7 HORROR ROLES THAT REALLY MESSED WITH ACTORS’ HEADS

Have you ever watched a horror movie and wondered how these actors get through such terrifying, disturbing roles? While many actors are highly skilled at guarding their personal and emotional well-being while playing haunting roles, others are not so lucky. From working with abusive directors, to method acting gone wrong, here are some actors who took on horror roles that really messed up their minds.

MALCOLM MCDOWELL IN A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)

Stanley Kubrick’s highly controversial movie, A Clockwork Orange, is disturbing enough to the viewer, let alone to the actor who starred in it. For the famous brainwashing scene in the film, lead actor Malcolm McDowell allowed his eyes to be pinned open for every take. Unfortunately, McDowell didn’t leave unscathed: the physical torment caused him to suffer from temporary blindness and a scratched cornea. We imagine the psychological effects were even more painful than that.

TIPPI HEDREN IN THE BIRDS (1963)

While filming The Birds, Hitchcock tormented his star actress, Tippi Hedren, both on- and off-set through manipulation, sexual slurs, and obsessive behaviors. The tipping point for Hedren was when Hitchcock lied about the use of real birds in the making of the film. Instead of the mechanical birds she was promised, Hedrin was forced to act with real birds that were consistently hurled at her during scenes. She left the set bruised, bloodied, and emotionally scarred.

LINDA BLAIR IN THE EXORCIST (1973)

As the child star in one of the most iconic horror movies of all time, Linda Blair has experienced lasting effects from The Exorcist. Blair admits that when filming the movie at 13 years old, she didn’t really know what was going on. To her, it was simply acting. The real trauma occurred after The Exorcist’s release in 1973, when everyone, media included, began to treat Blair like a possessed demon herself. To help lessen the blows of critical media, Blair was sent on a worldwide campaign to dispel rumors and set the record straight—an exhausting, draining feat for someone that age.

MIA FARROW IN ROSEMARY’S BABY (1968)

Mia Farrow went through quite a few traumatizing experiences while working on Roman Polanski’s American film debut, Rosemary’s Baby. A strict vegetarian, Farrow was asked by Polanski if she wouldn’t mind eating raw chicken liver for a scene. Little did she know she would be forced to consume it over and over again for different takes. On top of that, Farrow was served divorce papers from her then-husband, Frank Sinatra, on-set and in front the entire cast and crew. If that’s not traumatizing, we’re not sure what is.

THE ENTIRE CAST OF THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999)

While The Blair Witch Project is a movie that’s probably laughed at more than it actually scares people, the disturbing ways in which the directors tormented and haunted the cast are scary enough on their own. Filmed over an eight-day camping trip (if you can call it that), there was little interaction between the cast and directors, aside from daily meetings to provide the actors with more supplies and instructions for where to go next. To authentically scare the cast, directors stalked the actors during the day, rattled their tents while they were sleeping at night, and intentionally gave them less food as the days progressed so that they became more and more angry and exhausted.

JANET LEIGH IN PSYCHO (1960)

Here’s another incident from a classic Hitchcock horror film. Janet Leigh was never quite the same after starring as Marion Crane in Psycho. Traumatized after watching herself in the famous shower scene, Leigh became too afraid to take showers and from that point forward, and only took baths. Regarded by many as one of the darkest horror films in history, Psycho affected not only Leigh but others involved with the film as well, Hitchcock included.

KYLE RICHARDS IN HALLOWEEN (1978)

You might know Kyle Richards now as a real housewife of Beverly Hills, but before she was a TV star, she was a child actress in John Carpenter’s Halloween. After seeing the premiere of the movie, Richards was so terrified that she reportedly had to sleep with her mom until she was 15, always imagining someone hiding under her bed or behind the curtains, waiting to get her. Needless to say, Richards never acted in another horror film again. Unless you count her continued appearances on the actual horrorshow that is Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, that is.

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7 HORROR ROLES THAT REALLY MESSED WITH ACTORS’ HEADS

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