We tend to think of being a movie star as glamour, trailers, red carpet arrivals, and glitzy premieres. But in real life, some movie roles have come with a gruesome price. For many an actor, filmmaking has been anything but glamorous, often putting them at their breaking point. Whether it was emotional exhaustion, physical suffering, or simply profoundly unsettling content, these actors underwent far more than what the edited version reveals. The following are ten of the toughest on-set experiences actors have ever had.
10. Evan Peters – American Horror Story
Evan Peters has portrayed some of the darkest characters on American Horror Story. He has talked candidly about how much it affected him off-screen. Digging deep into such twisted roles season after season had emotionally left him wrecked. He admitted that it messed with his mind so much that he started noticing effects in his everyday life. After all those years, Peters mentioned he needed to take some time off just to recover mentally.
9. Brie Larson – Room
Brie Larson took home critical acclaim and an Oscar for her performance in Room, but the emotional cost was high. She completely immersed herself in the shocking tale of a kidnapped victim’s mother who tries to keep her son safe, and she was spent by the end of filming. At one point, she admitted that she couldn’t even cry during the tough scenes because her body was so dehydrated and emotionally drained.
8. Christopher Eccleston – G.I. Joe and Thor: The Dark World
You don’t necessarily think of an actor responding truthfully about blockbuster movies, but Christopher Eccleston wasn’t one to hold back. He referred to his experience on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra as “horrendous,” and Thor: The Dark World was little different. He likened the shooting as emotionally numbed and reported feeling like a robot, cooped up in endless hours of makeup and surrounded by a green screen, wondering why he committed in the first place.
7. Sandra Peabody – Last House on the Left
Filming Last House on the Left was traumatic for Sandra Peabody. The low-budget horror movie blurred the boundary between acting and real fear. She was seriously scared during scenes, particularly because intimidation was used by her male co-stars to drive her performance. The experience left her so shaken that she quit the acting profession shortly after.
6. Dakota Johnson – Suspiria
Shooting Suspiria was a mental toll on Dakota Johnson. The dark themes of the movie and disturbing imagery weren’t only difficult to watch—they were difficult to shoot. She spent weeks shooting in an abandoned hotel perched on top of the Italian Alps, alone and surrounded by the eerie atmosphere of the film. After the shooting finished, Johnson confessed that she had to undergo therapy to overcome the emotional trauma.
5. Bill Skarsgård & James McAvoy – It Chapter One & Two
It wasn’t just creepy for viewers—playing Pennywise the Clown haunted Bill Skarsgård as well. After spending so much time embodying the character, he began having nightmares about it. He likened it to being in a bad relationship, one that endured even after the cameras had finished. James McAvoy, who joined for the sequel as well, had nightmares where Pennywise was in bed sleeping beside him. And yes, in the nightmares, the clown was rubbing his back.
4. Alexander Skarsgård – The Northman
Alexander Skarsgård spent months in training and left everything on the set to bring The Northman alive. But nothing could have prepared him for the physically grueling and emotionally draining conditions of the shoot. Filmed in isolated, cold environments with long days of gruesome fight scenes, Skarsgård confessed that the exhaustion made him cry. He described it as one of the most challenging things he’s ever done.
3. Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Natalie Portman went all out for Black Swan, and the transformation cost her visibly. She lost weight, trained like a pro ballerina, and lived in perpetual tension for the role. Portman has since said there were nights when she thought she was going to die. The stress and physicality were so grueling that she quipped she should have gone into rehab when filming was done.
2. Tippi Hedren – The Birds
Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds may be a horror staple, but it was a nightmare to shoot for Tippi Hedren. Live birds were tossed at her five straight days, pecking and clawing through shots. One even gouged her face and came perilously close to her eye. It left her tired physically and shattered emotionally, so much so that she keeled over in bed for a week after.
1. Shelley Duvall – The Shining
Shelley Duvall’s tenure on The Shining is the stuff of legend, for all the wrong reasons. Director Stanley Kubrick notoriously drove her to the edge, keeping her in isolation on set and extracting more than 100 takes from her for one scene. The consistent emotional duress made her ill:her hair started coming out in clumps. Looking back, Duvall called the experience unbearable, and it’s easy to see that her suffering bled through into her powerful, haunting performance.
The screen performances we applaud come with a secret price tag. For these performers, getting into character required venturing way out of their comfort zones—sometimes into hazardous, even injurious territory. It’s a humbling reminder that cinematic magic doesn’t just materialize with lights and lenses—it also leaves behind actual scars.