Sometimes it helps to have skills outside of acting to elevate a performance, which Teller had in spades when it came to his part in "Whiplash." He was already drumming since he was 15 years old but got back into the crash, bang, and swing of things leading up to the film production. Speaking to W Magazine, he revealed he was working with an instructor three times a week, four hours a day, and was under strict requests of how to approach things. "Damien Chazelle, the director of 'Whiplash,' told me, 'Stop working out! Don't go outside!'" Teller recalled. "He wanted me pale and doughy. This is the first movie where I shut myself off from the world. It was, by far, the hardest thing I've ever done."
In all its raw glory, the result is there on the screen, displayed through blood, sweat, and tears, which at the time Teller admitted some of which was his own. The actor recalled to Collider, "I started getting some bloody blisters, and I was bandaging them up and stuff. It was just the nature of filming a movie like this in 19 days with very intense drumming sequences." Now that's a level of dedication that really can't be beaten.
