10 Insane Skills Actors Learned For Movie Roles

8. Joseph Gordon-Levitt Learned How To Walk A Tightrope (The Walk)

The Walk
Sony Pictures

Biographical drama The Walk tells the true story of French daredevil Philippe Petit's high-wire walk between the Twin Towers in 1974.

Fortunately for star-man Joseph Gordon-Levitt, he wasn't actually sent 400 metres up in the air and asked to walk along a tightrope, but even though the height element of this stunt was faked using digital effects, the balancing part was 100% real.

In the run-up to the movie, Gordon-Levitt worked with the man himself, Philippe Petit, who trained him how to walk along a wire. Petit set up a workshop so that he had plenty of one-on-one time with the actor, and unbelievably, it took just eight days for Gordon-Levitt to learn how to walk the wire all by himself.

In addition, Petit also taught Gordon-Levitt some magic tricks - as well as how to juggle - but those skills aren't quite as impressive as being able to retain perfect balance while tiptoeing across a narrow cable.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!