Daniel Day-Lewis' intense role-playing

Robert De Niro packed on the pounds to play fighter Jake La Motta in 1980's "Raging Bull" and won his only best actor Oscar for his effort. Seven years later, he gained weight for his role as Al Capone in "The Untouchables." On the other side of the scale, Christian Bale and Emile Hirsch got dangerously thin for their roles in "Rescue Dawn" and "Into the Wild," respectively.

But no other contemporary actor has gotten into the skin of a character more than Daniel Day-Lewis, who has taken the Method style of acting further than Stanislavsky could ever have imagined. Not only has Day-Lewis gained and lost weight and changed his hairstyles and accents at the drop of a hat for his roles, he also does enormous hands-on research for his role. To play an American Indian in "The Last of the Mohicans," for example, the 50-year-old British-born actor made a canoe. And his meticulous detail to his craft is on view in his latest film, "There Will Be Blood," in which he plays an oil tycoon, Daniel Plainview.

"What helps me an awful lot is to somehow get rid of the illusion that one is making a film," Day-Lewis once said, "because that in itself creates a sensation of unreality."

Here's a look at the characters Day-Lewis has created over the years.

susan.king@latimes.com