History DoingItForTheArt / LiveActionFilms

* One of the great early examples is Creator/LillianGish -- in the climax of ''Film/WayDownEast'', Creator/DWGriffith required her to lie still on a very real ice floe for hours on end while her hair and right hand were submerged in below-freezing water. Thanks to the stunt, Gish's hand would be partially impaired for the rest of her life, but she contributed to what is considered one of the most exciting climaxes in cinema history.

* Surprisingly, the film ''Film/{{North}}'' fits this. Apparently, director Creator/RobReiner wanted to make a touching fable that would be his very own [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Wizard of Oz]]. What he failed to realize is that he made [[Film/ThePrincessBride his own touching fable]] seven years before. Also, he unexpectedly managed to tick off [[Creator/RogerEbert a rather important critic]].
* Creator/FrancisFordCoppola paid for most of ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' himself. They used ''real'' military vehicles, filmed from them, and occasionally blew one or two up. The budget was massive, and the movie is known as the biggest example of DevelopmentHell.
** It has also come to be considered, both in cinephile circles and out, a masterpiece on all counts and is constantly in the top three (frequently the top spot) in lists of the best movies ''ever'' made. It is even (although very loosely) the model for the comedy ''Film/TropicThunder'' which serves as a ridiculously apt {{deconstruction}} of the Hollywood film industry at large.

* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'', the live-action movie version. For those of you who don't already know about the insane efforts went to to make this adaptation, just remember this: part of the budget was dedicated to a couple of guys making chain mail. That's right. A couple. By themselves. By hand. They actually rubbed off their fingerprints in the process because normal costumes just weren't going to cut it. As you can see below, they were taking the motto of [[Creator/{{JRRTolkien}} Tolkien]] straight to heart.
** And most of the OminousLatinChanting you hear in the soundtrack? It's not Latin. It's ''[[ConLang Elvish]]''.
*** Or Dwarvish. Or the BlackSpeech. And ''every word'' is context appropriate. Howard Shore should get a CMOA for this one.
** And the various [[http://www.elvish.org/gwaith/movie_news.htm inscriptions and other writings]] seen in the movies (the inscriptions on swords and other weapons are authentic Elvish; longer texts, such as books, are just English transcribed into an appropriate alphabet, but still a lot of work). There are even decorations inside some armour, which would ''never'' be seen by the audience.
** When the hobbit scale doubles are used instead of the actors, you figure they're just wearing the same outfit as the actor but in a smaller size, right? Not quite. They're wearing the same fabric--but ''woven at a tighter weave''. So if you measured how many strands of the material were in, for example, a collar, it would be the exact same number as in the full size costume. The weave on a square inch of fabric from the double's costume would be smaller in the same proportions as the double was to their actor. The mind boggles. Especially when you consider that this, like most of the scale trickery in the movie, was never supposed to be noticed by the audience (that is to say, you'd only notice it if it was wrong).
** The very fact that all three films were made simultaneously over the course of 18 months before the [[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing first film]] was released, with additional reshoots for the films after each film was released year-by-year, is a great surprise in this age of next week sequels.
*** Apparently Creator/PeterJackson approached Creator/{{New Line|Cinema}} with trepidation, trying to convince them that he'd need two films instead of one (the previous production company having asked for one film only) to cover the whole "trilogy". New Line responded that if there were three books, there should be three movies.
*** And when you hear that there were pick ups, entire CG sequences and full orchestra re-composing and re-recording for the ''DVD releases'' of ''extended editions'' (they were still shooting ''after'' the [[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing third film]] won the Best Picture Oscar), you realize how much effort went in to making this one of the best film trilogies of all time.

* In order to film ''Film/TheWrestler'', Creator/MickeyRourke actually worked several wrestling matches, including blading and allowing the infamous Necro Butcher to put him through the ringer in a hardcore match.

* ''Film/PansLabyrinth'' used extensive puppetry for its special effects as opposed to CG animation, which is far more the norm in modern circumstances. Suffice to say, puppets are a lot harder to do than CG.
** Used to a lesser (but still greater than normal) degree for the ''Film/{{Hellboy|2004}}'' films, which made extensive use of puppetry, optical illusions (Krauss' head) and contortionist/actor Creator/DougJones (Abe, Angel of Death, Chancellor...etc.).
** ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'' also used puppets, although these two movies are about as far apart from each other thematically as can be possibly imagined.
** The ''Film/SilentHill'' movie only used a few CG effects (noticeably the bugs and the fog). All the monsters were done with live actors, which arguably makes the effect that much creepier.

** The underwater scene on Naboo in ''Film/ThePhantomMenace''? Trisha Biggar used vintage fabric for Obi-Wan's robe, and it shrank in water. They had to make and destroy a robe for ''every single cut''.
* ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' had Creator/StanleyKubrick and Creator/ArthurCClarke spending enormous efforts into making everything as realistic as possible. The earth moving equipment seen on the Moon would ''actually'' work on the real Moon. Quite a few experts from NASA and IBM were asked to help design the sets.
** That's just the kind of guy Kubrick was. The interior of the B-52 Stratofortress (top-secret at the time, believe it or not) in ''Film/DrStrangelove'' was so realistic that the military launched a brief inquiry into how the movie makers had gotten the inside information. [[note]]What they did was look over diagrams of the insides of the B-29 Superfortress, which was not classified, and then extrapolated on those designs based on the size and shape of the B-52.[[/note]]
*** Kubrick also insisted that the table in the war room be covered in green baize like that on pool or poker tables to symbolize that the leaders were playing a giant game of poker for the fate of the world. The only thing is, the movie is in black-and-white.
** Clarke published a few lines from his diary from pre-production in the introduction of a re-issue of the novel. They include "rang Creator/IsaacAsimov to ask him about the biochemistry of turning herbivores into carnivores." (Asimov, besides writing science fiction, was a professor of biochemistry.) And they never even [[ShownTheirWork did anything]] with that...
** Kubrick required the compositing work to be done by a team of British animators painting traveling mattes by hand, frame-by-frame, to mask out each element, rather than using bluescreen. When production ended, most of them signed onto ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'' in order to work on something colorful after spending two years painting little black blobs.
** Instead of storyboarding the docking sequence, multiple model sequences were shot so Kubrick could edit them.
** In the original script, Bowman and the other astronauts go to Saturn (this is also where they go in the book). Kubrick ended up changing it to Jupiter because the crew wasn't able to make a model of Saturn he was satisfied with.
** Also, when Kubrick did ''Film/TheShining'', the scene wherein we see Jack's manuscript, and all we see is "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." typed over and over again?" Each page was individually typed. And he also shot the pages for four other languages, too.
** Kubrick's reputation is the source of a common joke about MoonLandingHoax conspiracy theories, particularly those that claim Kubrick directed the staged Apollo landings. The joke is that NASA originally signed Kubrick on to film it on a soundstage or in the southwestern desert, but that Kubrick, unsatisfied, decided that it would work better if he filmed it on the actual moon.
* [[DyeingForYourArt Actors gaining or losing weight for film roles]] certainly qualifies (when prosthetics could just as easily be used, especially nowadays), with Creator/RobertDeNiro's work on ''Film/RagingBull'' the most famous example... but Creator/PeterSellers arguably went the extra mile by gaining weight for ''Film/BeingThere'' because he felt it looked right for the character--despite ''chronic and worsening heart problems'' and a subsequent hatred of how he looked on screen. It's hard not to think that his admitted difficult time losing the weight as fast as he could afterwards may have hastened his death.
** Creator/ChristianBale deserves mentioning. He had lost weight for his part in ''Film/TheMachinist'' (Website/{{IMDb}} says 120 pounds on his 6 foot+ frame). Then Creator/ChristopherNolan told him he'd have to become bigger to be Batman. Bale did so and went up to about 220 pounds.
*** Whereupon he was told they didn't mean ''that'' much bigger and he had to shave some off again. And then he lost it all ''again'' to play a crack addict in ''Film/TheFighter'' (and jumped out of windows for real).
*** Which had to be somewhat reversed [[UpToEleven once more]] to prepare for ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises''. And then he had to gain more weight in fat for ''Film/AmericanHustle''.
* Christian Bale certainly went to extremes for ''Film/TheFighter'', but so did Creator/MarkWahlberg: the film was stuck in DevelopmentHell for a long time, so he ended up training for the film for ''five years'', working with trainers during his off time on his last six films. He also refused a stunt double and did every fight scene for real.
** Similarly, on ''Film/ThreeKings'', he said he wanted to get into his role properly, so when his character is [[ElectricTorture tortured with electric shocks]], they hooked him up and did it for real.
* There must be something in Wahlberg DNA that makes them take the Method approach: Mark's brother Donnie Wahlberg dropped ''43 pounds'' for his incredibly brief (but pivotal) role of a ravaged, haunted psych patient in ''Film/TheSixthSense.'' Most people are shocked to [[RetroactiveRecognition realize it was him]].
* While watching the "Lady in the Red" scene in ''Film/TheMatrix'' some may notice the same people passing besides Neo and Morpheus more than once. Production goof? Nope, all extras in the scene are ''actual twins''. They searched all over Sydney for twins and brought them in to demonstrate how Mouse, writing the Agent training program, got lazy and just copy-pasted same models over instead of making unique ones. [[DistractedByTheSexy And hardly anyone would ever notice...]]
* Creator/RichardDonner's work in ''Film/{{Superman}}'' went notoriously over-budget, and got him fired. His main concern was to make the best, most believable film he could. It could be argued Creator/BryanSinger's issue with ''Film/SupermanReturns'' was that he was trying to emulate that instead of making his own film (which he promised to do next time).
* ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982'' was very, very, ''very'' good for a character most people treated as a joke and expected to get something lighthearted and campy. Instead, they got something [[DarkerAndEdgier dark, edgy]], philosophical and yet still a good adventure movie. It had plenty of changes from the original stories, but it still stands up as an individual story and has actors that are either excellent, [[LargeHam hammy]] or [[Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger both]]. Sadly, Creator/JohnMilius was not brought back to work on the sequel.
** He researched ancient civilizations and designed art histories for all the obscure [[Creator/RobertEHoward R.E. Howard]] civilizations that Conan passes through, shrugs at, and burns down...he designed a workable house on wheels for the family of drifters Conan gets directions from...he built a life size WheelOfPain...he had Arnold bite the head off a real vulture carcass!

* ''Film/{{Primer}}'' features the most complex (read: impenetrable) time travel plot in film. It was written by two engineers and literally requires a large chart to understand completely.

* ''Film/TheWickerMan1973'' qualifies on two points. Screenwriter Anthony Schaffer and director Robin Hardy put in a lot of research into Celtic myth and legend while devising the plot--they knew next to nothing about it at the start. Also, Creator/ChristopherLee was so keen to see it finished and released, he waived his fee for playing Lord Summerisle to keep the budget in check, and then called round all his friends and associates to drum up support, and hit the talk circuit to promote the film.

* ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' has the moment in the car chase where the Joker's semi truck is turned upside-down on [=LaSalle Street=] by the Batpod's cable, flipping trailer-over-cab to land upside down with a loud noise. Do you think they used CG to do that scene? Noooo! It was a ''real'' truck that was ''really'' flipped over on the streets of downtown Chicago. They could do that stunt only once, ignoring if the final shot would be cool or not. And it was '''awesome'''.
** The Bat-pod?... fully functional.
** Creator/HeathLedger locked himself in a room for a month with copies of such comics as ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'', writing the Joker's journal, in order to fully understand the character.
** The scene of Joker walking away from the exploding/collapsing hospital was 99% real; the only CG used was the windows shattering. Needless to say, there was only one opportunity to get the shot. The building in question was actually an old Brach's Candy Factory on the west side of Chicago.
*** And they only CGI'd the windows because some hoodlums stole half the glass out of the building. They didn't have the time or the money to re-outfit a building with new windows.
* ''Film/{{Apollo 13}}''. The research they put into it was downright impressive. There's a "Making Of" feature in the collector's edition which has the director recounting when someone told him that man wouldn't go so far from Earth again for a hundred, hundred fifty years. By that time everyone involved would be dead; they would just have the old stuff, the stock footage, and documentaries. And this film. It had to be ''right''. The director said he laughed it off, but it really does look like he took it seriously.
** Upon watching the launch in the movie, second man on the moon, Buzz Aldrin (then working for NASA Public Relations), apparently turned and asked the movie crew where they get some of the footage as he was unaware that there had been a camera in that particular location. There wasn't--it was just so authentic that he'd been fooled.
** Most movies use CGI trickery or wire work for zero gravity. This movie actually used the real thing, filming onboard NASA's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced-gravity_aircraft Vomit Comet]].
* Some actors have done things [[MoneyDearBoy for the money]], just so they could afford to satisfy their passions for what they ''wanted'' to do. Creator/PeterSellers, mentioned above, is only one example.
** Creator/EwanMcGregor is a second. He only does big budget American films so he can afford to do indie Scottish ones.
** Creator/ChristopherEccleston has a similar attitude, except in his case, the Hollywood roles pay for British theatre and TV (the latter roles he chooses mostly based on his admiration for the writer), as well as charity work in his hometown and support of local bands by appearing in their music videos.
** Likewise Creator/GeorgeClooney. Each ''[[Film/OceansEleven Ocean's X]]'' movie allows him to make another ''Film/{{Syriana}}''.
** Every American action-comedy film Creator/JackieChan makes allows him to make another Hong Kong drama piece.
** Knowing he was dying of stomach cancer, Creator/RaulJulia let his kids choose from a set of scripts what would undoubtedly be his final film, as a gift to them. That film was ''Film/StreetFighter'', and dammit if he didn't [[HamAndCheese do everything]] to [[SoBadItsGood make it work]].
*** Damian Chapa agreed to play Ken when he found out Julia was on board, thinking that the film must be "something special" to involve such an actor.
** Creator/ChristopherReeve only agreed to do ''Film/SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace'' in order to get ''Film/StreetSmart'' made.
** Creator/JohnCusack has gone on record saying he's always willing to [[MoneyDearBoy take a well-paying part in some low-quality (in his opinion) film]] because the paychecks involved allow him to finance the small independent movies (such as ''Max'', a film that puts forward the notion that even Hitler was redeemable at some point) that are his true passion.

** ''Film/ThePassionOfTheChrist'' had a complete lack of spoken English, the spoken lines done in Latin and Aramaic (both languages now considered "dead"). He also fronted $30 million for production costs and $15 million for advertising out of his own (not-insubstantial) pocket. The film was distributed through independent distributor Newmarket Films, as none of the established film distribution companies wanted to touch it, thanks to the controversy surrounding the film. As it happened, [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity said controversy helped make the film a blockbuster in the end]].
** Then he went on to make ''Film/{{Apocalypto}}'', a movie entirely in Mayan language, featuring [[AluminumChristmasTrees bizarre customs and period dress]] nobody had bothered to reenact before.
* For a scene in ''Film/YesMan'' in which he plays ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution'', Creator/JimCarrey was actually taught how to play it. Instead of the scene consisting of him [[PacManFever randomly stepping on panels during the attract demo with random generic dance music]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxX0KG2DcYc he plays for real... on an actual in-game song... on Heavy difficulty... with a x3 speed modifier... and is shown with at least a 100 combo]]. He also learned how to do ''everything else'' he did in the film, including playing the guitar, flying a plane, and speaking fluent Korean! The only exception was the elbow skating.

* ''Film/{{Fitzcarraldo}}'' is about a man trying to haul a ship over a mountain. To make it, Creator/WernerHerzog ''actually'' hauled a ship over a mountain (with help, but still). And that's not the half of it. In the real event that ''Fitzcarraldo'' is based on, that ship was originally disassembled before it was hoisted up the mountain. Herzog had his ship hauled up ''in one piece''. Herzog is a ''crazy'' man.
** He also deliberately filmed in the middle of the jungle instead of just a mile or two from civilization, because the movie wouldn't "feel right" otherwise.
* For ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'' they actually built what was essentially a full scale complete replica of the Five Points in 1800's New York in Italy just to film the movie. All of the costumes and props were painstakingly created to be historically accurate too. According to one of the extras on the DVD, Creator/GeorgeLucas visited the set and complained to [[Creator/MartinScorsese Scorsese]] that it could all be easily done on computers for much cheaper. But Scorcese was doing it for the art, and Lucas was ignored.
** And Creator/DanielDayLewis is sort of the king of this trope--for one thing, he practiced tapping his eye with the knife until he could do it without flinching (because his character has a glass eye). He also [[EnforcedMethodActing stayed in character]] on set all the time, as usual.
*** That glass eye bit? Not in the script. [[ThrowItIn Lewis just thought it fit the character.]]
* Creator/MichaelFassbender lost over thirty pounds to play the role of a hunger striker in ''Film/{{Hunger}}''; one interviewer pointed out that the weight he stopped (58 kg, about 128 pounds) was the same weight that his character, Bobby Sands, reached in his last diary entry before he died. (Incidentally, Fassbender has been compared to Daniel Day Lewis by some critics.)

* Creator/MerylStreep learned German and Polish for her role in ''Film/SophiesChoice''. Maybe not completely fluently, but certainly to an astonishingly adept level. And she begged the director for the role on her hands and knees. It has been cited as the greatest acting performance ever put to film.
** Meryl likes doing this. For ''Film/MusicOfTheHeart'', she learned the violin. Not to professional standard, perhaps, but far beyond what anyone would have expected of her.

** For ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'', Nolan was so dedicated to [[MultipurposeMonoculturedCrop the exclusive prominence of cornfields]] to illustrate [[GaiasLament the crappy state of Earth's future]] that the production crew planted and grew 500 whole acres of corn on location rather than do it all with CG. With their location being Calgary, Canada, this was actually a pretty massive risk (the high altitude and northern latitude do not lend themselves to ideal temperature and wind conditions for corn), but by the time of filming, it paid off. Not only did they get humongous cornfields to shoot practically on, they ended up selling the corn as a side gig and actually turned a profit.
* Creator/CharlizeTheron in ''Film/{{Monster}}''. She gained 30 pounds, wore prosthetic teeth, and generally made herself a lot more plain/uglier for the sake of the movie.
* In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest'', you know that scene where the Kraken chops a ship in freaking half? Yeah? They really did that. They got a huge slab of concrete, and painted it green, and then CHOPPED THE FREAKING SHIP IN HALF.
* Creator/PenelopeCruz ''learned Italian'' for her role in ''Non ti muovere''. Even more shockingly, she actually managed to make herself unattractive with a false nose and teeth.

* Fincher himself only agreed to direct the film if the twist ending (which he only found out about because he was mistakenly sent the unrevised script) stayed in.

* Before they filmed ''Film/BattleLosAngeles'', the cast were put through several weeks of real military boot camp to get them to operate like Marines. Not only that, but each actor was given the same kind of training that a Marine of the rank they were portraying in the film would have received. Creator/AaronEckhart even said that he and the cast tried very hard to use correct military jargon and terminology, such as calling a helicopter a "helo" instead of a "chopper", and would redo a take if they made such a mistake.
* When Creator/TaylorLautner heard that he was being replaced for ''[[Literature/{{Twilight}} New Moon]]'' on account of not having a good enough physique, he immediately started doing a rigorous exercise routine on a daily basis in order to bulk up for the role, the execs were so impressed that they decided to keep Lautner after all.
** Lautner also did all of his own stunts in ''Film/{{Abduction}}'' he learned how to fight, ride motorcycles and everything.
* Creator/MeganFox insisted on doing her own stunts in ''Film/JonahHex'', only using a stunt double for one scene which would've been too dangerous for her to do by herself.
* Whether or not you like ''Film/MoulinRouge'', it's clear that every person involved in that movie is giving it their ''all''.

* The 2012 war film ''Film/ActOfValor'' takes this to a whole new level, the main characters are all played by REAL U.S. Navy SEALS(who were between deployments at the time of filming) all the tactics used in the film are REAL, [[RunningGag REAL]] live bullets were used for most scenes, and in one scene a REAL truck gets blown up with a [[OverlyLongGag REAL]] RPG.

* In ''Film/SafeHouse'' the scene where Creator/DenzelWashington is being tortured by waterboarding? That wasn't faked -- Denzel insisted on doing it for real so it would be more convincing.

* The opening scene of ''Film/TheSocialNetwork'' took ninety nine takes to get it the exact way [[Creator/DavidFincher the director]] wanted it. ...Yeah. To say nothing of all the extra work that went into using CGI [[ActingForTwo to make it possible for Armie Hammer to play both of the Winklevoss twins]]. Did a dialogue-driven {{biopic}} about the founding of Website/{{Facebook}} really need hours of CGI work to make the twins more believable? Would anyone in the audience have noticed (or cared) [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality if the brothers had been made non-identical twins, or if Fincher had just cast a pair of real twins that didn't look exactly like the Winklevosses]]? Nobody knows. But the extra work added an unexpected extra layer of realism to a film that probably still would have been a critical darling without it.

** In order to keep that 'fantastic' Paris, every single place used in the movie was painted and cleaned before any shot.

* For ''Film/IronMan2'' Creator/MickeyRourke improvised a lot of Vanko's characteristics, such as [[OralFixation his toothpick habit]], his fondness for cockatoos, and his tattoos. He paid for the cockatoo with his own money, learned to speak Russian, and visited the infamous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butyrka_prison Butyrka prison]] to interview the prisoners there, who he described as very polite.

* Tarsem Singh's ''Film/TheFall'' was done for the art ''and'' for cultural preservation. Half of the film is a globetrotting adventure, and every shot of [[SceneryPorn scenic landscapes, landmarks, and architecture]] is real, filmed on location in 20 countries across four years (as a show of just how gratuitous this was, there's a single insert of the characters running across the Great Wall of China that lasts for ''one second''). All of the shoots were covered pretty much out of Tarsem's own pocket from his job in directing advertisements (he reportedly only took jobs in places he was location scouting), with the intent to cinematically preserve all of the ancient landmarks and their beauty for future generations. While filming in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodhpur the Blue City of Jodhpur]], he even provided locals with fresh blue paint to refresh their houses to make the scene featuring them even more vibrant.

** The lengths the producers went through to get the [[{{Creator/Disney}} rights]] [[Creator/WarnerBros holders]] of the numerous [[Creator/FleischerStudios}}cartoons characters to allow their characters to appear in the movie, and then weave those characters' involvement in a believable yet hilarious way, goes to show just how far these creators were willing go to create the ultimate love letter to these cartoon legends.

** The lengths the producers went through to get the [[{{Creator/Disney}} rights]] [[Creator/WarnerBros holders]] of the numerous cartoons characters to allow their characters to appear in the movie, and then weave those characters' involvement in a believable yet hilarious way, goes to show just how far these creators were willing go to create the ultimate love letter to these cartoon legends.

** And Creator/DanielDayLewis is sort of the king of this trope--for one thing, he practiced tapping his eye with the knife until he could do it without flinching (because his character has a glass eye). He also [[CrazyAwesome stayed in character]] on set all the time, as usual.

* ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'' features yet another case of this for director Creator/ZackSnyder, he declined a salary for the film, seeing the chance to finish it on his terms as its own reward -- which, in turn, led to him having more creative freedom. He also said that a potion of the revenue would go to suicide prevention (his departure from [[Film/JusticeLeague2017 the original film]] was due his daughter, Autumn, taking her own life, and several of the fans who wanted the Snyder cut donated to charities related to such causes). He even initially refused to do it because the cut was originally a workprint and only did so if he could finish it up. Likewise, Music/JunkieXL, who left due to being sympathetic to Snyder, completely reworked the score from what he originally did before being replaced by Music/DannyElfman, both due to new material he'd thought of and to distance it from Snyder's tragedy.

* Tommy Wiseau spent years raising six million dollars in order to write, produce, and direct his dream project without help from a studio. Say what you want to about the finished project, but Wiseau's dedication to making ''Film/TheRoom'' is nothing but astonishing.

* ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'' features yet another case of this for director Creator/ZackSnyder, he declined a salary for the film, seeing the chance to finish it on his terms as its own reward -- which, in turn, led to him having more creative freedom. He also said that a potion of the revenue would go to suicide prevention (his departure from [[Film/JusticeLeague2017 the original film]] was due his daughter, Amber, taking her own life, and several of the fans who wanted the Snyder cut donated to charities related to such causes). He even initially refused to do it because the cut was originally a workprint and only did so if he could finish it up. Likewise, Music/JunkieXL, who left due to being sympathetic to Snyder, completely reworked the score from what he originally did before being replaced by Music/DannyElfman, both due to new material he'd thought of and to distance it from Snyder's tragedy.

* ''Film/OceanHeaven'': Widely promoted as action legend Creator/JetLi's first drama-slash-non-action film, a touching tearjerker of a drama about a single father trying to raise a mentally-ill son while battling cancer himself. Li's salary for the movie is '''1''' USD, enough for a cup of coffee (sans sugar and cream), because Li has been interested in making a drama film after being an action legend for decades.

* ''Film/HardCandy''. This is a film with a very low budget, from a first-time director, and with very strong sexual themes and implied torture. This is not the kind of film one signs on to make for a quick buck. In addition, Creator/EllenPage (and this is before ''Film/{{Juno}}'') was chosen for her {{Bifauxnen}} look over several 14-year-olds who looked older than they were.

* If you were a studio executive, would ''Film/{{Eraserhead}}'' put dollar signs in your eyes? But [[Creator/DavidLynch somebody]] made it. And all his movies are exactly what he had in mind. Well, except ''Film/{{Dune}}''.

* ''Film/OceanHeaven'': Widely promoted as action legend Creator/JetLi's first drama-slash-non-action film, a touching tearjerker of a drama about a single father trying to raise a mentally-ill son while battling cancer himself. Li's salary for the movie is '''1''' USD, enough for a cup of coffee (sans sugar and cream), because JHet has been interested in making a drama film after being an action legend for decades.

** ''Film/Deadpool2016'': Creator/RyanReynolds, himself a [[JustForFun/OneOfUs huge Deadpool fan]], made many sacrifices to ensure that the film would work. Not only did Reynolds accepted a reduced $65 million working budget and a salary cut to keep the movie's R-rating, but [[http://www.slashfilm.com/ryan-reynolds-deadpool-writers/ he also paid the writers out of his own pocket]].

* [[DyeingForYourArt Actors gaining or losing weight for film roles]] certainly qualifies (when prosthetics could just as easily be used, especially nowadays), with Creator/RobertDeNiro's work on ''Film/RagingBull'' the most famous example... but Creator/PeterSellers arguably went the extra mile by gaining weight for ''Film/BeingThere'' because he felt it looked right for the character--despite ''chronic and worsening heart problems'' and a subsequent hatred of how he looked on screen. It's hard not to think that his admitted difficult time losing the weight as fast as he could afterwards may have hastened his death (see also CueIrony).

* Creator/StevenSpielberg asked not to be paid when he made ''Film/SchindlersList'', which he considered his most personal project.
** This is actually true for Spielberg (and Lucas on Indy) on most of his projects. He takes no director's fee; instead, he gets an ample part of the gross. It was something he did once a movie went over-budget, which worked in the end. Considering the money his films usually takes, let's just say that he doesn't have to worry too much.

* Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit ''embodies'' this trope. In an age when computer animation and fully green-screened film making technology were about a decade away, this film blended cel animation with live-action choreography, prop work, and humans, especially lead actor Creator/BobHoskins, so seamlessly that it was completely believable that humans and cartoons coexisted and interacted with each other.

** The very fact that all three films were made simultaneously over the course of 18 months before the first film was released, with additional reshoots for the films after each film was released year-by-year, is a great surprise in this age of next week sequels.

*** And when you hear that there were pick ups, entire CG sequences and full orchestra re-composing and re-recording for the ''DVD releases'' of ''extended editions'' (they were still shooting ''after'' the third film won the Best Picture Oscar), you realize how much effort went in to making this one of the best film trilogies of all time.

* Creator/MichaelChiklis insisted on uncomfortable makeup rather than ConspicuousCG for the Thing in [[Film/FantasticFour2005 Fantastic Four]]. CG and voice over would have let him do the role in days. The makeup meant he spent hours a day in it, and could not even sit. He did this because he was JustForFun/OneOfUs and knew a CGI Thing wouldn't have the same effect on the audience. His efforts were arguably successful; although the films themselves failed to make much impression, Chiklis' version of The Thing is generally considered the best and most comics-accurate part of the venture.