14 Stars Who Brought Their Off-Screen Talents to Their Roles
![14 Stars Who Brought Their Off-Screen Talents to Their Roles](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/2/825852_320x180.jpg)
When considering celebrities, it's easy to get star struck or consumed with jealousy when we consider their achievements and the lives they lead. It's also easy to forget just how talented these human beings often really are.
It's not surprise then, that many famous celebrities and movie stars often have some significant talents that we never even get to see. We wanted to explore more than a dozen times stars brought their off screen talents to their on screen roles.
For example, Christopher Lee is actually an accomplished fencer and swordsman, a skill he got to show off as Count Dooku in Star Wars.
Just because someone is on TV and movies, that doesn’t mean spouting lines for the camera is all they can do. Stars are people just like us (yeah, really), with their own interests, hobbies, and pointless entrepreneurship majors. And sometimes, what they learned on their own makes their way to the screen -- as in these cases.
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Christopher Lee's Swordmanship
![CHRISTOPHER LEE was an accomplished fencer. Count Dooku's distinctive curved lightsaber was made to resemble the hilt of real-life thrusting weapons, the better for Lee to show off his swordsmanship skills.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/0/825840.jpg)
Source: Screen Rant
Patrick Swayze's Dancing
![PATRICK SWAYZE was a ballet dancer. Swayze's mother ran a dance school, so he was dancing long before he was Dirty Dancing. Не couldn't make a career out of it because of a knee injury, but his move-busting experience still led to his movie breakout.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/1/825851.jpg)
Source: The Guardian
Dwayne Johnson's Ukulele
![DWAYNE JOHNSON rocks the ukulele. Johnson's Polynesian heritage comes complete with ukulele playing, which he expertly did in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. (Не can also play guitar, but that doesn't look as comically small in the Rock's hands.)](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/8/825848.jpg)
Source: Making Music Magazine
Liam Neeson's Boxing
![LIAM NEESON brings boxing to his movie fights. Neeson knows how to throw a punch because he was a competitive amateur boxer in his teens - and he was good at it, if his three titles as Northern Ireland's juvenile champion are any indication.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/7/825847.jpg)
Source: Irish Mirror
Daryl Hannah's Gymnastics
![DARYL HANNAH turned Pris into an acrobat. The fight between Pris and Deckard was going to be very different, with the replicant and the blade runner using weights and barbells as weapons. The scene was re-written to showcase Hannah's gymnastic skills.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/0/825850.jpg)
Source: Empire
Will Riker's Trombone
![WILL RIKER plays the trombone because Jonathan Frakes does. When Frakes tweeted a picture of a trombone in 2019, everyone guessed (correctly) that he'd be reprising Riker for Picard. But he might as well have been joining a marching band, as he did in his youth.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/5/825845.jpg)
Source: ComicBook.com
Matt Smith's Football
![MATT SMITH was on track to becoming a pro footballer. Smith became an actor after a back injury cut his sporting dreams short. Still, he got to show off his ball-kicking abilities in the Doctor Who episode The Lodger.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/2/825842.jpg)
Source: Metro News
Billy Boyd's Music
![BILLY BOYD composed the song Pippin sings. The lyrics come from The Lord of the Rings books, but Boyd wrote the melody himself. Не also co-wrote and recorded The Last Goodbye, featured in The Hobbit films.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/6/825846.jpg)
Sources: The One Ring, Entertainment Weekly
Alicia Vikander's Ballet
![ALICIA VIKANDER's Ava is a robo-ballerina. While the main robotic character in Ex Machina never dances, Vikander still drew from her ballet background to give Ava her uncanny, mechanical body language.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/3/825843.jpg)
Source: Wired
Alessandro Juliani's Opera
![ALESSANDRO JULIANI is a trained opera singer. The fact that Juliani studied opera in college formed the basis for the Battlestar Galactica episode Guess What's Coming for Dinner (and the tragic ballad his character Felix Gaeta sings in it).](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/4/825844.jpg)
Source: Bear McCreary
Ed Helms' Music
![ED HELMS wrote the song he sings in The Hangover. Stu's Song wasn't in the script - the piano was just a part of the set, and Helms would fool around with it. Then director Todd Phillips said he should write a song for the movie.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/1/825841.jpg)
Source: livabout dotcom
Skinny Pete's Piano
![SKINNY PETE really knows how to hit the ivories. Actor Charles Baker finessed his way into showing off his skills as a classically trained piano player in Breaking Bad - which made us all wonder about Pete's past.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/9/825849.jpg)
Source: Vulture
Catherine Zeta-Jones' Dancing
![CATHERINE ZETA-JONES was a tap dancing champion. Jones cut her hair short for Chicago so you could clearly see her face - she wasn't going to let anyone say a body double did her dancing for her.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/9/825839.jpg)
Sources: The New York Times, People
Christoph Waltz' Languages
![CHRISTOPH WALTZ is a true polyglot. Waltz didn't need any coaching for Inglourious Basterds - he does fluently speak all those languages. However, he plays it down as just a part of traveling around Europe. If you needed Cherokee to order dinner, you'd speak Cherokee, he has said.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/8/825838.jpg)
Source: CBS News