(from MovieLine Magazine, June 1992, by Michael Karpan; thanks to Sprouty!)
When Robert De Niro gained 50 pounds to lend believability to his portrayal of fighter Jake La Motta's nightclub shtick days in 1980's Raging Bull, he unwittingly set a contemporary standard of dedication that has since been held to younger actors. Needless to say, most young actors are unlikely to be offered a vehicle worthy of such artistic sacrifice and are unlikely to match De Niro's accomplishments in any case. Nevertheless, throughout the 80's a number of fervent, ambition young talents, many of them disciples of the late revered acting teacher Peggy Feury, went to some amusing or astonishing lengths to get into character. As early as Fast Times at Ridgemont High (not exactly Raging Bull territory), Sean Penn was so deeply immersed in the subtleties of his character, Spicoli the f*ck up, that he insisted on being called by his character's name for the duration of shooting and refusing to fraternize with cast members not in his in-story social set. Among actors of this generation, however, the pace of excess was set early on by Nic Cage, who reportedly had teeth extracted for his role in Birdy and went on to the greater glory of eating a live
"Is it true?"
"Yes," he admits. "It sounds stupid, though. It wasn’t stupid to me to do, and it helped me to play the character. But when I hear it now, years later, it's like something I did in the past. I'm imagining this in print and thinking how ridiculous this will look."