10 Amazing Transformative Performances
From Robert De Niro to DALLAS BUYERS CLUB’s Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey
When the filmmakers
behind DALLAS BUYERS CLUB were looking to cast Ron Woodroof, the real-life
subject of their film, they immediately hit upon Matthew McConaughey. “‘Who is
Ron Woodroof?’ and in my mind, it was Matthew,” says producer Robbie Brenner.
“Like Ron, he’s from Dallas, he’s handsome, and he has a twinkle in the eye.
Matthew also has intensity and intelligence like Ron did, mixed with that
cowboy charisma and fighter’s spirit. He was beyond perfect for the role.” But
while perfect on paper, McConaughey knew it would still take an enormous amount
of work to become Ron Woodroof, a man struggling with full-blown AIDS. On a
physical level, the role required McConaughey to lose an enormous amount of
weight. Emotionally, however, McConaughey had to accomplish even more – he
needed to understand and express the indomitable spirit that made Woodroof
press on when he was given a death sentence by doctors.
JaredLeto | DALLAS BUYERS CLUB
Transformation is
nothing new to Jared Leto, who has moved from TV heartthrob to indie idol to
rock god in his short career. In recent years, Leto has been selective about
his film roles, picking only those that offered the most interesting
challenges. Previously he signed up for Jarrett Schaefer’s Chapter
27, a biopic about Mark David Chapman, the man who assassinated
John Lennon on December 8, 1980. For this bulky role, Leto put on 67 pounds by
drinking melted ice cream mixed with olive oil. For DALLAS BUYERS CLUB, Leto
performed an even more remarkable transformation by losing more than 30 pounds
to transform into the HIV+ transsexual Rayon. Becoming Rayon was much more than
a dieting trick: Leto had to find her voice, her walk, the way she wore clothes
and makeup, and even more her will to live. Once inside the role, Leto didn’t
emerge as himself until after the production was over.
Sean Penn | MILK
When Sean Penn was cast to play Harvey Milk in Gus
Van Sant’s biopic Milk, many had a hard
imagining the intense, straight actor playing the wise-cracking, sometimes
flamboyant gay San Francisco politician who was assassinated in 1978. It’s hard
enough to play a historical figure, but even harder to play one who still lives
large in people’s minds and hearts. But for Cleve Jones, who worked with the real Harvey Milk, “Sean nails it, and it's not just
my opinion. That is the opinion of every person left alive who knew Harvey
Milk.” And the critics were equally impressed.
Kate Winslet | ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
Having positioned herself as a young woman of poise and intelligence in
films like Sense and Sensibility and Titanic, Kate
Winslet did a complete change up as Clementine, the fun and fickle neo-punk
love interest of Jim Carrey in Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind. Her rumpled look and candy-colored hair made her a
wondrously strange creature, the perfect character for a tale filled with
wonder and awe.
Charlize Theron | MONSTER
Few actress have demonstrated their real beauty by stripping themselves of
their natural beauty as perfectly as Charlize Theron did with the aptly
named Monster. Based on the life of female serial killer Aileen
Wuornos, Patty Jenkins’ film is a powerful exploration of a woman struggling
with (and mostly losing to) her inner demons. To achieve the look, Theron,
who’d been an international fashion model, put on 30 pounds and sported
prosthetic teeth. But in the end, it’s not the physical change, but the inner
one that makes Theron’s acting so riveting.
Robert De Niro | RAGING BULL
Without question, Robert De Niro is one of America’s great actors, and his
role as the boxer Jake LaMotta stands out among his stellar roles. He not only
embodies La Motta, but brings to life two versions of the same man. To capture
LaMotta at his fighting prime, De Niro trained with the real LaMotta, until the
boxer known as the Raging Bull felt the actor was ready. To capture the older
LaMotta, De Niro had to gain over 60 pounds and put on heavy make up. But more
than the physical transformation, De Niro had to capture the full range of this
champion’s life, from the triumph of his peak fighting form to the melancholy
of his body and spirit disintegrating.
Nicole Kidman | THE HOURS
In Stephen Daldry’s adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s The Hours,
Nicole Kidman signed up to play Virginia Woolf, the first of three women
oppressed by circumstances and tragedy in this dramatic triptych. To appear as
the real-life writer, Kidman worked with makeup artists to apply a prosthetic
nose to capture Woolf’s peculiar look. But to find Woolf’s genius and inner
torment, Kidman had to rely completely on her own ingenuity. Ms. Kidman, in a performance of astounding bravery, evokes the savage inner
war waged by a brilliant mind against a system of faulty wiring that transmits
a searing, crazy static into her brain.
Daniel Day-Lewis | MY LEFT FOOT & LINCOLN
Daniel Day-Lewis' perfectly modulated and intense roles have made him one
of the finest actors working today. And he often transforms his looks and
persona to play real-life, historical figures. In Jim Sheridan’s
1989 My Left Foot, Day-Lewis plays Christy Brown, a real-life
working-class bloke who suffers from cerebral palsy to such a degree that the
only part of his body he can move is his left foot. Despite such overwhelming
challenges, Brown went on to become a painter of some renown and then later
penned the memoir which would become the basis for this film.And he went on to win his first Best Actor Oscar for the part. 23 years
later, Day-Lewis transformed again to play a historical character, but with a
much larger silhouette. In Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, the great
actor put on a beard, facial makeup and a tinny speech pattern to capture the
look and feel of the great emancipator. Lincoln is only the final triumphant role of a foreign actor who has
come to embody American history, a performer who eases into a role of epic
difficulty as if it were a coat he had been wearing for years. It is both a
curiosity and a marvel of modern cinema that this son of an Anglo-Irish poet
should have become our leading portrayer of archaic Americans. Hawkeye (The Last
of the Mohicans), Bill the Butcher (Gangs of New York), Daniel
Plainview (There Will Be Blood) — all are figures who live in the dim
borderlands of memory and myth, but with his angular frame and craggy features,
Mr. Day-Lewis turns them into flesh and blood. And the role gave Day-Lewis his
third Best Actor Oscar.
Mo’Nique | PRECIOUS
Mo’Nique, perhaps best known for her comedy roles in stand up, on stage and
in sitcoms, didn't seem like the perfect choice to play Mary, the abusive
mother in Lee Daniels’ 2009 drama Precious. But Mo’Nique made the part personal, connecting to her own history of
sexual abuse. Physically, she turned herself inside out to embody the
self-hatred and trauma of the character.The role could have been a caricature of cruelty, but Mo'Nique refuses to play her the easy way. This monster
has her reasons, shocking though they are. There is one word for Mo'Nique:
dynamite. She tears up the screen and then, in a climactic scene with Precious
and Ms. Weiss, tears at your heart.
Hilary Swank | BOYS DON'T CRY
In 1999, a largely unknown actress, Hilary Swank, exploded in Kimberly
Peirce’s Boys Don’t Cry, a small independent film about the
real-life story of Brandon Teena, a trans man who was raped and murdered in
Nebraska in 1993. Swank’s mesmerizing transformation into this real-life person
amazed audiences.As Brandon, Hilary Swank gives a performance that’s a continual revelation.
With his cropped, farmer-boy haircut and a padded tube sock stuffed down his
jeans, Swank’s Brandon passes for a man easily enough. In preparation for the
role, Swank spent time in public dressed as a man, and whether her choices are
intuitive or intentional, they work as a marvelous subterfuge for a character
who’s striving (against the cruelty of nature, unfortunately) for acceptance.
Brandon’s swagger seems to spring straight from his joints. His full lips are
always just a little cracked and chapped (few women willingly allow this to
happen). You don’t actually ever forget that you’re watching a woman – but
that’s exactly the point.
