Shortly before his death from prescription pills, Heath Ledger admitted to The New York Times that playing the deranged character of the Joker in 'The Dark Knight' haunted him so deeply that he stopped sleeping. Now it seems as though Natalie Portman can relate. She hints that she was traumatized as she grew into her disturbing role in 'Black Swan' as a ballet dancer who loses her mind.
"There were some nights that I thought I literally was going to die," she tells EW in its forthcoming issue. "It was the first time I understood how you could get so wrapped up in a role that it could sort of take you down."
Countless other stars have played mentally ill or downright psychotic characters: Jack Nicholson in 'The Shining,' Christian Bale in 'American Psycho,' Angelina Jolie in 'Girl, Interrupted,' Robert DeNiro and Johnny Depp in just about anything. And while those roles often win accolades, little has been made of the psychological impact they might have.
University of Pennsylvania psychiatrist Christos Ballas says there's no doubt that playing intense characters such as these can indeed be hazardous to your health.
"[There are risks] in taking on a really intense role -- it takes a toll on you," he tells PopEater. "The risk is they become the identity they're playing. What often happens is that they change. You're forcing someone to become someone else and then asking them to go back to normal."
So can acting mentally disturbed actually drive a star over the edge? Or is it that actors have fragile psyches to begin with, so they're already vulnerable to mental instability? Better yet, are they just talking trash about trauma to grab headlines, which both Ledger and Portman did rather deftly?
The answer may be a little of all three. Ledger's comments to the Times about being "stressed out" while filming the Bob Dylan biopic 'I'm Not There' and battling insomnia while playing the Joker ("Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night. I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going") may have been disarmingly honest, but they also were made during a publicity tour for the Dylan movie. And they certainly landed him -- and his films -- a whole lot of press.
"Acting is tricky business," Ballas says. "If you're really going to be a good actor and really get into that role, you want to lose yourself. Either you have to have a really weak identity to throw yourself into the role, or you have to have a strong identity you remember to go back to when the role is over."
Sometimes, there's a mixing up of fantasy and reality -- where an actor is so consumed by his character that he begins to behave like that person even when the cameras aren't rolling (Joaquin Phoenix, anyone?). But the serious psychological condition involving the blurring of what is real and what is make-believe, called dissociation, probably doesn't befall most performers.
They can easily get way too caught up in the world of the film, though.
"You see a lot of instances where the actor or actress falls in love with the person they fall in love with in the movie," our psychiatrist says. "They truly believe they're making the right decision [to be with their costar] because they're still partially in character."
Cynics will gripe that stars are just doing the crazy talk to get attention. (After all, didn't we celebrity journalist types gobble up Portman's and Ledger's compelling quotes the minute they were fed to us?)
But the ploy for PR may not be the whole picture.
"Winona Ryder was fine and then she made 'Girl, Interrupted' and suddenly got arrested for being a klepto," says Ballas, never one to mince words. "A lot of people at that time thought she was doing it for publicity, but what really probably happened is that she just changed."
Some would say it takes a steely sort to emerge from such a grueling creative process unscathed. And really, as confident as they may appear, how many actors have that solid an identity?
"It's almost a stereotype, to say that people who want to go into acting have fractured egos and want self-affirmation," he tells us. "It's a very adolescent game, acting. You really have to be a fully formed, hard-core adult or you keep rolling into new identities."
But let's not be too hard on our stars, especially at this magical time of year, or we might be accused of being witchy, jealous little Grinches. Plenty of actors handle the mentally challenging roles with finesse. Portman may even be one of them.
Ballas does have some advice for the ones who struggle.
"You have to realize that the business you're in requires you to completely disconnect from it off-hours," he counsels. "The best method actors -- Johnny Depp, Robert DeNiro -- maintain a strong identity outside and have a strong private life."
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