CELEBRITY SOUP

Have you ever felt traumatized by an intense movie scene or TV show clip? Have you ever fallen asleep after a horror movie and woken up in terror from nightmares? If watching this content as a viewer is enough to affect us, then one can only imagine how it must affect the actors who portray these demanding roles. It may be easy to forget sometimes, but it’s important for us to remember that celebrities are not puppets for our entertainment. They are living, breathing human beings and many have taken on incredibly difficult roles in the name of acting and suffered traumatic effects as a result.

Lady Gaga in House of Gucci For her role as Patrizia Reggiani in House of Gucci, Lady Gaga claims she stayed in character for nine whole months— sometimes not by choice. Her commitment to the portrayal led Gaga to draw inspiration from her own history of trauma which unfortunately led to the blurring of lines between her own experiences and the character’s. Things were so intense that even Director Ridley Scott was concerned that Gaga was "traumatizing herself." She replied defiantly saying, “I already have. I’ve already been through this anyway. I might as well give it to you." In what is likely the most telling sign of role trauma, Gaga said she had to have a psychiatric nurse on-set with her near the end of filming, saying that it was "safer" for her and that she "brought the darkness with me home because [Patrizia's] life was dark.”

Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter Island Another one of the many ways acting can take a toll on an actor is when having to portray horrific, but historically accurate, real-life situations. Leonardo DiCaprio has been acting since he was 5-years-old, yet he called the filming of the psychological thriller Shutter Island "one of the most intense, hardcore filming experiences I’ve ever had as we explored what the mentally ill had to face in the days when mental hospitals were called insane asylums…I went to places and unearthed some things that I didn’t think I was capable of. It was like an emotional layer cake that just kept getting deeper and deeper.”

Zac Efron in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile It may seem shocking to imagine High School Musical star Zac Efron as a serial killer, but that’s exactly who he portrayed in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. Efron spoke of his role playing Ted Bundy saying he had difficulty separating himself from the role once filming was over each day. In an interview with Daily Mail, Efron expanded on his struggles saying "It was almost impossible. I’d like to say that I did it successfully, but I couldn't." Joaquin Phoenix in Joker In order to play the emaciated Arthur Fleck in the hit film Joker, Joaquin Phoenix had to lose 52 pounds. Phoenix spoke of the experience saying the concentration on his weight caused him to develop disordered thinking. He spoke candidly saying, "Once you reach the target weight, everything changes. Like, so much of what's difficult is waking up every day and being obsessed over like 0.3 pounds. Right? And you really develop, like, a disorder." He continued saying that losing that much weight affected his psychology and he started “to go mad."

Sophie Turner in Game of Thrones Though the Game of Thrones novels were for young adults, the HBO adaptation was decidedly R-rated as it featured tons of nudity, sexual content, and graphic violence. Actress Sophie Turner was just 15 years old when she was cast as Sansa Stark in the hit show. Turner has spoken about the filming of intense scenes—including her character being assaulted—in interviews saying she developed coping mechanisms of having fun between takes so she wouldn't be traumatized. She went on to say, “I’m sure I’ll exhibit some symptoms of trauma down the road. At that age, I don’t think I could comprehend a lot of the scene matter.”

Tom Hanks in Cast Away Sometimes it’s not so much about the trauma of a scene, but rather the isolation. Such was the case for Tom Hanks when he played a man stuck on a deserted island in Cast Away. In one of the most iconic movie moments in history, Hanks’ character gets so desperate for companionship that he names a volleyball "Wilson" and speaks to him. Hanks recently opened up about going crazy by the end of filming saying, "When Wilson was born, I had dialogue with him, and I heard his dialogue in my head. I did go crazy 'cause I never had a day off. I never had a shot off; I was never off camera for anything. It was...the whole movie was like, point and shoot. I don't even recall hearing 'Action' and 'Cut.'"

Michael B. Jordan in Black Panther For Tom Hanks, his intense solitude during filming was not by choice. In contrast, Michael B. Jordan intentionally isolated himself to play the villain Killmonger in Black Panther. His reasoning was for role preparation, but the plan significantly backfired on him when filming wrapped. Jordan spoke of finding it hard to go back to his normal life and readjust to "people caring about me, getting that love that I shut out." He went on to say, "I shut out love, I didn't want love. I wanted to be in this lonely place as long as I could." Fortunately this story has a happy ending and Jordan decided to go to therapy which he said helped immensely as "Everyone needs to unpack and talk.”