Sometimes, a role demands a little more from an actor than just learning lines and embracing the character.
From Kate Winslet’s world-record feat to the quest that had Angelina Jolie in tears, stars often find themselves mastering new skills or stepping out of their comfort zones to pull off a role.
Keep reading for a list of stars who took up new skills for projects.
Angelina Jolie learned to sing opera for ‘Maria’
It’d be tough to play a legendary opera singer without singing yourself, which is exactly why Angelina Jolie conquered her fear of singing in public in order to portray Maria Callas.
In the film, Jolie’s vocals are mixed with original recordings of Callas’ performances and it was the first time she’d ever sung on camera.
“When I tried to get her to sing, she started to cry,” her vocal coach Eric Vetro recalled of their first meeting.
Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas. (AP)
Despite her discomfort, Jolie appreciated the challenge.
”I admire people that take a big swing, even if they fall … if I see somebody being emotionally brave or creatively brave, I root for them. I don’t judge them,” she told the Los Angeles Times.
Margot Robbie learned to ice skate for ‘I, Tonya’
Ice skating is an unlikely hobby for a Gold Coast native, but Margot Robbie spent months training to perform the basic skating choreography needed to play figure skater Tonya Harding.
A far cry from the GC hinterland.
Skating doubles helped with the more complicated stuff, but Robbie worked with skating choreographer Sarah Kawahara for three months ahead of filming to learn skills necessary to pull off the role.
“I was honestly terrified that I wouldn’t be able to pull it off,” Robbie told The Hollywood Reporter. “We were just a few weeks from shooting, and I was still struggling to find my outside edges. I just thought I was never going to get them, and then, one day, it just clicked.”
Will Smith learned to solve the Rubik’s Cube for ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’
Will Smith’s character Chris Gardner solves a Rubik’s Cube to impress a potential employer in The Pursuit of Happyness – and no, that wasn’t done by a double!
How?! (Sony Pictures)
Smith learned to do it in real life from an expert, World Cube Association co-founder Tyson Mao.
“After 10 hours, Will Smith was able to solve the Rubik’s Cube on his own, without anything. Not only learning the process, but committing it to memory,” Mao told the Chicago Tribune.
Ryan Gosling learned piano for ‘La La Land’
Sceptics could not believe Ryan Gosling managed to be play a jazz pianist so convincingly in Oscar-nominated La La Land without a hand double, but behind-the-scene proof said otherwise!
This Ken’s job is piano. (La La Land)
Gosling is very musical and can sing, but he’d had very little piano experience before meeting with teacher Liz Kinnon.
In just three months, she’d transformed him into a player so good that the film’s planned stand-in player wasn’t needed at all.
”It was really one of the most fulfilling preproduction periods I’ve ever had,” Gosling reflected to Woman & Home magazine.
READ MORE: 10 iconic TV and movie roles your favourite actors missed out on or blew all together
Kate Winslet learned to hold her breath underwater for ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’
Kate Winslet isn’t just an Oscar winner and one of the greatest actors of all time… she’s also a world-recorder holder too.
Winslet had intense freediving training for her role in Avatar: The Way of Water in order to look comfortable while filming long scenes underwater.
Kate Winslet, world-record holder. (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images f)
Winslet went above and beyond, clocking in a breath-hold of 7 minutes, 15 seconds on set, beating Tom Cruise’s previous record of 6 minutes on set of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. She even has the Guinness World Records stamp of approval!
“I have the video of me surfacing saying, ‘Am I dead, have I died?’ And then going, ‘What was [my time]?'” she told Total Film. “Straight away I wanted to know my time. And I couldn’t believe it!”
Jennifer Lawrence learned to shoot an arrow for ‘The Hunger Games’
What is Katniss Everdeen without her bow and arrow?
Katniss made archery so cool that women’s participation in the sport skyrocketed after The Hunger Games. (Lionsgate )
Jennifer Lawrence learned to master Katniss’ talent thanks to specialist training from Olympic archer Khatuna Lorig.
“I really, really enjoyed archery,” Lawrence told NPR in 2015.
“I had an amazing instructor, Khatuna. She was Georgian. She was an excellent instructor … It totally changed my body. It was so crazy, when I went back for the fitting for the second movie for Catching Fire, my shoulders were 2 inches broader and my right arm is 1 inch longer than my left arm, permanently, I guess. But I really enjoy it.”
John Krasinski learned American Sign Language for ‘A Quiet Place’
Millicent Simmonds plays the deaf daughter of John Krasinski and Emily Blunt in A Quiet Place and is also deaf in real life.
Krasinski pushed for the hiring of a deaf actor and on set, Simmonds guided him and the rest of the cast as they also learned the language.
READ MORE: Shocking truth behind 11 major TV and movie roles that were recast with new actors
For Krasinski, having a deaf actor play a deaf character was a non-negotiable. (Paramount Pictures)
“There’s no better teacher for ASL than Millie because she was so kind, so gentle and when we were doing a horrible job she was like, ‘that’s okay, it’s actually more like this,’ ” Krasinski told The Lantern.
Tom Cruise learned to fly helicopters for ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’
Tom Cruise famously likes to do everything himself. Well, everything he’s allowed to do (no, he was not allowed to fly the Navy planes in Top Gun: Maverick).
He’s skilled in advanced stunt work, martial arts and combat, is a certified pilot and can hold his breath underwater for minutes.
Ahead of 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout, there was another skill he wanted to add to his repertoire: flying a helicopter.
After hanging off the side of it, of course. (Paramount Pictures)
Cruise took on intensive training for three months at Airbus’ helicopter school to master a very dangerous corkscrew dive stunt for the film, which naturally he did all himself.
Bryan Cranston learned to roller skate for ‘Malcolm in the Middle’
The aptly named ‘Rollerskates’ is one of Malcolm in the Middle’s funniest episodes.
Bryan Cranston’s Hal performs elaborate roller skate routines to songs like ‘Funky Town’ and ‘We Are The Champions’ as he tries to teach Malcolm to skate and to pull off that TV gold, Cranston spent hours upon hours learning himself.
Iconic. (Fox)
“I did most of it. There were just two parts I didn’t do, which is when I left my feet,” Cranston said in an interview with IFC.
“There was a cartwheel and a handstand, which I did not do, but everything else I did. It was fun we had a week and a half to learn the routine and start skating. It’s fantastic what you can do with practice.”
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Scarlett Johansson learned martial arts for ‘The Avengers’
Scarlett Johansson wasn’t even a gym goer when she signed on to play Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but she’s certainly come a long way!
Johansson trained in martial arts like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, wrestling, boxing and MMA to be able to pull off as many of her own stunts and fight scenes as possible.
And there were A LOT of stunts. (Disney)
In 2023 while looking back on more than a decade of playing the character, Johansson reflected on how far she’d come.
“I was 24. It changed my life in a lot of ways, but it changed my whole outlook on exercise,” she said on The Skinny Confidential podcast.
“I am stronger and more capable now than I was 10 years ago, which is so awesome to be able to say.”
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