20 actors who underwent incredible transformations for a role

Published on December 27, 2017, 2:39 pm

Written by Straker Julia in Movies

Famous actors are often associated with their multi-million dollar paychecks, but we forget that it's not easy to literally take on another person’s appearance and personality. Physically they may be cast to play a character that's younger, older, attractive, ugly, fat, thin, alien, robotic... Apart from pushing their acting skills to the limit, they also have to spend hours being transformed by talented make-up artists and costume designers if they're going to pull off their role and impress movie theater audiences.

Illustration : "20 actors who underwent incredible transformations for a role" — Photo d'illustration

Here are 20 actors who were completely transformed for a role - would you have recognized them if you hadn't seen their name in the credits?

1. Karen Gillan played Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy

2. Tilda Swinton made up as Madame Blanc in Suspiria

3. Christian Bale as Trevor Reznik in The Machinist

4. Oscar Isaac played Apocalypse in X-Men: Apocalypse

5. Hugh Grant made up as Chef Kona in the movie Cloud Atlas

6. Tom Cruise as Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder

7. Chris Hemsworth is unrecognizable as Owen Chase in In the Heart of the Sea

8. Johnny Depp made up as Whitey Bulger in Strictly Criminal

9. Carice van Houten as the Red Priestess Melisandre in Game of Thrones

10. Cate Blanchett as the homeless man in Manifesto

11. Gary Oldman incarnates Dracula in the famous remake of this horror classic

12. Brad Pitt as Benjamin Button in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

13. Doug Jones played the faun in Pan's Labyrinth

14. Ryan Reynolds had to kiss goodbye to his good looks for his role in Deadpool

15. Jared Leto as Nemo in the movie Mr Nobody

16. Ron Perlman was completely transformed for Hellboy

17. Vanessa Hudgens as the homeless Agnes 'Apple' Bailey for Gimme Shelter

18. Hugo Weaving as Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger

19. Meryl Streep as a Rabbi in the miniseries Angels in America

20. Eddie Murphy played 4 characters in Coming to America, including the barbershop customer Saul

By Straker Julia
Writer

Passionate about writing, I write articles on the subjects that I love. Creativity and Animals themes are my favorites!