Which Male Movie Stars Suffered the Most for an Oscar Their Craft This Year?


It’s become an awards-season tradition for actors to emphasize the borderline-psychotic measures they’ve undergone to perfect a performance, be it of the unhealthy-weight-loss, hideous-prosthetic, or Method-preparation variety. As 2014 Oscar season looms, though, it is becoming clear that next year’s best-actor rivals have one-upped past contenders in the austerity department. Not because of any greater insanity—the mental health of actors is always up for debate—but because this year’s critically acclaimed pictures pit their male protagonists against intensely unfortunate circumstances involving AIDS, apartheid, slavery, shipwreck, Somali pirates, and, last but certainly not least, the disco era.

To channel the correct amount of on-screen suffering, each actor tapped into his own informative torture devices—ones that movie studios will surely begin touting to Academy voters over the next few weeks. In salute to these sacrifices, we review the stars who forfeited their saturated fats, freedom, faculty of hearing, and psychological welfare—all for our viewing pleasure. Someone give these men an award, already!

Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave

Most Significant Sacrifice: Psychological.
In what is likely the most mentally intense sacrifice made for a film this year, British actor Ejiofor summoned the mental state of a slave being treated in an unforgivably cruel manner both physically and psychologically. Throughout the film, Ejiofor invokes subtle layers of suffering, faith, and strength, even in the uncomfortably graphic sequences that required him to go to especially dark places—for instance, the scenes during which his character is beaten and hanged. The experience with filmmaker Steve McQueen was so grueling for Ejiofor that after shooting, he’s said, he needed two months in virtual isolation to recover psychologically.

By Francois Duhamel/FOX SEARCHLIGHT.