12 Times Method Acting Almost Ruined Actors' Lives

Many famous people, including Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe, have embraced the Stanislavski system's philosophy of method acting. But over the past 40 years, a new generation of talented actors who overdid the method has increased rapidly. Even though some of the best acting can be produced through practice, these stories will make you ponder whether taking the chance was really worth it.
The actor Heath Ledger tops the list of actors whose lives were ruined by method acting because he may have actually sacrificed his life for his iconic performance as the Joker.
The business is full of examples of method-acting consequences that were both extreme and fleeting. Think of Christian Bale, who nearly starved to death to prepare for his The Machinist role. Or Divine, who once stunned everyone by purposely eating actual dog feces for artistic purposes.
Read on to learn more and vote for the actors who went above and beyond for their craft.

#1 Meryl Streep Got So Depressed Acting Like Miranda Priestly In 'The Devil Wears Prada' That She Gave Up Method Acting

Source: 20th Century Fox

Meryl Streep received an Oscar nomination for best actress for her portrayal of the cold-blooded, haughty fashion editor Miranda Priestly in the comedy The Devil Wears Prada. Off camera, she did a remarkable job in the role. Co-stars Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway noted in a 2021 Entertainment Weekly oral history of the movie with the cast that Streep sometimes mirrored her diva-like relationship with them in real life. "Meryl is so gregarious and fun as hell, in some ways it wasn't the most fun for her having to remove herself," according to Blunt.
Streep agreed, claiming that after the movie she gave up on method acting because she felt so discouraged from being arrogant and separated from the others on the set.

#2 Chloë Sevigny Performed A Real Sex Act In 'The Brown Bunny'

Source: Sony Pictures

A real scandal broke out when Chlo Sevigny "un-simulated fellatio" on her The Brown Bunny co-star Vincent Gallo, who also wrote and directed the movie. Despite Sevigny's claim that she has no regrets, the actor found it difficult to deal with the consequences of the scene.
In an interview with W Magazine, Sevigny reportedly acknowledged that the scene had a negative impact on her personal life. "It hurt me, in a lot of ways... some relationships have had trouble with it. Of course, my mom and I don’t talk about it.”
The admirable trait of a true indie pioneer, on the other hand, is that Sevigny agreed to the scene in part to "push back against her growing fame at the time."

#3 Billy Bob Thornton Walked Around With Glass In His Shoes For 'Sling Blade'

Source: Miramax Films

Sling Blade, starring Billy Bob Thornton, has become a cult classic. And Thornton was completely dedicated to his role as the mentally disabled Karl Childers, down to the smallest detail. According to legend, Thornton put crushed glass in his shoes to make Karl's walk "more awkward and consistent."

#4 Heath Ledger Skipped A Lot Of Sleep For His Joker Role

Source: Warner Brothers

The extent to which Heath Ledger's final role in The Dark Knight contributed to his untimely death is debatable. In an interview with The New York Times, he said "Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night. I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going."
Rumors linking the performance to Ledger's death in January 2008 abound, but Ledger was filming The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus at the time. Kate Ledger, his sister, denies that her brother's performance in The Dark Knight caused his death.

#5 Daniel Day-Lewis Caught Pneumonia Because He Refused To Wear A Modern Coat While Filming 'Gangs Of New York'

Source: Miramax Films

Daniel Day-Lewis, like Klaus Kinski, is known for going to great lengths to embody his characters. Day-Lewis never left his wheelchair for his role as Christy Brown, an artist with cerebral palsy, in My Left Foot.
Gangs in New York were no exception. Day-Lewis allegedly refused to break character on or offset. Even though it was raining outside, Day-Lewis refused to wear a proper coat because it would not be period-appropriate. He later developed pneumonia.

#6 Nicolas Cage Ate A Live Cockroach For 'Vampire's Kiss'

Source: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Nicolas Cage starred in Vampire's Kiss, which became a cult classic two years before he played Sailor Ripley in 1990's Wild at Heart. Cage portrayed Peter Loew, a schizophrenic literary agent who believes a vampire has bitten him.
Cage took his role seriously, refusing to stage the scene in which Peter eats a live cockroach. "Every muscle in my body didn't want to do it, but I did it anyway," he confessed.

#7 Adrien Brody Starved Himself For 'The Pianist'

Source: Universal Pictures

Christian Bale isn't the only actor who has starved himself to death for a role. Adrien Brody, who dropped to a threatening 130 pounds for Roman Polanski's award-winning 2002 film The Pianist, was an outstanding inspiration and predecessor.
The film, which follows pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman during his time in a concentration camp, was both a personal and professional commitment for Brody. "During the time I was starving myself, the thing I was most comforted by was playing the music. It calmed me and allowed me to some degree to distract myself from my own loneliness at that time."

#8 Klaus Kinski Went To Extremes In Pretty Much Everything

Source: BFI

Klaus Kinski's relegation to the ranks of "mere" Method actors seems almost archaic. Kinski, whose on-screen insanity is legendary, pushed himself to the limit for every role he played. He was so obsessed with his Fitzcarraldo role that two Peruvian natives (and extras) on set allegedly offered to kill him for director Werner Herzog. According to Herzog, he declined only because he needed Kinski to complete the film.
During the filming of Crawlspace, he immersed in his role as a deranged former Nazi that he started multiple fights on set and was almost fired outright.

#9 Divine Literally Ate Sh*t For 'Pink Flamingos'

Source: New Line Cinema

Pier Paolo Pasolini surprised the film world in 1975 with Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, which featured a banquet of sh*t. However, the feast consists entirely of chocolate. That's why the scene doesn't include anything like what Divine did in 1972's Pink Flamingos: eat dog poop right off the street, fresh from the canine's bowels.
Divine, Harris Glenn Milstead's stage name, once stated, "I followed that dog around for three hours just zooming in on its assh*le." After the act, Milstead became paranoid and called a Baltimore emergency room to inquire about the potentially "harmful effects" of ingesting dog waste. A shocking piece of method acting, but one that is unlikely to be repeated.

#10 Malcolm McDowell Temporarily Blinded Himself For 'A Clockwork Orange'

Source: Warner Brothers

Malcolm McDowell, the actor, was almost as obsessed with perfection as Stanley Kubrick, the director. However, when it came to doing multiple cameras of possibly physically damaging scenes, that dedication could backfire.
Real eye doctors were used in the famous "forced viewing" sequence in A Clockwork Orange. McDowell, however, sustained harrowing damage in the form of a scratched cornea and, worse, temporary blindness as a result of having his "eyes propped open for too long."

#11 Shia LaBeouf Yanked His Teeth Out And Stabbed Himself In The Face For 'Fury'

Source: Sony Pictures

Shia LaBeouf has grown from his days as a Disney kid to become a spectacularly dedicated Method actor. He may have had real onscreen sex in Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac, but it pales in comparison to what he did in Fury in 2014.
As LaBeouf explained to Dazed Digital, "I pulled my tooth out, knifed my face up, and spent days watching horses die. I didn’t bathe for four months."

#12 Christian Bale Starved Himself For 'The Machinist'

Source: Photo: Studio Canal

Christian Bale, who made his feature film debut in 1987's Mio in the Land of Faraway, has always been known as an actor who isn't afraid to push the boundaries of his craft. But in 2004's The Machinist, he went far beyond the pale - almost to the brink of death.
According to sources, Bale ate only a can of tuna and an apple per day in the weeks leading up to the start of production.
Nonetheless, Bale persisted, and his performance received widespread critical acclaim.