10 Actors Who Prepared Totally WRONG For A Role

10. Ian McKellen Learned The Wrong Accent - The Keep

Ian McKellen is about as much of a pro as actors get - a venerable gem of the old guard who's never phoned in a performance. Not even once. Probably.

But in a recent interview with Variety, he revealed that a "miscommunication" between himself and director Michael Mann on 1983's cult horror film The Keep led to him learning the wrong accent for the part.

According to McKellen, Mann told him to develop a Romanian accent to play the role of Jewish history professor Dr. Theodore Cuza, prompting McKellen to characteristically whole-ass the job by visiting Romanian and getting first-hand experience to learn the accent.

But when the actor finally made it to set for the first day of shooting, Mann told him to instead play Cuza with a Chicago accent, which caused friction between the two.

McKellen wasn't prepared to play the part with a twang from the Windy City, and so basically opted for a broader "generic American" accent.

Combined with the hours he had to spend in the makeup chair each day in order to appear older, McKellen called The Keep his worst moviemaking experience.