Even behind pounds of makeup, it’s impossible for certain actors to go unnoticed. For others, shape-shifting comes naturally. Here are 15 jaw-dropping onscreen transformations where the actors portrayed real people. 10 of them are shockingly good, and 5 of them are shockingly bad:
1. Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf in The Hours. Kidman’s portrayal of Woolf was so much more than just an iconic prosthetic nose. The transformation started with subtle changes of habit, like training herself to write with her right hand instead of her left and smoking hand-rolled cigarettes. It took about three hours each day on set to complete Kidman’s hair and makeup metamorphosis. The loose waves of her brown wig were pinned back into a bun, cosmetics concealed the natural shape of her eyes, and, of course, the fake nose was tactfully applied to her face.
Her role as Virginia Woolf would win Kidman an Academy Award for Best Actress. Noting on her transformation, Kidman revealed, ”I just [wanted] to find her soul…the machinations of her mind, so it would become mine. So it was my skin and my breath existing in Virginia’s.”
2. Steve Carell as John du Pont in Foxcatcher. Here’s another faux nose that stole the show and shocked the 2014 film circuit. To portray the murderous millionaire John du Pont, Carell wore heavy makeup, cut his hair, and donned lip and nose prosthetics.
Bill Corso and Dennis Liddiard were nominated for an Academy Award in Makeup and Hairstyling for their work on Foxcatcher. Corso described part of his process to The Hollywood Reporter in saying, “I used a prosthetic that covered his eyebrows. Then I put pale, thin eyebrows on him.” This was only just the tip of the iceberg in the multi-faceted makeover that came with making Carell a murderer.
3. Jared Leto as Mark David Chapman in Chapter 27. Leto is no stranger to an extreme character transformation. From losing 30 pounds and waxing off his eyebrows to portray Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club, to piling on the green hair dye as the Joker in Suicide Squad, Leto has altered his appearance to embody a wide array of characters.
For his role in Chapter 27, Leto put on 67 pounds in order to fully emulate the appearance of John Lennon’s assassin. To get the look, Leto consumed microwaved pints of ice cream with soy sauce and olive oil. The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Leto was “mesmeric as the bloated, deranged Chapman. It’s a brilliantly measured performance.”
4. Angela Bassett as Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do With It. Bassett had only 30 days to become an onscreen Tina Turner after landing the role. She told The Hollywood Reporter about the rigorous routine behind her transformation.
Bassett remarked, “I would work out for two hours, dance for 10, and I literally could not sit down to leisurely eat a meal because there was always more work to do, more to learn, more to accomplish, all in a short period of time. It called on my strength, perseverance, patience to go, go, go, go, go.”
5. Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln. There are many things about Day-Lewis that made him an obvious choice to portray Lincoln. From his 6'1 stature (landing just below Lincoln’s 6'4 frame), to his wiry beard, Day-Lewis is practically the spitting image of the 16th president.
Revealing more about the transformation, director Steven Spielberg confided, "That was his hair, his beard, he had very light makeup on his face. And we added the mole, of course." It was through intense study of his speech patterns and personal history that Day-Lewis truly embodied the presence of Abraham Lincoln.
6. Matthew McConaughey as Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club. McConaughey was known for “chewing ice” to lose weight throughout his transformation into the AIDS patient and advocate for the AIDS community, Ron Woodroof. He worked with a nutritionist to rapidly shed weight over four months.
7. Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull. De Niro regards his role as LaMotta as the hardest part he’s ever had to play. To fill the gloves of the middleweight boxing champion, De Niro put on 60 pounds.
De Niro reflected, “It's kind of fun for the first 10, 12, 15, pounds, and [then] it's drudgery.” To kick his transformation into overdrive, De Niro trained with LaMotta himself to learn the craft of boxing. His efforts paid off when he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1980 for his role in Raging Bull.
8. Charlize Theron as Aileen Wuornos in Monster. To capture the appearance of Wuornos, Theron gained 30 pounds, shaved her eyebrows off, and popped in a set of prosthetic, crooked teeth. Her costar, Christina Ricci, admitted, “There’s not enough fat or prosthetics in the world to hide a bad performance, and she is incredible in the movie.” Theron received the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as the famous serial killer.
9. Christian Bale as Dick Cheney in Vice. Transformations are a cornerstone facet of Bale’s work. Whether he’s surviving off a diet of apples, tuna, and black coffee to portray an insomniac in The Machinist, or he’s putting on weight with a “pie diet” to prepare for his role in American Hustle, Bale is known for pushing his body to the limit.
Of his many extreme transformations, his performance as Dick Cheney is one of the best. To match the appearance of the former vice president, Bale gained 40 pounds, shaved his head, and bleached his eyebrows.
10. Paul Anthony Kelly as John F. Kennedy Jr. in Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette. Kelly’s transformation into JFK Jr. had the internet in a chokehold. With only three weeks to prepare for the role, Kelly worked with a dialect coach, listened to an audiobook narrated by JFK Jr., and obsessively consumed interview clips of the former president. To fully embody his character, Kelly learned to lead with his left hand rather than his right.
Revealing more on his transformation, Kelly told Entertainment Weekly, “I’d never had that experience of breathing life into an idea; I just wanted him to be a regular guy."
Now we've covered the impressive transformations, let's get to the ones that...maybe weren't so great:
11. Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover in J. Edgar. As alexjanes put it on Reddit, “Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover? That was so fucking jarring.” In his portrayal of Hoover, DiCaprio appears caked in makeup with a chiseled, receding hairline.
The theatrics of his costume completely overshadow the performance itself. Rolling Stone wrote, “Leonardo DiCaprio aches to explore the psychoanalytical oddities of Hoover, only to have 18 pounds of makeup bury his ambition.”
12. Meg Ryan as Jackie Kallen in Against the Ropes. Ryan took on the role of boxing manager Jackie Kallen and…let’s just say the bangs weren’t banging. Ryan didn’t even have the same haircut as Kallen when she stepped into the ring to portray her.
13. Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs in Jobs. There’s no denying that Kutcher and Jobs look alike, but unfortunately, Kutcher is one of the most recognizable actors ever. His portrayal of a 1970s Steve Jobs was doomed from the start. When Kutcher appeared as Jobs in a collared ‘70s shirt, everyone was thinking the same thing. Glamour Magazine put it best in saying, “He looks exactly like Kelso, his character on That '70s Show.”
14. Tim McGraw and Lily Collins as Sean and Collins Tuohy in The Blind Side. Casting McGraw and Collins as Tuohy family members was one of the most random casting decisions ever made. With hardly any resemblance between them apart from their whiteness, it’s much less of a transformation and much more of a Hollywoodization.
15. Naomi Watts as Princess Diana in Diana. Despite looking the part, Watts’s performance as Princess Diana was widely critiqued. The Guardian wrote, “Watts’s elaborate impression has…the doe-eyed gaze of seduction and reproach [...] she looks like she’s in a two-hour Spitting Image sketch.” Transformations aren’t only what meets the eye.
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