. Leo also did, in fact, sleep in dead animals’ carcasses…even though he’s a vegan!

4. Adrien Brody — The Pianist

Władysław Szpilman, a famous Polish-Jewish musician, lost everything he ever held dear when the Nazis invaded his homeland, and Adrien Brody wanted to capture his "hollowness and emptiness" perfectly. The actor starved himself, sold his belongings, and moved to Europe alone to make his experience as authentic as possible.

3. Jim Carrey — Man On The Moon

One of the most questionable cases of method acting taken too far was Jim Carrey’s transformation into Andy Kaufman, the legendary comedian. While being “possessed by Kaufman” (Carrey’s own words!), the actor proceeded to be intolerable and unpredictable on the set, turning the crew’s life into a living hell, to feel Andy-ish.

2. Christian Bale — The Machinist

We’ve all heard this story, haven’t we? To play Trevor Reznik, a man whose guilt was killing him mentally and physically, Christian Bale starved himself to near death, setting a record for role-related weight loss. To lose 62 pounds (!) of raw weight, Bale stuck to the brutal diet of apples, coffee, and cigarettes for many weeks straight.

1. Jared Leto — Suicide Squad

Jared Leto is another example of a method actor who, instead of torturing himself, tortured his colleagues. While preparing to play Joker, Leto decided to follow whatever fun ideas his assumed insanity would suggest. That included sending alive and dead (!) animals to his colleagues, as well as many other shameful “gifts,” related to either death or sex.