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Many times I have noticed overly realistic drunk/anger/agony performances, which made me wonder if alcohol was actually used to relax the actor a bit and let them "spit it out" in a more natural way?

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    I won't link to the clickbait, but certain articles state that certain actors in certain roles had to be under the influence to some degree. It is worth googling, but most references will not be credible evidence for an answer to this question. In other words, "yes," but this is likely one of those Hollywood secrets that is not easily corroborated.
    – user9311
    Mar 19, 2016 at 5:35
  • Sure, it could, but it's far and inbetween
    – cde
    Mar 19, 2016 at 6:03

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Yes it seems true that alcohol has really done magic in strengthen actor's performance:

Source WhatCulture:

  1. Margot Robbie : In the movie The Wolf Of Wall Street

Robbie confessed that she felt highly uncomfortable before filming her first sex scene with DiCaprio, and took three shots of tequila to settle her nerves.

  1. Brad Pitt & Ed Norton : In the movie Fight Club

One of the most memorable parts of the flick is a short scene featuring stars Ed Norton and Brad Pitt, as the Narrator and Tyler Durden respectively, drunkenly hitting golf balls on a verge, which fly off-screen and whack against something in the distance. As it turns out, Pitt and Norton were drunk in real life whilst filming the scene. In fact, director David Fincher decided to include the scene in the movie after seeing Pitt and Norton hitting golf balls into the catering truck after having few drinks during downtime.

  1. Natalie Portman & Mila Kunis : In the movie Black Swan

Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky claimed that Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis had to share a bottle of tequila to loosen their nerves before their intense, much-talked about sex scene in Black Swan

  1. Neve Campbell, Denise Richards & Matt Dillon : In the movie Wild Things

Neve Campbell was not shy about admitting that the three actors partook in tequila before filming their threesome sex scene in Wild Things. So there you have it: tequila is what makes uncomfortable sex scenes possible.

  1. Billy Bob Thornton – In the movie Bad Santa

Thornton has been honest about often actually being drunk during filming,

  1. Martin Sheen - In the movie Apocalypse Now

The famous opening scene featuring Sheen’s Captain Willard in a hotel room was unscripted. Instead, Sheen got drunk during the shoot and Coppola told the crew to film.

  1. Bob Hoskins & John Leguizamo – In the movie Super Mario Bros

Leguizamo claimed that he and Hoskins quickly realized the movie would turn out awful and would drink heavily during filming. In fact, Leguizamo accidentally broke one of Hoskins’ fingers while they were wasted during a scene together. Frankly, having seen the movie, I doubt it would have made a difference if they’d done it sober.

So these instances clearly suggest that alcohol has done miracles during filming of the scenes in the movie.

For more : Top 10 actors get drunk movies

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    Urgh, this makes me so uncomfortable. I was once a stage manager for a drinking troupe with a Shakespeare problem, and their performances got really sloppy and terrible towards the end of a run because of all the alcohol. Not to mention being drunk during fight scenes was dangerous. I guess it doesn't matter as much for film though because you can reshoot if they flub and they can be drunk for one scene and sober up before filming action scenes, if there are any.
    – vastra360
    Mar 22, 2016 at 14:06
  • Tequila is behind so many Hollywood moments!
    – m1gp0z
    Apr 29, 2019 at 20:20

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