Sometimes you have to suffer for your art.
Robert de Niro gained 30 kilos to play Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull, while Daniel Day-Lewis learned how to butcher animals and be racist to Irish people for his role in Gangs of New York. Hell, even Zac Efron pretended to wee on Nicole Kidman in The Paperboy.
For Robert Pattinson, however, there is a line not to be crossed.
In his latest film, Good Time, the Twilight star was faced with a challenge quite unlike any other in his acting career - or many actors', if we're honest.
"There's this one scene we shot where basically a drug dealer bursts in to the room and I was sleeping with the dog and basically giving the dog a hand job" Pattinson told Jimmy Kimmel on his late night show.
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Credit: PA
"He [Pattinson's character] thinks he has control over animals and stuff". He expanded that the character thinks that he was a dog in a previous life and thus feels a strange affinity for the animal.
Robert was obviously reticent, but the directors, Ben and Joseph Safdie, were insistent apparently: "Just do it for real man, don't be a pussy," said one of the pair, while the on set dog trainer told him to 'massage the inside of the thighs'.
In the end, Pattinson did managed to source a fake dog penis - presumably there was a fake dog penis shop nearby - and even more finally, the scene never made it into the final edit of the film.
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Animal charity PETA has since praised the actor for not going through with the alleged request, and is trying to determine if any laws have been broken.
"PETA depends on actors and crew members to come forward when they see mistreatment," a spokesperson said.
"Robert Pattinson is our kind of guy, and everyone's who has a heart, for refusing to masturbate a dog-which is like child molestation-and for talking about it so that the public can see that once again animal trainers' top priority is money and animals' interests and well-being are often ignored."
The film itself is one of the most anticipated of the year. It got a six minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival and Pattinson's performance in particular was singled out for praise.
Credit: PA
Also starring in the film are Jennifer Jason Leigh, who was Oscar nominated for The Hateful Eight, and Barkhad Abdi, who received an Academy Award nomination for his role as a Somalian pirate in Captain Phillips.
The Safdie Brothers, who direct the film, are not particularly famous but are probably best known for Heaven Knows What, an hard-hitting drama about a heroin addict on the streets of New York City.
Good Time will be hitting cinemas in the United States on the August 11, but as of yet there is no release date for the United Kingdom.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: Dog, Robert Pattinson