Hilarious Things Actors Did While In Character

Most of us feel like we know good acting when we see it, but the truth is, there's really no one way for a person to go about getting inside a character and delivering a powerful performance. From method acting to simply reading lines and everything in between, there's no right or wrong way for an actor to take on a role—and depending on the star and the situation, actors can go to vastly differing lengths in pursuit of their craft. For every actor who reverts back to their usual self the second they hear the word "cut," there's another who stays in character for the entire duration of a film's production. Of course, living in character can lead to some pretty unusual situations—as proven by the memorably strange shenanigans these stars got up to in pursuit of their art. Here's a look at some of the most hilarious things actors have ever done while in character.

Wesley Snipes and Blade: Trinity director David S. Goyer had an infamous on-set battle over Snipes' refusal to take direction as a leather-wearing vampire hunting ninja, culminating in an argument that turned physical when Snipes attempted to throttle Goyer with his bare hands. After Goyer threatened to film the rest of Snipes' scenes with stand-ins, the actor agreed to a compromise: he'd turn up and film his scenes, but he'd refuse to speak to anyone between takes, and he also insisted on staying in character whenever he was on set.

From that point on, Snipes abjectly refused to speak to Goyer. According to co-star Patton Oswalt, the star—who we like to imagine was always in full costume while putting pen to paper—communicated solely with the director via Post-It notes. As an added bonus, they were all written in character, each allegedly signed "From Blade."

Few actors are as synonymous with a character as Leonard Nimoy is with Star Trek's Spock. At the peak of the character's popularity, this is something he found hard to deal with—partly because he was frequently asked to comment on advanced scientific theories he really didn't understand.

Because of his formidable intellect, Spock was extraordinarily popular with career academics and scientists, many of whom looked to the character as a peer. Nimoy was often invited to sit in on lectures—and even look over theses and research proposals by fans who either couldn't disassociate Nimoy with the character or assumed he had a similar interest in the fields of science.

To save face—and the feelings of people who couldn't disassociate him from Spock—Nimoy would affect Spock's mannerisms and tell people "Well, it certainly looks like you're headed in the right direction," regardless of whether he actually understood anything they'd said.

In Tropic Thunder, Robert Downey Jr.'s Kirk Lazarus is supposedly one of the world's most gifted Method actors—and so committed to his craft that he undergoes surgery to change the pigmentation of his skin in order to appear black while portraying his character Lincoln Osiris.

Fittingly, Downey stayed in character as Osiris throughout the DVD commentary for the film—meaning he talked about the movie as a fictional character being played by another fictional character. To sum it up, those who listen to the track hear Downey pretending to be an Australian guy pretending to be a black guy, talking about a film within a film. Got all that?

The character Machete, masterfully portrayed by Danny Trejo, famously "don't text"—in fact, he's seemingly distrustful of any technology that can't be used to murder another human being. This character trait was largely inspired by Trejo's own aversion—he dislikes texting so much, he claims he can type "call me" faster than anybody else on Earth.

According to Trejo, the line "Machete don't text" was inspired by a real-life exchange between himself and director Robert Rodriguez that took place after Trejo made multiple attempts to call Rodriguez to discuss some ideas about Machete's character. Rodriguez finally called back and asked why on Earth Trejo didn't just text him; Trejo's response was to get in character and growl the since-immortalized line. Rodriguez laughed so hard he ended up putting it in the film.

Bryan Mills, Liam Neeson's character from the Taken franchise, can end a human life with nothing more than a pinpoint-accurate slap to the throat. Throughout the Taken trilogy, Mills is established as a man whom nothing short of a shotgun blast to the face would stop—and he spends part of each film slowly explaining how he's going to kill someone before tracking them down. In other words, he's a pretty scary guy.

So imagine how terrified an unnamed ex-boyfriend of Maggie Grace (who plays Mills' daughter throughout the series) must have been when Neeson, in character as Mills, called him up to threaten to punch his arms off. As a joke. Ha ha?

According to pretty much everyone involved with the production of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Adam Driver spent almost all of his time on the set in character as the sullen Kylo Ren. Driver's dedication to portraying the angst-ridden Darth Vader fanboy was such that many of his co-stars felt compelled to try and cheer him up; Mark Hamill, for example, offered to take Driver to lunch and repeatedly asked the young actor if he'd like to hang out after shooting wrapped for the day. Not wanting to break character, Driver turned him down.

This didn't sit well with John Boyega, who similarly tried to get Driver to break character and crack a smile by randomly hugging him without warning in full costume throughout production. According to Boyega, Driver never once so much as smirked; upon being hugged, he'd stand awkwardly until Boyega was done before walking away.

Although Game of Thrones is most definitely an ensemble series, two characters in particular sparked fans' imaginations during the seventh season—specifically bearded wildling Tormund Giantsbane, played by Kristofer Hivju, and the long-legged sentinel of iron-plated justice Brienne of Tarth, played by Gwendoline Christie. Why? Because of the palpable sexual tension between the pair, mostly driven by Tormund's open affection for Brienne.

According to Christie, the original script only called for a brief, unreciprocated flirtatious glance from Tormund to Brienne. Hivju decided to some have fun with the prompt, though, and instead hungrily eyed Christie with so much lust she admitted to feeling genuinely surprised by the "magnitude of intense sexual intention to pour out of [that] man's eyes."

Producers evidently loved Hivju's take, and the actor has since taken it a step further, continuing to hungrily leer at Christie even when they're not shooting. He reportedly attempted to woo her by sensually eating a sandwich while maintaining unflinching eye contact in full costume between takes. Which, to be fair, sounds exactly like something Tormund would do.

Bray Wyatt is a persona employed by wrestler Windham Lawrence Rotunda when he's in the ring. For anyone unfamiliar with Wyatt's character, he's a weird bearded cultish figure with nebulous magical powers who viciously slam-punches large men while wearing a Hawaiian shirt. In short, he's awesome.

During his initial foray into the world of professional wrestling, Rotunda performed under the name Husky Harris, a hillbilly character with a more grounded—and thus boring—backstory. Under the tutelage of wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes, Rotunda  cast aside the Husky Harris character and developed a new, more interesting gimmick revolving around the idea of being a cult leader with awesome magic powers.

To test his commitment to the character, Rhodes encouraged Rotunda to attend jury duty selection in character as Bray Wyatt—and he did. For some reason, the court didn't really warm to the idea of a large man wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a thousand-yard death stare judging the innocence of a fellow citizen, and he was dismissed shortly after arriving.

Mrs. Doubtfire is fondly remembered as one of Robin Williams' most famous roles, and there aren't many people who wouldn't recognize him under the prosthetics and makeup he wore during filming. But before the film was announced, he decided to see just how well the costume disguised his extremely famous face—by visiting a sex shop in San Francisco.

Williams walked into the store in full Mrs. Doubtfire gear and started browsing the various items on display, asking an increasingly bemused cashier the most uncomfortable questions he could think of in that inimitable old lady voice. To Williams' surprise, the cashier did, somehow, recognize him—and curtly asked him to leave when he asked for the store's largest fake penis and some sandalwood scented lubricant.

In 2016 ,to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the death of famed English playwright and wordsmith William Shakespeare, Prince Charles attended a commemorative event at the Bard's home in Stratford-upon-Avon. All things considered, it was largely uneventful—or it would have been, if not for an unnamed actor pulling off one of the greatest social power moves ever caught on camera, snubbing the guy next in line to the British throne by refusing to shake his hand.

The actor, who was in full costume as a 17th century vicar, deftly avoided Charles' outstretched hand to instead offer a deep bow while removing his hat—as a vicar from the time period he was playing would do upon meeting royalty. Although in-character the move was more respectful, it didn't change the fact that he'd just made the gentlemen's equivalent of leaving someone hanging after being offered a high five.

Prince Charles took the whole thing in stride, and the actor did eventually break character to offer the Prince his hand—which he shook while the pair shared a hearty laugh.