His last film “Lincoln” raised many eyebrows when they got to know the meticulous ways in which Daniel Day-Lewis prepared to perfect the role of Abraham Lincoln. However if you know about Day-Lewis, this is not the first instance that he has gone a bit too far to perfect the part he is playing, this is something he has been doing since the beginning of his career during the mid 80s.
Here are 12 such instances from Daniel Day-Lewis’ career when he went too far to perfect the character he played, however, the results were really worth watching:
1988: He learnt the Czech Language for his role in “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”.
1989: During the time he was shooting for “My Left Foot”, he refused to come out of the character of paralysed poet Christy Brown he was playing. He remained on his wheelchair all the time and made the crew to spoon-feed him his food.
1992: He only ate what he killed during the time he was shooting for “Last of the Mohicans”. He learned to track, hunt and skin the animals for that.
1993: During the filming of “Age of Innocence”, he checked into the Plaza Hotel in New York City with the room booked under his character’s name and he walked around New York wearing a hat, a cane and the whole shebang, just like a gentleman in 1870s would wear.
1993: During “In the Name of the Father”, to perfectly portray a Convicted Prisoner, Day-Lewis spent several nights in solitary in confined places in the prison they were shooting in. He had the crew members throw water on him and abuse him to get the Prison experience.
1996: He didn’t wash himself during the shoot of “The Crucible” to match the hygiene standards of the 17th century.
