8 Genius Ways Actors Made Sure You Noticed Them In Movies
The Shia LaBeouf school of method acting: slash your own face and yank out a tooth.
Acting is an insanely tough profession. Imagine having to dress up in spandex in front of hundreds of crew members, stand in front of a green screen, and spend your day punching tennis balls on the end of sticks. Now, imagine having to make that look convincing, in a $200 million production that's largely counting on you to sell it.
It's a truly difficult job with a ton of different pressures involved - staying in shape, spending months away from family and friends - and perhaps the biggest of these is the fact that every actor is essentially competing for the spotlight with their co-stars, and risks being overshadowed if they don't at least try and do something special.
As a result, many actors get creative when building up their characters, going to some crazy and ingenious lengths to make their performances immediately noticeable and more standout - and memorable long after the credits have rolled - to us viewers.
Some have strange theories about which side of the screen is best, others insist on doing all sorts of dangerous and insane stunts, and some even physically harm themselves in order to get into character and punch up their performance. This lot is suffering from a severe case of attention-seeking...
8. Benicio Del Toro Adopted A Highly Unusual Voice For The Usual Suspects
In an effort to make the most of his limited screen time in 1995's The Usual Suspects, Benicio del Toro decided to try and make his character pop by giving him a weird accent and speech pattern.
Upon reading the script for Bryan Singer's Oscar-winning mystery, del Toro realized that the ultimate purpose of his character - quirky crook Fred Fenster - was to die, without having a meaningful impact on the story. As a result, he decided to have a bit of fun with the role.
Talking to Singer about just how inconsequential Fenster's actions and dialogue were, the actor asked if he could play around with the character to try and make him more memorable. This led to him deciding to play Fenster as a half-German, half-Chinese oddball, who grew up in Harlem.
The accompanying accent and garbled dialogue were both intentional, with del Toro trying his best to deliver an entertaining character, despite his lack of importance to the story.