10 Movies That Forced Actors To Face Their Fears

Due to her career-defining role in '90s sitcom Friends, we don't tend to think of Jennifer Aniston as a dramatic actress.

However, in 2014, she was racking up awards noms all over the place for her work in indie flick Cake, where she plays a woman suffering from chronic pain after surviving a car accident that killed her son. It was a tough role to take on in general, but Aniston found one particular aspect of the shoot far more challenging than the rest.

In a chat with E! News, she described how a select few scenes in which her character undergoes water therapy were incredibly difficult for her to do, all because of a childhood incident that led to her developing a fear of being submerged:

"I was a kid and I was riding this tricycle around a swimming pool, and I drove my tricycle into the swimming pool and I didn't let go, and my brother tried to [help me]. So, I can't go underwater and no one will believe me. I honestly can't."

Aniston's fear was so tricky to overcome that it reportedly took around 30 takes to get a single pool shot done right. In the end though, she received a ton of critical acclaim for her performance - so her bravery paid off.