10 Secret Acting Methods You Never Knew

4. John Barrymore Hid Cue Cards Around Set To Act While Drunk

John Barrymore is a legendary actor across the stage and screen, noted for his contributions to both the silent film era and the advent of talkies, especially his 1930s films Grand Hotel (winner of the Best Picture Oscar), Twentieth Century, and Midnight.

In addition to his acting talents, Barrymore was also famously hobbled by alcohol addiction throughout his life, and by the 1930s it had begun to impact his screen work. But Barrymore had a novel solution.

While filming William Wyler's 1933 film Counsellor at Law, Barrymore was so pickled that he couldn't remember any of his lines, resulting in 25 flubbed takes and the actor resorting to having cue cards strategically placed around the set for him to read from.

Despite the obvious potential for this to impact his performance, Barrymore's work on the film was widely praised, with legendary film critic Pauline Kael even calling it, "one of the few screen roles that reveal his measure as an actor."

Though in the years before his 1942 death Barrymore increasingly parodied himself on screen by playing drunken buffoons, this was certainly an inspired way to keep doing serious work while battling his demons.