10 Method Actors Who Might Actually Be Insane

5. Hilary Swank

Hilary Swank is a brilliant actress, and given her steely work on films like Million Dollar Baby, it's little surprise that she's invested in the Method, having used it multiple times to get into the visceral mindset of her characters. Most notably did she appropriate it in Boys Don't Cry, for which she ended up winning the Academy Award for Best Actress. The role of Brandon Teena, a female-to-male transsexual, had been auditioned for by hundreds of actresses during the several-year period to get the controversial film off the ground, and it was only when Swank auditioned anonymously, pretending to be a girl from Nebraska, that director Kimberley Peirce felt she had found her Brandon. Granted, the ruse didn't last long, but long enough to convince Peirce that she was the actress for the role. As for the role itself, Swank reportedly lived as Brandon for a month prior to filming, going out in public and essentially attempting to "blend in" to society. Going by the praise lavished on her, it seemed to work.
 
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Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.