10 Actors Who Only Gave Great Performances Because They Got Drunk

4. Everyone (Except For John Belushi, Surprisingly) - Animal House

Much like Richard Linklater's Dazed And Confused, Animal House involves lots of young people getting drunk and generally doing things they're probably going to regret later down the line. Director John Landis' bright idea for his film, something of a more overtly comedic precursor to Dazed, was to really bond his Delta Tau Chi actors - none of whom had ever been part of a real fraternity - so as to have them convincingly play brothers of a frat house, and he wanted to do that by letting them party. For 'research', the Delta actors partied together each and every night, and harassed the actors playing the rival Omegas so they could have a convincing animosity on-film. The exploits of the Delta group culminated in them crashing a real frat party and getting into a brawl, and on another occasion stealing a piano from the hotel lobby so they could 'have music' in their room. Only notorious party animal John Belushi missed out on the fun - he spent his time flying back and forth between Oregon and New York during the shoot due to his commitments on Saturday Night Live.
Contributor
Contributor

Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1