Actors with physical or emotional scars from intense roles

From extreme physical transformations to physical, emotional, and mental challenges, these actors have spoken about the profound impact certain roles had on their lives.

Heath Ledger's sister told The Telegraph about the depth of her late brother's immersion into the Joker character for 'Batman: The Dark Knight.' He also told the New York Times that it was "physically and mentally draining."

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Ledger's depression while preparing for this role was so profound — locked in a hotel room and isolated from all his loved ones — that there was even speculation about its role in his fatal drug overdose. Thanks to his outstanding performance, Ledger won a posthumous Oscar. In a documentary, his agent tried to shake off the lingering perception that perhaps one thing led to another...

The actress shared her challenges in the transformation for 'Les Misérables' in several interviews, including in her speeches after accepting the Best Actress Oscar for the film.

She also ate only egg whites to clear her voice, lost 20 pounds and felt sick all the time. And if that wasn't enough, she shaved off her beautiful hair - the tears you saw in that scene were very real!

Brody told Infobae that he had to diet for six weeks and lost 15 kg (33 pounds). "There's a feeling of loneliness that comes when you're starving and I hadn't experienced that. I wouldn't have been able to play that role without knowing that. I had experienced loss, sadness in my life, but I didn't know the despair that comes with hunger," the actor said, according to the Argentine newspaper.

He gave up his apartment in New York, moved to Europe, sold his car and disconnected his cell phone. "Because the character loses so much, I wanted to get a sense of what that loss feels like," he continued. His girlfriend left him because of how obsessed he was with the role.

"I was depressed for a year after the shooting. It wasn't just depression; it was mourning," he said."There were times when I worried if I'd ever get healthy again because I didn't realize how far I'd gone." Eventually, his hard work won him the Academy Award for Best Actor.

In an interview with Women's World in 1984, Leigh said she was so traumatized by the numerous takes of the iconic shower scene that she stopped showering altogether and started taking baths instead.

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"There were people who were disturbed and who took 'Psycho' as a way to vent their unfortunate demons," she told Women's World, "and I really got a lot of letters where they told me that they were going to do the same thing to me that Norman Bates did to Marion Crane... Luckily, nothing ever happened."

The actor, known for his radical weight changes for his roles, spent two months eating an apple and a can of tuna a day until he reached 54 kilos. Bale wanted to reach 45 kilos (99 pounds), but the production asked him to stop losing weight because he might die.

Photo: The Machinist, 2004, Filmax/Paramount Classics

"It feels good, like a victory. I got scrawny and destroyed myself to the point where watching me run is funny because I have no muscle in my legs," explained the actor in the middle of filming. Later, in statements to the newspaper El País, he acknowledged that during the filming he also stopped sleeping.

Photo: Paramount Plus

In an interview with The New York Times, Thurman detailed the reasons for her estrangement from Quentin Tarantino, whom she'd also dated. She accused him of "attempted murder" for forcing her to drive a terrible old convertible for a scene in 'Kill Bill' (2003).

At Thurman's insistence that they use a stuntman, the filmmaker assured her that the vehicle was in perfect condition and the road was safe. The actress agreed to do it herself, but the scene ended in a serious accident. "The steering wheel was at my belly and my legs were jammed under me," she says. "I felt this searing pain and thought, 'Oh my God, I’m never going to walk again,'" she told the New York Times.

"When I came back from the hospital in a neck brace with my knees damaged and a large massive egg on my head and a concussion, I wanted to see the car and I was very upset. Quentin and I had an enormous fight," she continued. As a result, she said her neck and knees were permanently damaged.

It took her 15 years to get the footage from the crash from Miramax - Harvey Weinstein's company. As she told the New York Times, the company only originally offered to show her the footage if she signed a document "releasing them of any consequences of my future pain and suffering," which she didn't do. The video can now be seen on the NYT website.

Both on Dr. Phil's show and in The Hollywood Reporter, Shelley Duvall spoke about her work in Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' (1980). Among her statements, she said that Kubrick didn't use anything until the 35th take.

"After a while, your body rebels. It says: 'Stop doing this to me. I don't want to cry every day.' And sometimes just that thought alone would make me cry," she told the Hollywood Reporter. "To wake up on a Monday morning, so early, and realize that you had to cry all day because it was scheduled."

While Duvall had kind words to say about Kubrick, actress Anjelica Huston, who was dating Jack Nicholson at the time, said that "Shelley was having a had time just dealing with the emotional content of the piece... and they didn't seem to be all that sympathetic... She took it on. She was, I think, incredibly brave."

According to what Hanks told The Guardian in 2001, in order to make the film more realistic, the shooting was linear: first the plane crash and Chuck's first days on the island and then, after several months, his physical deterioration. For this, Hanks had to lose 25 kilos (55 pounds) with a training routine and a strict diet.

One of the most extreme moments was when Hanks climbed on a raft that cut his knee open and had to undergo surgery. If he had not done so, it could have caused sepsis that could have killed him.

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