10 Actors Who Refused To Play Themselves On Screen

Bradley Cooper is just one of many actors who has altered their voice in order to more persuasively get into character, and another great example is Benicio del Toro's unforgettable performance as criminal Fred Fenster in The Usual Suspects.

Fenster's defining characteristic is undeniably his scarcely comprehensible accent, which baffled both the movie's characters and audiences alike.

Though director Bryan Singer's assumption was that del Toro would simply speak in his distinctive Puerto Rican accent, the actor begged Singer to do something different with the role, in turn elevating a character who might've otherwise been pretty forgettable. In del Toro's own words:

"I read the script and I realised that the purpose of the character was that he was the first one to die. So then, every line that he said didn't really affect the plot. So I sat down with Bryan Singer and I said, 'It really doesn't matter what this guys says. And if you allow me to, I think that we should allow me to do something with it.' And he said, 'go ahead.'...I just mumbled it right through. But I say every line - I say every line that was written."

Del Toro later stated that the peculiar accent was an attempt to sound like a "Black Chinese Puerto Rican Jew," and if nothing else it helped him avoid getting typecast as a stereotypical criminal just as his career was beginning to take flight.