8. Tropic Thunder's Kirk Lazarus Makes A Mockery Of A Legendary Method Actor
Who The Character Is: Played by Robert Downey, Jr., Kirk Lazarus is an intense Australian method actor who doesn't come out of character until he's done the DVD commentary. For Tugg Speedman's new war movie, Tropic Thunder, the Caucasian Lazarus takes on the role of the African-American Sergeant Lincoln Osiris, altering the pigmentation of his skin in surgery and adopting an African-American patter as his latest accent. Who He Really Is: Name any extreme method actor and you're probably in the right ball park, but the most obvious source of the Kirk Lazarus mockery is Daniel Day-Lewis (who Downey admitted taking inspiration from, along with Russell Crowe), an actor so committed that he's broken bones, hallucinated and almost died as a result of remaining in character for a project. And Day-Lewis isn't the only one to come in for a skewering in Ben Stiller's Hollywood spoof...