Playing a divorced couple, Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep got deep into character inevitably leading to some tension surfacing. At one point Hoffman was so deep in character that he actually ended up slapping Meryl Steep in the face.
The actress recounted that incident recently and expressed how much the Tootsie actor went too far.
Klaus Kinski – Aguirre, The Wrath of God
Perhaps of the greatest actors to have ever lived, Klaus Kinski is still no easy man to work with. The director Werner Herzog certainly knew this when going in but apparently didn't want to compromise on his choice. The actor clashed with everyone.
During the filming of "Aguirre, The Wrath of God," Kinski went overboard and aimed and shot at extras multiple times because, according to him, they were playing cards too loudly. Actors.
Robert De Niro – Cape Fear
As the psychotic Max Cady, Robert De Niro put himself through the wringer when trying to pull this look off. He even paid a dentist a pretty penny and tried to get his teeth shaved down. The actor got semi-permanent tattoos and did an impressive amount of research on sex offenders.
The character creeped out not only viewers but the director himself Martin Scorsese. The actor even tried to freak out Scorsese with threatening messages on his voice machine.
Charlize Theron – Atomic Blonde
Like we saw with "Monster", Charlize Theron does not shy away from challenges, and while her transformation to becoming Aileen Wuornos got her an Oscar, her role as a spy in the film "Atomic Blonde" got her attention as a hardcore action star.
In 2017, the actress did all her own stunts and ended up enduring a lot of physical pain. Theron bruised her ribs during the filming of action scenes and at one point even clenched her teeth so hard that she cracked two of them.
George Clooney — Syriana
Little known tidbit: George Clooney almost died on the set of Syriana. The mega-star broke his back during an incident that happened on set. The actor feared that he may never walk again and spiraled into an extremely dark place.
During his time in the hospital, there was actually more than one occasion where the actor even thought of calling it quits altogether. Thankfully, in the end, he recovered.