10 Insane Skills Actors Learned For Movie Roles

9. Sigourney Weaver Learned How To Communicate With Gorillas (Gorillas In The Mist)

The Walk
Universal Pictures

Sigourney Weaver is most famous for sci-fi blockbuster fare like Alien, Ghostbusters, and Avatar, but away from all that fantastical stuff, she made a grounded and touching little movie called Gorillas In The Mist in 1988, which was a difficult project to shoot.

The film centres around a mountain gorilla expert called Dian Fossey (Weaver), a character who the filmmakers strove to portray as authentically as possible.

This meant working with actual gorillas, and on top of that, it also meant getting Weaver in shots with them, which forced the actress to learn how to communicate with these gorillas, mainly so they would feel comfortable around her.

And so, that's just what Weaver did. According to The New York Times, she learned various body gestures and "the rolling belches of ape-speak", in an effort to capture the real-life Fossey's intimate bond with her gorilla friends.

In the end, Weaver's hard work paid off: she became comfortable around the gorillas and they became comfortable around her, and her performance was so effective that it was even nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress.

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WhoCulture Channel Manager/Doctor Who Editor at WhatCulture. Can confirm that bow ties are cool.