6. Robert De Niro - Cape Fear
Robert De Niro is no stranger to going method for his movies - for Taxi Driver he got himself a real taxi driving licence and took to the streets of New York, while for Raging Bull as we've already noted, he famously plied on the pounds to get into the role of boxer Jake LaMotta in another of his incredible collaborations with director Martin Scorsese. For his part as Max Cady in Scorsese's 1991 remake of Cape Fear De Niro seemed to take things to another level. After a long prison sentence for sexual assault, Cady is released back into society where he catches up with his public defender Sam Bowden (played by Nick Nolte) - it doesn't take long before his psychopathic tendencies come to the fore, and the more Cady ingratiates himself into Bowden's family the more his harassment becomes increasingly life-threatening. While Scorsese failed to fully capture the tone of the incredible original, De Niro's performance is predictably towering, and his dedication to the role was more than evident in his willingness to shell out $20,000 in order to have his teeth ground down for the part. Apparently he wanted his character's appearance to reflect the fact that he'd been in prison for so long - presumably wearing a set of fake teeth wasn't good enough, but if you've got that kind of cash to throw around then presumably another 20 grand for corrective dental surgery wouldn't be too hard to come by.