40+ Amazing Skills Actors Learned for a Movie Role

Elliot Page, the star of Juno, is a well-rounded person. He’s not just an actor but also a musician (he plays the guitar and piano), dancer, painter, and writer.

But his latest hobby is juggling. The Juno star takes his juggling skills seriously; he must’ve been throwing everything he could up in the air whenever he had free time during filming because he mastered the art! On one episode of Conan, the actor put those skills to the test with no warning. He started juggling with random fruit without even a hint that he was about to begin!

Kate plays a “water person” in the highly anticipated Avatar sequel. The longest she could hold her breath was seven minutes and 14 seconds while performing underwater scenes without using a breathing apparatus such as a scuba mask.

To prepare, Winslet trained with a coach who taught her how to hold her breath using yoga techniques. She also learned how to swim upside down, which required hours of practice each day.

As if jumping from one moving helicopter to another in Mission Impossible: Fallout wasn’t hard enough, Tom Cruise learned how to fly a helicopter before filming started. Cruise earned his pilot’s license and helicopter training before stepping onto the set.

He must’ve really wanted that adrenaline rush! What can you learn from Tom Cruise? Think outside of your comfort zone. Do something you wouldn’t normally do, or don’t feel comfortable doing, to challenge yourself and grow as an individual. You never know what might lurk behind a closed door until you open it!

Actor Taron Egerton learned to play the piano for the role of Elton John in Rocketman. Director Dexter Fletcher said that it was only three months before production started when he realized he needed someone who could sing and play the piano, and that’s when he called Egerton.

The actor spent eight hours a day on pre-production, including two hours of rehearsal. It was worth the effort, as Taron Egerton gave an excellent performance.

Nicolas Cage’s role in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin required him to learn how to play the mandolin. Cage may have been an accomplished actor, but he’d never picked up a mandolin. He said that growing up; he would never have considered playing the mandolin.

Cage took guitar lessons from Paul Englishby, the instructor who taught Hugh Grant guitar for the talent show scene in About a Boy. Once on set, he practiced four hours every day, and by the time they finished shooting, Cage had become proficient at playing the mandolin.

Reese Witherspoon learned to play the autoharp for the Walk the Line soundtrack. She practiced day and night, often playing on set. She would start at 11 a.m. and not stop until 7 p.m.

Witherspoon consulted with Catherine O’Hara’s autoharp instructor for her Oscar-winning performance and went on to collaborate with O’Hara on a biopic soundtrack. But before she had even finished filming Walk the Line, she performed the song “Walk the Line” on stage during an Emmy Awards broadcast.

Jason Momoa was one of the actors who learned Dothraki for his role in Game of Thrones. His motivation was that learning the language made him feel like Khal Drogo.

Throughout the seasons, Jason Momoa learned enough to speak fluently. He now speaks fluent Dothraki, which he can understand without any assistance.

Chadwick Boseman won the hearts of moviegoers everywhere in 2016’s Black Panther, but Chadwick is no novice to the world of acting. He learned to play one of his character’s most impressive instruments—the trumpet—all by himself! Boseman took up the trumpet as part of his preparation to portray a troubled musician in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

Chadwick’s co-star Glynn Turman recalls hearing the star practicing the trumpet, even in the hotel room, to master it ahead of filming. Glynn says that Chadwick’s commitment encouraged the other cast members to be just as dedicated.

Gosling learned to make furniture like his The Notebook character Noah—an expert furniture maker. The actor has a history of going the extra mile for his roles. For example, he studied jazz piano for La La Land.

The exciting bit is that he apprenticed with a cabinetmaker to prepare for the role of Noah Calhoun in The Notebook. There’s even furniture featured in the movie that he built!

Natalie Portman spent eight hours a day learning to dance ballet for her role in Black Swan. She had to learn to be graceful and elegant in her movements in order to captivate audiences as she became an enchanted ballerina in Black Swan.

She practiced eight hours a day, six days a week, to achieve the correct character portrayal. She learned about classical ballet to prepare for her role as a ballerina. In addition to studying ballet techniques such as plies and tendus, Natalie Portman also worked with the movie’s choreographer, who helped her develop her unique style of dancing.

Robbie signed up to take ice skating lessons from ice skating choreographer Sarah Kawahara, who became her mentor. Margot wanted to get it right and she had fun doing it! For Robbie, learning to skate was one of her many sacrifices to portray Harding on screen in the movie I, Tonya.

While some of the more complicated shots were done by a stunt double, Margot was able to re-enact Tonya’s 1994 Olympic free skate routine in the film – which is no small feat.

It was impressive when the young Robert De Niro dedicated himself to preparing for his part as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. The actor got himself a cab license and began working 12-hour shifts driving a taxi in New York City. By driving around the city at night, De Niro could get into the mindset of his character, which blurred the lines between reality and fiction.

When making Taxi Driver, it’s said that some of the scenes were filmed by hidden cameras in cabs De Niro drove. He has described how he would wear dark glasses so that passengers wouldn’t recognize him and they’d talk about their personal lives with him.

In Sophie’s Choice, actress Meryl Streep played a Polish immigrant withholding a dark secret. To obtain the role, Streep was desperate and begged the director to allow her to play the part. Once Streep had gotten to the job, she worried about messing up her character’s Polish accent.

Initially, Meryl Streep just learned Polish. Later, as the project required her to speak German, she also learned German. So Streep’s character could speak German with a Polish accent. When asked why she would go so far as to do this, Meryl Streep responded that she likes to work hard.

The Pianist star Adrien Brody learned classical piano to help him play acclaimed pianist Władysław Szpilman in Roman Polanski’s 2002 film. The movie won three Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Brody claims that he had never touched a piano before filming began. He didn’t know how to read music or anything like that, but he felt he needed to learn it. He was extremely nervous about that first scene in which he had to play on camera without miming.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt learned how to tightrope walk for his role as Philippe Petit in The Walk. He trained daily on the wire to get his body used to the balancing act. His work definitely showed in the finished product!

Gordon-Levitt had been practicing with an instructor on a wire for months before shooting started and continued practicing after filming began so that he’d be as good as possible. Viewers could see how much work went into doing those stunts!

Bradley Cooper’s transformation into country-music star Jackson Maine for A Star Is Born was one of his most significant acting achievements to date. Cooper delivered an incredible performance in which he taught himself to sing and learned how to speak with an authentic Texas/California hybrid accent so that he could sound like Sam Elliott.

He also learned guitar and piano playing, as well as choreography, while performing his stunts. He indeed committed himself to his role! Director Bradley Cooper described the movie set as a summer camp where actors worked hard but also had fun.

Russell Crowe learned how to sail a ship for Master and Commander: The Far Side of World. He also studied violin for his role as Jack Aubrey in the movie. It was challenging to learn the violin, but he worked hard at it.

During one-on-one tutorials with Captain Andy Reay-Ellers, Russell learned how to sail and did technical reading to gain insight into an 18th-century sailor’s world.

Keira Knightley, who plays the role of Greta in Begin Again, had to play the guitar for her role. She admitted that it was difficult initially, but she practiced and learned how to play it.

Her hard work paid off because she gave an excellent performance in the movie. It wasn’t just her acting skills that impressed audiences but critics praised her musical performances too! She can now play some songs on the guitar by herself.

Jesse Eisenberg played one of the four horsemen in Now You See Me. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance. Jesse learned how to do close-up magic for the role.

Close-up magic is simply performing close to the audience, usually involving their everyday objects. He practiced with some of the best magicians in New York City and didn’t give up until he perfected the art.

In The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Mara plays computer hacker Lisbeth Salander. Mara spent hours poring over computer manuals to learn the basics of hacking to prepare for the role. She started reading up on some of the different hacking methods and learning all she could see about that world so that when she entered the set, she’d feel comfortable with it.

She knew how hackers hack, what they look like, how they act, and even the slang they use. That way, she could be convincing in front of the camera while pretending to be someone who knows everything about computer hacking.

The actor Matt Damon has been in many movies, but one of his most memorable roles is in The Informant. He had to learn how to be a used car salesman to play this role.

The actors’ performance in this film earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical. He also got nominations for several other awards, including Academy Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

When Channing was cast in the Coen brothers’ film Hail, Ceaser! set in Hollywood in the 1950s, they assumed that he could dance, given his experience in Step Up and Magic Mike. But he needed to learn how to tap dance.

After practicing over the holiday season, Channing found himself prepared for a terrific dance performance for a six-minute sequence in the film. His dedication to portraying the character realistically made him master tap dancing, an area he had no previous experience in.

Actor, director, and producer Jon Favreau learned to cook professionally before taking on his role in Chef. He worked with Chef Roy Choi to perfect some of his best-known dishes.

He listened to music that inspired him during cooking sessions in order to get into character. Watching his performance in Chef, it’s clear that Favreau is passionate about food. His commitment to learning new skills helped make it a memorable movie experience for audiences.

Dennis Jarvis taught Keanu how to surf for the movie Point Break and spent about two months getting him film-ready. In the end, Keanu enjoyed it so much that Dennis made him a surfboard he could use whenever he felt like surfing.

This is an example of an actor learning a new skill and becoming extremely good at it over time.

The Revenant is set in the harsh North and South Dakota outback in the early 1800s. Leo’s character speaks the language of the Arikara people often in the film.

A native cultural consultant helped Leo and the rest of the cast master this critically endangered dialect. It was challenging to learn, but Leonardo DiCaprio says it was one of his favorite parts of making The Revenant.

Mahershala Ali trained at the piano with Kris Bowers, the film’s score composer, for three months before playing Don Shirley (to Oscar-winning effect).

Green Book was praised as one of 2018’s best films. When Ali joined the film, he didn’t even know how to play the piano. So Ali practiced for close to four hours a day, perfecting the trade to play his character convincingly.

Before he was Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. learned to play the violin as part of his preparation to play Chaplin in 1992’s Chaplin. Among many exciting characteristics of the silent film legend, Charlie Chaplin, was that he played the violin almost everywhere he went.

To accurately portray the actor, Downey Jr. played the violin left-handed. Richard Attenborough directed the 1992 film, which earned three Oscar nominations, including one for its leading man.

Playing the guitar is just one of many skills Joaquin Phoenix had to learn for his role in Walk the Line. He also learned how to play the piano and sing.

And as a bonus, he says that learning these new skills helped him develop character by forcing him to be more focused and disciplined. Plus, playing music became part of his daily routine when preparing for scenes.

Rachel Weisz learned to play the piano in The Brothers Bloom. Weisz used her piano to practice, but her fingers were so sore by night that she couldn’t play much.

She also had to wear a thumb guard, and each day of filming would make it harder and harder to move the next day. But Weisz never gave up. Eventually, she perfected playing piano while filming The Brothers Bloom.

Actress Sigourney Weaver found that in order to convincingly play the role of Dr. Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist, she had to learn a new skill: communicating with gorillas. When you watch Gorillas in the Mist, you’ll see just how effectively Weaver masters her adopted gorilla-communication skills.

If you ever watched an animal documentary and thought, “How do they know what they’re saying?” it’s because someone like Weaver took lessons in primate communication. She also underwent extensive physical training to prepare for life in Rwanda, filming gorillas. There were no stunt doubles involved in those scenes – only Weaver. Now, that’s dedication to a craft!

Michelle Pfeiffer learned how to use a whip as part of her training to play Catwoman in 1992’s Batman Returns. She did it by practicing with a long, thick rope on top of a high platform until she got it just right. Just imagine having that kind of determination!

You can do anything if you put your mind to it! Michelle’s whip skills grew substantially while she was on the set. She ended up doing all her whip work and even pulled off a few moves she came up with on the spot!

To get some firsthand knowledge in playing a farmer for the 2017 thriller Dark River, the leading actress, Ruth Wilson, became a farmer. And as is typically the case, it was a challenging task.

While working for about a month on a farm in Yorkshire, Wilson learned different skills that, when applied to her character, made her feel more like herself. She sheared sheep and clipped hooves. She also learned how to drive tractors and use milking machines, which was particularly useful since much of Dark River was set on a farm.

Christopher Nolan likes to do everything authentically (if possible) rather than through CGI, so his actors had to learn to move in reverse to shoot Tenet as realistically as possible. According to Washington, he had to unlearn how he usually moved, including blinking, walking, talking, and running, as a result of wrestling with his instincts and the movement of his body.

Looking at the amount of hard work put in by John David Washington, it’s easy to be impressed by the dedication and commitment of the director and the actor to achieve perfection in the movie.

Craig had to learn how to sail for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, so he took lessons with champion sailor Percy Cerutty. Craig was initially intimidated by the challenge but eventually became proficient in sailing. He always wanted to be able to sail because it looked like an adventure, and to him, it seemed very meditative and peaceful.

However, he didn’t know how difficult it’d be. Craig learned from one of the best sailors in the world that it takes much more than muscle power to sail a boat. He’s now an expert and gives tips like the need for timing and balance, knowledge of wind direction and speed, when it’s safe to tack or jibe, and what angle your sails should be at, based on the direction the wind is coming from.

Foster learned how to fly a plane in her early twenties. In the movie Flightplan, Foster’s character is an experienced pilot who goes missing. She underwent intense physical training and spent time with aircraft pilots at the Los Angeles International Airport.

The experience taught her that flying wasn’t as difficult as it looked. Foster said you don’t have to be much of a contortionist or gymnast to fly an airplane – you just need your brain.

In Mandella: Long Walk to Freedom, Idris Elba had to speak with a distinctly South African accent that many Americans wouldn’t recognize.

Elba had to learn a second (fictional) accent from scratch to play the iconic role convincingly. He practiced daily and worked with dialect coach Richard Turner, who taught him how to speak like a South African.

Brad Pitt learned to speak in an Irish accent for his role as Mickey in Snatch, and now we all want to learn how to talk like him. He’s known for his unique accent and even had to practice speaking with it before an interview. Brad Pitt perfected his Irish accent and could easily slip in and out of it during interviews.

The actor said he studied with Irish-born director John Boorman and rehearsed with two Irish actors in Los Angeles for over four weeks before he went on camera. To nail down his Irish accent, which was crucial for Snatch since it was a significant part of who Mickey was, Brad took lessons from a dialect coach who told him that no amount of coaching would make up for what he needed: immersion in Ireland itself.

A meticulous actor, Christian Bale learned how to play the drums for a single scene in 2015’s The Big Short. According to Bale, he went through a two-week crash course.

Bale’s character in the movie, Michael Burry, is a former neurologist and one of three central characters who predicts and takes advantage of an impending housing market collapse to make millions. To convincingly play his part, Bale had to learn how to play the drums. It was pretty dreadful at first, but it got better as he played more and more.

In About a Boy, Hugh Grant plays a wealthy bachelor who unexpectedly becomes the guardian of an 11-year-old boy. To better connect with the character and his new ward, Grant learned to play the guitar.

He admitted that it was tough, at first, but he eventually got the hang of it and grew to like it. While Hugh Grant didn’t leave us with an impression of musical prowess, he did learn to play the guitar well enough for his role in About a Boy.

To convincingly portray a getaway driver in Baby Driver, Ansel Elgort trained with professional stunt drivers. The basis for teaching this actor was that the more he knew about what it takes to make a car work, the better equipped he’d be to play Baby with more realism.

According to Elgort, he spent months of intense training with stunt driver trainers, even though he wasn’t allowed to do his stunts with other actors in the car. It’s unclear what role stunt driving plays in Elgort’s current lifestyle, but he did keet Baby’s car from the film.

Dave Franco played ex-magician Jack Wilder in Now You See Me and learned to be a professional magician for his role. Even though he practiced with the world’s most renowned master magician, David Kwong, Franco was far from the quickest study.

With plenty of work and training, Franco got so good that he accidentally injured a few crew and cast members, including Mark Ruffalo. He also mastered card tricks, like making an ace appear behind someone’s ear or turning a queen into a joker.

Tobey Maguire had to learn many new skills for the movie Spiderman, and one of them was catching a tray full of food while web swinging. His trainer on set brought in experts from Cirque du Soleil, who taught him how to catch various foods without spilling. It was challenging and he struggled a lot before finally mastering it.

He also learned parkour, a method of moving through obstacles by jumping, climbing, and vaulting over them rather than going around them. It took Toby 16 hours to catch the food on a tray for one scene. It’s undoubtedly a scene worth the effort!

The already bilingual Timothee Chalamet had to learn another language for his role in Call Me By Your Name as his character spoke Italian. He learned by spending a month and a half in Italy before filming began.

The actor says that he struggled with the language and learned just enough for the role but no more than that. He also spent four hours a day learning to play both the piano and the guitar.

Noah Flynn learned how to ride a motorbike for his role in The Kissing Booth. Noah says that he learned this skill in South Africa from an instructor named Neil who insisted that the actor simply needed to spend time on the bike.

Noah fell off quite a bit but he managed to get the hang of it before filming began. He was even able to safely drive on the freeway!

John Krasinski learned American sign language for his role in The Quiet Place but he wasn’t the only one… The entire movie’s cast had to learn sign language, with the exception of Millicent Simmons who already knew it as a deaf person herself.

Of course, the cast didn’t have to learn every single word that exists in sign language but they did have to know the entirety of the script in ASL.