Role-learning: Method acting

Ben Kingsley had to learn how to smoke convincingly for his role in The Wackness. And Ben isn’t the only actor who has taken method acting seriously. We take a look at some other activities stars have mastered for the sake of their roles.

Horse riding

While his Brokeback Mountain co-star, the late Heath Ledger, already knew how to ride, Jake Gyllenhaal had never even been on a horse before.

One month before filming he did a crash-course in horse riding and sheep wrangling to prepare for the cowboy role.

"I came up a month before we started shooting, for, as we called it ‘cowboy training camp’. Getting on a bull wasn’t too freaky; I trusted the guys to give me a bull that wasn’t too rowdy," he is reported to have said.

Gun-toting

If you hope to make your money being an action heroine it helps to know how to pack a gun – or so Angelina Jolie has discovered.

The actress has apparently undergone extensive firearms training to look genuinely mean in movies such as Mr And Mrs Smith and Tomb Raider.

Swimming

Not only did Ashton Kutcher have to overcome his fear of water for his role in The Guardian but he had to learn how to look like a champion swimmer. From apparently being afraid of taking a bath to being able to swim laps around the competition, during his training he visited a swimming school where, impressed by the physique of the professional swimmers, he opted for a healthy low-fat and high-protein diet in order to bulk out and gave up smoking.

Stripping

Demi Moore famously visited strip clubs all over the United States to prepare for her lead role in 1996 film Striptease. She spent time watching how the dancers moved and talked to them about their lives and work. Demi also toned up with a yoga and healthy eating regime and was able to perform the topless dancing scenes herself. Her hard work paid off as at $12.5million (Dh45.9 million) her fee was the highest for a film actress at that time.

Drumming

24 actor Haaz Sleiman had to learn how to play the drums for his role in the forthcoming Thomas McCarthy film The Visitor.

An intense three-hour session each day for six weeks saw him to a plausible standard where he could pass off as a djembe player in the film.