Method acting is not a new concept. In fact, some actors have been catching quite a bit of flack for it in recent years after taking it way too far and disturbing their co-stars.
Some actors, however, almost harmed themselves with their commitment to method acting and desire to better understand their character, one of which is Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting .
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Actor Ewan McGregor has revealed just how dedicated he was to a certain role.
While a recent guest on the SmartLess podcast, hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett, McGregor reminisced on his role as Mark Renton in the 1996 film Trainspotting .
Mar Renton famously had a few problems.
One of them being drug addiction. If you haven’t seen Trainspotting , the plot entirely revolves around Renton’s heroin abuse, as well as that of his friends.
McGregor, in an attempt to better portray this character, considered actually doing heroin himself. “At first, early on, I thought: how can you play a heroin addict without having taken it?”
He hoped the film’s director, Danny Boyle, would join him.
“I was young and I thought, [expletive] it, just do it. And also John Hodge, our writer, was a doctor, so I thought he could probably get us some and administer it so we don’t die. I thought I’d do it with Danny.”
However, one experience stopped that idea in its tracks.
“[…] as soon as we started the first thing I remember doing was meeting heroin addicts in Glasgow. […] it just really became apparent that that was a really disrespectful idea to the people we were working with,” he explained.
Still, to be that dedicated to a role is pretty astounding.
But in the end, it’s best that he didn’t do it. Trainspotting quite literally shows how dangerous a road heroin addiction can be and the tragic ends it can have. No matter how dedicated you are to your job, nothing is worth that.
h/t: LADBible
