- Billy Zane becomes Marlon Brando for new role
- Waltzing With Brando to debut at Torino Film Festival
- Discover other uncanny actor transformation
We’ve got our first look at actor Billy Zane transformed into screen icon Marlon Brando for his role in the hotly-tipped new film Watlzing With Brando.
Set to get its world premiere at Italy’s Torino Film Festival in late November, writer-director Bill Fishman’s movie is set between 1969 and 1974 as the star was preparing for roles in The Godfather and Last Tango in Paris.
The film is based on a memoir by Bernard Judge, a Los Angeles architect who was recruited by Brando to help him build a fully sustainable retreat on a remote island.
As glimpsed in various pre-release images, Zane’s transformation into Brando is uncanny. The Titanic actor can be seen delivering a number of memorable looks from the career of an actor who’s often considered one of the best to ever do it.
That said, he’s far from the first star to change their entire look for a performance. Here are some other stars who have undergone uncanny actor transformations…
Charlize Theron in Monster
Patty Jenkins’ award-winning biopic of America’s first female serial killer saw Charlize Theron undergo an aesthetic overhaul to become Aileen Wuornos.
The Atomic Blonde star reportedly gained around 30 pounds and wore prosthetics, including brown contact lenses and make-up that gave the impression of an overbite.
The work was worth it though – Theron’s honest and well-rounded portrayal of a troubled real-life person won her a Best Actress Oscar in 2004.
Bradley Cooper in Maestro
Bradley Cooper threw his all into Oscar contender Maestro in 2023, wearing plenty of prosthetics to convince us he was composer extraordinaire Leonard Bernstein at various stages of his life.
Cooper’s dedication to looking just like the music icon included using a prosthetic nose which attracted backlash from viewers online. Labelled by some as antisemitic and an example of a non-Jewish actor wearing “Jewface” for a role, Cooper defended the choice by saying “We wanted to find a medium between Lenny and me… so we created this hybrid.’
Despite the star’s best efforts, the transformation didn’t bag him an Oscar.
Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan
Todd Haynes’ 2007 multi-faced Bob Dylan story I’m Not There recruited a number of actors to play the legendary American singer-songwriter – from Christian Bale to Heath Ledger. However, many simply played ideas or riffs on the various characters and themes the musician has presented to us over the years.
One of the most distinctive and instantly recognizable interpretations of Dylan in this film is presented by Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett who loses herself under a brown wig and behind a pair of dark sunglasses to play Dylan at the peak of his 1960s success.
It’s not just the look either. Blanchett has Dylan’s looping and lyrical vocals down-pat too, leaving us with one of the best on-screen performances of a musical enigma.
Lily James as Pamela Anderson
British actress Lily James showed us a new side of Baywatch break-out and world-renowned pin-up Pamela Anderson in 2022’s Pam and Tommy.
Starring opposite Sebastian Stan as her rock-star hubby Tommy Lee, the role required James to endure a four-hour stint in the make-up chair to secure the right hair, lips and body look that made Anderson a worldwide superstar.
The finished look is subtle yet uncannily accurate, allowing viewers to effortlessly convince themselves that his Surrey-born star was actually one of Hollywood’s biggest starlets.
Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman
Jim Carrey is no stranger to putting up with his fair share of prosthetics; he wore a green latex face and giant teeth in The Mask and had to be trained by a torture-endurance expert to survive his time as The Grinch. However, it’s his role as infamous American comedian Andy Kaufman that might be his most authentic transformation to date.
Featured in 1999’s biopic Man on the Moon, Carrey’s chaotic exploits on-set pushed his director Miloš Forman to the edge of sanity, as documented in the ace Netflix documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond.
While many stars leave the transformation to aesthetics, Carrey reportedly went all in – embodying the trouble-making Kaufman both on and off set. Talk about dedication.
