Top 5 Crazy Ways Actors Prepared For Sex Work Roles

Actors have long taken extreme measures to add authenticity to a performance, but portraying a sex worker requires a particular vulnerability. The lives of prostitutes, strippers, and porn stars are not just physically complicated but also mentally and emotionally taxing, making them some of the juiciest and most sought-after roles. Actors will go to great lengths to convincingly inhabit sex workers, but how far is too far?

5. Halle Berry In Jungle Fever 1991

Director Spike Lee wanted to cast Halle Berry as Wesley Snipes’s wife in this interracial drama. But Berry, weary of being typecast from her experience in beauty pageants and soap operas, insisted that her feature film debut must be as Vivian, a crack ho. Berry’s on-screen companion was played by Samuel L. Jackson, who had spent time in rehab for crack cocaine, so Berry had to get inventive to rise to the occasion.
To inhabit Vivian, Berry spent time in crack dens and did not shower for 10 days during production. When Wendy Williams doubted Berry’s hygiene lapse in an interview, the actress responded, “Ask Sam Jackson! He had to get a whiff of it . . . constantly!”
With her role in Jungle Fever, Berry paved the way for her more controversial roles such as in Monster’s Ball for which she won the 2001 Academy Award.