Time Spent Preparing: Six years The case of Robert De Niro on Raging Bull is a unique one, because he didn't just spend a huge amount of time preparing to play the part of middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta, he spent years developing the project as a gig for him to star in. De Niro first brought Raging Bull to Martin Scorsese's attention in 1973, while Scorsese was shooting Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, and he continued preparing and taking the story through several writers all the way up to 1979, when the film finally began shooting. In this time, De Niro did the research, practised a Bronx accent and befriended the real Jake LaMotta, who became De Niro's trainer; under LaMotta's guidance, De Niro entered (and won) real fights and became one of the great middleweight boxers, according to LaMotta. De Niro wasn't finished though: in order to play the older, overweight LaMotta, De Niro spent four months in Italy and France eating himself ill while the shoot was temporarily put on hold. De Niro amassed 66 pounds in those four months, after literally years of preparing to play LaMotta at his athletic peak; he basically mirrored the boxer's career. Which other actors took a ridiculously long time to prepare for roles? Let us know in the comments below.
Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1
