10 Subtle Instances Of Method Acting You Never Even Knew About

8. Brad Pitt Spent Weeks In An Asylum Whilst Prepping For His Character In Twelve Monkeys

Brad Pitt's performance in Twelve Monkeys marks one of his all-time best - it's also balls to the walls insane, and that's mainly due to the fact that he plays a mental patient confined to an asylum... one filled with an all manner of zany characters, of which he is probably the zaniest. In order to prepare for his turn as the wonderfully batty Jeffrey Goines, though, Pitt took a few weeks out of his schedule to observe the inner workings of a real asylum.

Yes, the actor spent time visiting Temple University's hospital in Philadelphia, observing the psychiatric ward and studying the patients there. Whether or not he managed to channel any of his findings into his performances remains unclear, because Jeffrey is a creation onto himself, but I'm guessing that Pitt found some of the tics and mannerisms associated with his manic performance during this lengthy research period.