Dedication

We're all familiar with the classical stories of "he lost/gained 80 pounds for his part in (insert movie)". Here's a couple of impressive facts in that regard:

Obviously it's differcult to speak of actors dedicating themselves more then what is usually expected without mentioning the great Robert De Niro. The man needs no further introduction, and these might be known facts for many of you, but anyway. Here goes:

- To prepare himself for portraying Vito Corleone in The Godfather: Part II, he spent four months learning the Sicilian dialect, and most of his lines in the movie are (surprise, surprise) in Sicilian. As the task of recreating the role of a younger Vito wasn't hard enough after Marlon Brando's oscar-winning performance in the prequel...

- The very same De Niro paid a dentist $5000 to make his teeth look bad for his role as Max Cady in Cape Fear... he then later paid $20000 to have them fixed post-production.

- For his role as Jake La Motta in "Raging Bull", De Niro went through a lot of physical training and even entered three boxing matches in Brooklyn. He won two of them. To portray the scenes of the older Jake La Motta he gained 60 pounds (27.3kg)...



- Vincent D'Onofrio holds the world record for most weighed gained for a role, 70 pounds (31.8kg) for his role in Full Metal Jacket. He also gained 45 pounds (20.5kg) for his role in The Salton Sea.

- Nicolas Cage ate a cockroach in the movie Vampire's Kiss... it took three takes. He also pulled two teeth without anestethic for his role in Birdy.

- Christian Bale, who recently won an Oscar for best supporting actor (The Fighter), lost 63 punds (28.6kg) for his role in The Machinist, a feat which is even more impressive considering he portrayed the not quite so skinny Batman a year later in Batman Begins...



- While shooting Gangs of New York, Daniel Day-Lewis rarely got out of character, and actually spoke with a New York accent the whole day. He also sharpened his knives at lunch (he played 'The Butcher')

- Last, but not least, Massimo Troisi was told that he needed treatment for his heart condition prior to filming Il Postino. Troisi, however, believed that making the film was of greater importance and carried on. 12 hours after the cameras stopped rolling, Troisi died...





Obviously, there are just a selected few, and there are many, many more examples of great transformations and stories of how actors/actresses have done amazing things in order for their portrayal in film to be as believable and true as possible.

Hamm & Haggis

March 10th, Jon Hamm turned 40, and Paul Haggis turned 58. I'd therefore like to share some of my fave moments from these two, who have both done amazing work in TV/film.

Paul Haggis has won two oscars (Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Original Screenplay), and they both were awarded to him for the movie Crash in 2006. A movie which surprised many, and ultimately won the oscar for best movie ahead of Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Munich and Good Night, and Good Luck.

Paul Haggis has done a lot of great work in film, although Crash is to me his finest work (especially as director). As a screenwriter he became the first person to win Oscars back-to-back in 2005 and 2006 (Million Dollar Baby was the other one).

Crash has an impressive cast, including a personal favorite of mine, Don Cheadle. Also starring in the movie is Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillippe, Jennifer Esposito, William Fichtner, Terrence Howard, Thandie Newton and Ludacris(!). A lot of "small" parts in this movie, but they all did great jobs.

Here's a trailer for the movie, which if you haven't seen, you definitely should get to it:





So, Jon Hamm. "Don Draper" turned 40 on March 10th, and one might call him a late-bloomer in the industry. That is so say, he's been around for a long time, but it's safe to say his big break came with the show "Mad Men". He won the Golden Globe for his portrayal as Don Draper in 2008. He was recently in Ben Affleck's new movie "The Town", where he does a good job as FBI Agent Frawley. Here's a presentation of his charachter on "Mad Men":