If you thought Cillian Murphy's turn as head honcho Thomas Shelby in Peaky Blinders was convincing, it's because he takes a lot of inspiration from the travellers that he lived with before starting to film the show.
That's right, Cillian once went to Birmingham to live with travellers.
He told Entertainment: "Steve Knight, the creator of the show, took me to Birmingham, where he's from, to meet his buddies so I could record their accents. I spent time with Romany gypsies. I learnt about extreme poverty."
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Back to the characters in the show and in general, he said:
"A revolution was taking place in the city. At the same time, these young men were returning from the war (WWI), damaged. They were spat back into society and expected somehow to get on with their lives."
The original trailer for the first season. Credit: BBC
Living with Romany gypsies is dedication to his role. I wonder what that was like?
But Cillian isn't the only actor who has gone above and beyond when it comes to preparing for an acting part. Some of the things thespians do to make their performances more realistic is extreme - to say the least.
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Dedication to the role...
In the early 1990s, Halle Berry admitted to not washing for four weeks because she wanted to embody her role as a crack addict in Jungle Fever. That's right, she gave up showers and baths. She obviously really wanted the role; she even visited a crack den with a police officer as her escort.
When Daniel Day Lewis played Lincoln, he looked the spitting image - but he went full method. According to actress Sally Field, she has never met Daniel Day Lewis not out of character - he even used to text while pretending to be President Lincoln - and she would have to text back using 19th century words.
Credit: 20th Century Fox
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For his role in Rabbit Hole where his character loses a child, Aaron Eckhart went to support groups and actually told people grieving that he had lost a child too. He said he lost it and it felt real - in real life the actor has no kids. Pretty ridiculous, really.
Still not as extreme as Adrien Brody. To prepare for The Pianist - an epic and hugely sad and inspiring film about a pianist who survives the Holocaust, Adrien decided to get rid of everything he had to feel the sense of loss that his character did. He gave up his fancy car, his cell phone, his apartment, and his luxurious lifestyle.
Credit: Studio Canal
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Words Laura Hamilton
Featured Image Credit: BBCTopics: Peaky Blinders, Cillian Murphy