When it comes to films and television shows, there's a lot riding on an actors' preparedness
for a production.
Even if all of the crew members show up primed and ready to work, everything can fall apart
if the cast doesn't quite have it together.
These stars got creative and engaged in some last-minute scrambling to make up for the
fact that they weren't quite prepared for their roles when they signed on.
Big Momma's coma
In 1999, the world almost lost Martin Lawrence when the actor collapsed and fell into a coma
outside his L.A. home due to severe heat-related exhaustion.
Lawrence's condition was so serious that for several days he required a ventilator just
to breathe.
It all happened largely because he chose to work out while wearing a big plastic suit
in 100-degree weather to try and get in shape for Big Momma's House.
"Please, I recommend do not run in a plastic suit.
Do not do that."
Luckily, he went on to make a full recovery, but the media criticized Lawrence's decision
to get in shape since he wouldn't have many opportunities to show off his abs in costume
anyway.
But walking around in an 80-pound bodysuit still required some fitness preparation, even
if Lawrence took it too far.
Tuned out
Prior to physically appearing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Vision, Paul Bettany
never bothered to watch a single film in the Iron Man franchise, despite providing the
vocals for Jarvis, the hero's trusty AI sidekick.
"Miss Potts is approaching.
I recommend that you…"
"MUTE!"
Even when he was recording his lines as Jarvis, Bettany didn't even get a full version of
the script and had no context for the dialogue pieces he read.
"As Jarvis, I would turn up at the end of
the movie and speak into a microphone for two hours and they'd give me a big whopping,
great bag of cash."
Bettany's indifference to the franchise was such that he admitted to feeling like a "pirate"
when he took his money, and often had to tell fans he had no idea who the character was
when he was approached to speak about what is now one of his most famous roles.
Liquid courage
Undressing in front of one person is hard enough, so it's gotta be especially awkward
for an actor to strip on camera, with a whole crew watching from the wings.
For Margot Robbie, her breakout role in The Wolf of Wall Street called for her to be in
the buff quite a bit, and she knew the shots would be ruined if her nervousness came through
on-camera.
With little time to prepare herself for one scene of extreme exposure, decided to do what
a lot of people might do for a confidence boost, and pounded three shots of tequila
before stripping down and nailing the scene in one take.
Meanwhile, co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill weren't very familiar with the
effects of most of the drugs they were supposed to pretend to take on-screen, so both had
to be coached on how to act convincingly high.
"Steve."
"STEEEVE."
In fact, DiCaprio was so unsure about how to act, he'd later admit that he spent hours
watching this YouTube video of a guy drunkenly rolling around on the floor to better shape
his performance.
Learning the lingo
When Jackie Chan first arrived in the U.S. in the 1980s, he was reportedly unable to
speak even basic English and quickly set about teaching himself how to communicate by absorbing
Western media.
He came to America alone to "immerse himself in the English-speaking world" and learn the
language that way.
Although Chan did pick up on English pretty well over the years, he still had trouble
reading scripts as late as the Rush Hour series and had to learn the lines for many of his
Western films phonetically.
"Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?"
Sometimes, crews would take advantage of this and make Chan say swear words or things he
didn't mean, just for laughs.
"I'm into feet.
I like the one with the horses.
What's that mean?
What he teach me?"
Doing dialect
Most of the actors in Games of Thrones have accents based on where in the fictional world
of Westeros they hail from, relative to the geography of the U.K.
For example, characters hailing from the North have thick Northern accents, whereas those
from the south speak with accents commonly found in the more southerly parts of the U.K.
Production was reportedly insistent that the actors playing the sons of Ned Stark should
adopt Sean Bean's native Yorkshire accent, but Kit Harington had no idea that this would
be expected of him and auditioned for the role of Jon Snow in his native southern accent.
Although he was told he was a good match for the character, he still needed to speak more
like his on-screen dad before the cameras started rolling.
So Harington—along with the rest of the actors expected to portray Ned Stark's sons—had
to rush to ready their new dialects to match their daddy's off-screen affectation.
Getting ripped
Upon being cast to play infamous British criminal Charles Bronson, a man so dangerously violent
and superhumanly built he once punched clean through bulletproof glass in a fit of anger,
Tom Hardy met with the man himself to see if he'd sign off his portrayal.
Bronson was unimpressed with Hardy's physique, however, and initially said no.
Hoping to change Bronson's mind, Hardy started bulking up after their first meeting, consuming
nothing but pizza, ice cream, chicken and rice while exercising as hard as he could.
Two weeks later, he'd bulked up enough for Bronson to realize he was committed to physically
portraying him.
The fact that Hardy also brought Bronson a muffin and some milkshakes also likely didn't
hurt.
Along with giving the actor his blessing, Bronson also shaved off his mustache and mailed
it to Hardy, hoping the makeup department could figure out a way to glue it to his face.
Failing that, Bronson hoped Hardy could carry the clippings around in his pocket as a good
luck charm.
It's unclear which option Hardy chose.
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