Extreme Makeover: Hollywood edition
Johnny Depp is no stranger to make-up.
Not only is the Hollywood actor a walking spokesperson for guyliner, the 52-year-old is known for undergoing intense physical transformations for his roles, such as Jack Sparrow (Pirates Of The Caribbean series ), Willy Wonka (Charlie And The Chocolate Factory), Mad Hatter (Alice in Wonderland) and Tonto (The Lone Ranger).
His latest, the gangster flick Black Mass about South Boston’s most infamous mobster James "Whitey" Bulger, is no different. In fact, compared to his previous roles, Depp is almost unrecognisable.
The film, in cinemas now, sees Depp play the crime boss who rose up the criminal ranks after agreeing to help the FBI take down the rival Italian-American Patriarca crime family.
Black Mass also stars Joel Edgerton as Bulger's childhood friend-turned-FBI special agent John Connolly and Benedict Cumberbatch as James' younger brother US Senator William.
Depp said at a Venice Film Festival press conference that he underwent hours of make-up to become the balding, blue-eyed criminal.
"I thought it was very, very important to look as much like Jimmy Bulger as humanly possible," said Depp.
"My eyeballs are black as the ace of spades. The blue contacts were hand-painted because they needed to be piercing. They needed to cut right through you.”
Here are other actors who underwent an extreme makeover process so that they could "disappear" into their roles.
Michael Fassbender - Hunger (2008)
For his breakout role in Steve McQueen's award-winning Hunger, Michael Fassbender lost more than 13kg to play Bobby Sands, an Irish Republican Army volunteer who led the inmates of a Northern Irish prison in a hunger strike.
Fassbender lived on a diet of berries, nuts and sardines, eating 900 calories a day for the first five weeks followed by a 600-calorie diet until he weighed just 58kg.
He also burned calories by skipping, and took up yoga, and walked four and a half miles a day.
'It is such a psychological prison," he told The Telegraph.
"I had to calorie-count, and I'd catch myself every now and again picking things up in shops, reading the label and putting it back — and wonder what I looked like. You're totally focused on that, obsessing about numbers."
Rooney Mara - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)
It was a good career move to alter her looks completely, otherwise Rooney Mara would just be one of the many sweet-looking girls in Hollywood.
She went from a forgettable fresh-faced college girl in The Social Network to become the goth queen Lisbeth Salander, complete with nipple piercings and a chopped shock of jet-black hair.
Her makeover got everyone's attention. Throw in some great acting and Mara went from nobody to Oscar-nominated overnight.
Javier Bardem - The Sea Inside (2004)
Much have been said about the Spanish actor's bad bowl haircut in No Country For Old Men (2007) and the diabolicle bleach blond sweep he sported in Skyfall (2012).
Bardem stood out in both films, not just his looks, but how he transformed into really, really psychotic bad guys.
But way before he became a Hollywood fixture, Bardem made everyone sit up from his brilliant performance in Spanish drama The Sea Inside.
He went from hunk with fantastic hair and wash-board abs to an ageing quadriplegic fighting a 28-year campaign to win the right to end his own life with dignity.
The Sea Inside earned critical acclaim, including the 2005 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
Jared Leto - Chapter 27 (2007)
Sure he may be one of the sexiest men alive now and adored by many. He's also a Best Supporting Oscar winner for his work in Dallas Buyers Club (2013) for playing a transvestite.
While his makeover in that 2013 film was commendable, that wasn't his first time hiding his pretty face for a role.
He became an unrecognisable "skeleton" for his role as a drug addict in Requiem For A Drream (2000).
To play Mark David Chapman — the man who murdered John Lennon in 1980 — Leto put on 30kg from drinking pints of microwaved ice cream mixed with olive oil every night. The sudden weight gain stressed his body so much that it not only gave him gout but left him wheelchair bound.
Of course, the next Leto makeover is the highly anticipated Suicide Squad, where he goes cray-cray as Joker. But compared to his Chapman role, it is not much of a leap in looks.
Gary Oldman - Hannibal (2001)
Oldman had a reputation for going method and for being something of a chameleon.
He had donned wigs and had bad make-up for Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula (1992).
But it was as a terribly disfigured antagonist in Ridley Scott's Hannibal (2001) that truly shocked people. Few realised that it was Oldman under the make-up.
It was said that Oldman requested his character Mason Verger (the nemesis of Hannibal Lector) to have no eyelids, cheeks or lips. No semblance of the London-born actor was visible.
The anonymity was helped by Oldman opting to go uncredited.
Only the eagle-eyed could recognise him during a flashback which showed how the disfigurement came about. (Lector drugs Verger and makes him slice parts of his own face off).
Scott eventually included Oldman's name in the closing credits in home-release versions of the film.
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