10 Actors Who Took A Ridiculously Long Time To Prepare For Iconic Roles

8. Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood/Lincoln

Time Spent Preparing: One year Daniel Day-Lewis' level of preparation is, as everyone knows, legendary. He's built a boat and killed his own food for The Last Of The Mohicans, learnt a new language unnecessarily for The Unbearable Lightness Of Being, broken ribs whilst refusing to leave his wheelchair for My Left Foot and almost allowed himself to die of pneumonia for Gangs Of New York. Now taking years in between films, Day-Lewis uses the time to concentrate on the one part. For his Oscar-winning roles in Lincoln and There Will Be Blood, Day-Lewis took a whole 12 months in pre-production to perfect the accent and mannerisms and get into the mindset of the character. For There Will Be Blood, Day-Lewis listened to recordings from the late 19th-early 20th century for the voice and did research on the time period, reading letters and studying photographs. For Lincoln, he grew the hair, invented a voice and, by his own admission, fell "in love" with Abraham Lincoln through his researching the president.