acting by its very definition involves
performing a fictional role and
pretending to be somebody else an actor
has to project that characters traits
which range from their speech and
intelligence to their body language and
skills the latter of those traits the
skills can often be difficult to convey
which is why in a lot of cases actors
actually have to learn new skills to
convincingly become another person
on-screen in this video we'll take a
look at just some of the skills that
actors have had to become proficient at
in order to portray certain characters
on the big screen here are ten crazy
skills actors had to learn four movie
roles
Olivia Mott sword skills for x-men
apocalypse the very beautiful Olivia
Munn played the mutant psylocke one of
apocalypses four recruits and a skilled
user of a sword in 2016 x-men apocalypse
to prepare for that role Munn endured
six hours of daily sword fighting
training and she became incredibly
skilled in the art of wielding a blade
she showed off her impressive skills in
an Instagram video alongside Ryan
Reynolds who played Deadpool in the Merc
with a mouth titular movie which was
also released in 2016 although Reynolds
also trained with a sword for that role
he was no match for mine in the video as
his sword was made of balloons
Channing Tatum tap-dancing for Hail
Caesar if you've seen step up in Magic
Mike you'll probably understand why the
Coen brothers assumed that Channing
Tatum could tap-dance when they cast him
in 2016 s Hail Caesar they were wrong to
do so however and Tatum spent months
preparing for his role as actor and
dancer Bert gurney in the movie about
that preparation Tatum said I spent
about three months preparing it's the
most I've ever prepped for a six-minute
section in a movie we went over
Christmas and New Year's so I had all
that time to let it gestate I let it
sink into my bones over the holiday
break and I'm nervous about something I
drill it to a point that is probably
unhealthy but as long as it works even
halfway I'm happy at the end of the
torturous deck Natalie Portman ballet
for Black Swan Natalie Portman played
the ballet dancer Nina Sayers in the
brilliant 2010 psychological thriller
Black Swan and the american-israeli star
actually learned ballet for the role she
trained for at least five hours each day
whilst working on other projects at the
same time Portman told the New York
Times it was a rude awakening to get
there and to be like I don't know what
I'm doing if I had known how not close
to ready I was I never would have tried
it I'm glad I was a little ignorant /
arrogant the training definitely paid
off
however the actress won the Academy
Award for Best Actress for her
performance in the film Robert Downey
jr. the violin for Chaplin long before
Robert Downey jr. was Iron Man in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe the actor
played an equally iconic figure for the
real world that being English comic
actor Charlie Chaplin in 1992 s Chaplin
and he had to learn a very interesting
skill for the role to accurately portray
the actor Downey jr. learned to play the
violin as well as a little bit of tennis
incidentally and he had to do so left
hand his performance in the role earned
him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor
but he was ultimately and unfortunately
beaten by Al Pacino for his performance
in Scent of a Woman Joseph gordon-levitt
tightrope walking for the walk in 2015
Joseph gordon-levitt portrayed real-life
daredevil Philippe Petit in the walk a
movie about Patti's tightrope walk
between the Twin Towers in New York City
gordon-levitt actually worked with petit
to learn tightrope walking for the role
a challenge he enjoyed and benefited
greatly from gordon-levitt told
Entertainment Weekly he's such an
optimist Philippe he's such a positive
thinker and when someone believes that
you can do something then you yourself
believe you can do it and that's when
you can actually do it when you believe
in yourself the actor still struggled a
little with the hype however Jennifer
Lawrence chopping wood and skinning
squirrels for Winter's Bone Jennifer
Lawrence is currently the hottest
actress in Hollywood and she has her
breakout role in Winter's Bone to thank
for her rise to the top the 2010 drama
saw Lawrence playing read dolly a
teenage girl who looked after her whole
family in rural America while teaching
them basic survival skills like hunting
and cooking for the role Lawrence
learned how to chop wood and how to skin
a squirrel if you haven't seen the scene
in which she does the ladder we don't
recommend it it's really not very
pleasant on the eyes jesse eisenberg
magic tricks for now you see me in
2013's heist thriller now you see me
Jesse Eisenberg played Danny atlest aka
the love atlas was an arrogant
illusionist and street magician and a
member of the magic group known as the
four horsemen and Eisenberg actually
learned some magic and sleight of hand
tricks for the move about what he had
learned Eisenberg said I'm better than I
was before the movie started but not
good enough to do them in public my
character has been practicing since he
was 8 years old so he's been working on
the same tricks every single day eight
hours a day to get as good as my
character is I would have to start 20
years ago Adrien Brody the piano for the
pianist given the plot and indeed the
title of 2002's the pianist it should
come as no surprise to learn at the
movie star
Adrien Brody had to learn
play the piano for his role in the movie
as polish pianist and classful composer
Vladislav Spielman what might be
surprising is the extent he went to
learn it Brodie went fully method for
the role telling BBC I gave up my
apartment I sold my car I disconnected
the phones and I left I took two bags
and my keyboard and moved to Europe
his efforts certainly paid off as he won
the Academy Award for Best Actor for his
performance Daniel day-lewis tracking
hunting and skinning animals for the
last of the meheecans Daniel day-lewis
is of course known for his method acting
it's the main reason he's won three Best
Actor Oscars after all
but the English Irish star went above
and beyond to perfect his performance
for the 1992 adventure drama masterpiece
the last of the mohicans day-lewis
actually lived outdoors and survivalist
as an extreme form of preparation to
play that then you'll Pope aka Hawkeye
the white adopted son of the last chief
of the Mohawk and tribe in the movie the
actor picked up a very useful skill in
the process as well he learned how to
hunt his own food margot robbie holding
her breath for five minutes for Suicide
Squad there's a scene in 2016 Suicide
Squad in which the Joker's purple
Lamborghini ends up in some water with
him and Harley Quinn still inside he
escapes but Harley is left half way
through the windshield sprawled across
the bonnet and Batman has to swim to the
bottom of the water to rescue her the
scene only required actress Margot
Robbie to be under water for one minute
but she trained herself to hold her
breath for five telling Jimmy Fallon
it's all about lowering your metabolic
rate you're kind of like meditate under
water
it's what free divers do but it's
amazing I got to five minutes and I was
like you know what this is above and
beyond what I thought I'd get to I'm
good I'm good with five thanks for
watching our video about ten crazy
skills actors had to learn four movie
roles did you enjoy the video which
other skills you know that actors were
taught for their movie roles have you
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