10 Actors Who Made Insane Sacrifices For Movies (And Why)
1. Debbie Reynolds Danced Until Her Feet Bled...To Prove Gene Kelly Wrong - Singin' In The Rain
The Sacrifice
And finally, an oldie but a goodie, with Debbie Reynolds' star-making performance in the legendary 1952 musical Singin' in the Rain.
Reynolds famously commented that "Singin' in the Rain and childbirth were the two hardest things [she] ever had to do in [her] life", with the infamous 15-hour shoot for the "Good Morning" song-and-dance routine leaving Reynolds' feet a bloody mess.
Why They Did It
But in addition to Reynolds being a young, on-the-rise actress who didn't want to complain, she had one very specific motivation for putting herself through such punishment: director and co-star Gene Kelly was an historic a**hole to her during the film's production, and she wouldn't allow herself to prove him right.
You see, Reynolds wasn't a trained dancer prior to shooting the film, unlike Kelly, who clearly disdained this fact and verbally abused Reynolds as a result, to the extent of making her cry.
But when it came to shooting Good Morning, she threw herself into it as aggressively as anyone has ever done anything, the results of which were clearly both bloody and brilliant (bloody brilliant, even).
Reflecting on the scene and her animosity with Kelly many decades later, the late actress said, "I didn’t feel you could fail. I felt [the part] was me, and I marched straight ahead." Damn straight.