Posted on ANDPOP:
Acting is all about playing someone else. But let’s face it: once you’ve seen an actor play the same role over and over again (*cough* Michael Cera. Ed.: Whoa! What about slutty Michael Cera?), the lines start to blur between reality and fiction.
That’s not to say that all actors aren’t willing to try new things. In this edition of Movies on Our Radar, you will see actors undergoing drastic transformations to play their roles. In fact, some of these new looks are so different that you might never look at these actors the same again.
Dallas Buyers Club
Matthew McConaughey throws away his status as a rom-com leading man to play Ron Woodroof, an HIV-positive electrician from Texas who smuggles alternative treatments from around the world to other AIDS patients who are neglected by the medical establishment. Also starring Jennifer Garner and Jared Leto, McConaughey shed 38 pounds for the role while Leto, who takes on the role as an HIV-positive transgender woman, lost 30 pounds.
Last seen in Mr. Nobody, Dallas Buyers Club also marks Leto’s return to the screen after four years. As he and McConaughey are currently being lauded by critics for their performances, it goes to show that waiting for the right role can make all the difference career-wise.
Dallas Buyers Club comes out in theatres November 1st.
Kill Your Darlings
Say goodbye to Harry Potter. In Kill You Darlings, Daniel Radcliffe trades his place as a wizard to become the famous poet Allen Ginsberg.
Directed by John Krokidas in his feature film debut, the movie follows how the murder of David Kammerer (Michael C. Hall) by Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan) draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston) and William Burroughs (Ben Foster).
In the movie, Radcliffe sports a very convincing American accent, proving that there is a solid acting career for him in the future. Set to be a transformative year for the former Harry Potter actor, Radcliffe will star in two other upcoming films: the rom-com The F Word and the fantasy horror Horns.
Kill Your Darlings comes out in theatres on October 16th.
Grace of Monaco
We can always count on the classy Nicole Kidman to become whatever she wants. This time, she takes on the role of Hollywood icon Grace Kelly in Grace of Monaco.
Directed by Olivier Dahan (La Vie en Rose), the film follows Kelly as she undergoes two different kinds of personal crisis (marriage and identity) smack dab in the middle of a political dispute between Monaco’s Prince Rainier III (Tim Roth) and France’s Charles De Gaulle (André Penvern) in the early 1960s.
I can’t say that I was convinced when I heard Kidman was going to play Grace Kelly. But after watching this trailer, I think her resemblance to the Hollywood starlet is uncanny!
Grace of Monaco comes out December 19th.
