10 Seriously Insane Ways Famous Movie Actors Got Into Character

7. Robert De Niro - Taxi Driver

De-Niro-620x507 De Niro lived and trained with Jake Le Motta for Raging Bull and Le Motta stated that he became so good at boxing that he could probably switch professions. But you probably all know about that one. A much more extreme method of getting into character is actually changing your job to suit the role you were about to play. Taxi Driver is as much about driving a car around New York as The Godfather is about guns - there is much more depth to it than that. But old Bobby became a New York Cabbie none the less, to understand the clientèle that a taxi driver endured he obtained a provisional license and did pick ups for a few weeks. New York in 70's was a very different place to what it is now. Before the Bloomberg clean up, it was widely reported in the 70's to be a much more hostile, dirty and frightening place to be due to rising crime levels and unsafe living conditions, a feeling that Taxi Driver really encapsulates. De Niro could have easily been attacked or robbed as many NYC cabbies were back then, yet by actually partaking in the job he was attempting to replicate, it is a real testament to Robert De Niro's craft as an actor.
 
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Shaun does not enjoy writing about himself in the third person. The rest? I will tell you in another life, when we are both cats...