8 Method Actors Who Nearly Died Making Famous Movies

1. Daniel Day-Lewis Is Prepared To Die Of Pneumonia For Gangs of New York

Not content with living a whole reckless month in the wilderness for Last of the Mohicans as his character Nathaniel Hawkeye (said director Michael Mann: "If he didn't shoot it, he didn't eat it"), breaking a couple of ribs for My Left Foot or taking up boxing for a year and a half for The Boxer, Daniel Day-Lewis went next level for Gangs of New York and made it evident he was quite literally prepared to die for his art. In Martin Scorsese's period gangland epic, Daniel Day-Lewis plays the monstrous Bill the Butcher, a vile bigot with a taste for meat and the likeness of an American eagle etched into his glass eye (installed because he cut the original eye out due to shame, obviously. Day-Lewis didn't cut his own eye out for the part, for the record). To play Bill the Butcher, Day-Lewis went to his usual extremes - mastering the character's profession, retaining the accent at all times and wearing period-appropriate clothing on and off-set. And therein lies the problem: Spending his time in clothing fit for the mid-1800s, Day-Lewis eventually caught pneumonia. When people on the production told Day-Lewis he needed to wear a warmer coat and accept modern medicine in order to survive, he refused, saying that it was not in keeping with the period; he then presumably went off to sharpen his knives and frighten co-star Leonardo DiCaprio some more. Day-Lewis did eventually accept medical treatment. And thank God he did, otherwise two more Oscar winning-performances and the line "I drink your milkshake!" wouldn't be with us today.