8 Method Actors Who Nearly Died Making Famous Movies

2. Dustin Hoffman Gets Drowned For Real For Marathon Man

Marathon Man is legendary for method-influenced insanity. Dustin Hoffman, playing the titular marathon man, took up running, lost 15 pounds, and came into takes where his character had been running by each time performing a half-mile run to get the effect of breathlessness. But the tale most often recounted about the film is the apocryphal story in which Hoffman's co-star Laurence Olivier apparently dismissed Hoffman's staying awake all night to best play a scene, with the line: "Why not try acting? It's much easier." Less widely-reported is the fact that Hoffman insisted he was drowned for real during a scene in which thugs try to drown his character in a bathtub. Several takes were done of the scene, with Hoffman all the while asking to be kept underwater for as long as possible. Hoffman was quoted as saying: "Don't press on my Adam's apple, but try to really hold me under. Let me see how long I can stay under. Let me see if I can fight you. Let me see what happens." When the scene was at last over, Hoffman had to be given oxygen.