5 Insane Things Celebs Did to Get Into Character

It's fairly common for actors to gain or shed a lot of weight for the sake of a role—but that's not the only intense thing they do to get into character. Cracked lists five of the craziest pursuits undertaken in the name of acting:

• Tom Cruise, delivery guy: In Collateral, Cruise plays a professional assassin who is, of course, great at blending into a crowd. Since Cruise doesn't exactly blend in naturally, he decided to learn the skill. So he dressed up as a delivery guy and successfully delivered packages in a crowded Los Angeles marketplace without being noticed—and even managed to have an entire sit-down conversation with a guy who didn't recognize him.

• Adrien Brody strips down ... his entire life: To prepare for his role as a Holocaust survivor in The Pianist, Brody wanted to know how it felt to lose everything. So he gave away his cell phone, his car, his apartment, and even his girlfriend. Oh, plus he learned to play the piano ... from scratch.
• Saving Private Ryan goes to boot camp: In order to make his war movie seem as authentic as possible, Steven Spielberg had the cast go through a 10-day boot camp led by a retired Marine who, among other things, shot at them with blanks and only let them eat canned rations.

Click for the entire list. (More Tom Cruise stories.)