Paul Dano prepared himself for his raunchy cross-dressing role in The Extra Man by taking private lessons at a New York school for drag queens.
The There Will Be Blood star admits he was nervous about putting on a red slip and getting spanked by model-turned-actress Patti D'Arbanville in the new film, based on a novel by Jonathan Ames.
So he booked a private lesson in February (10) with Veronica Vera of Miss Vera's Finishing School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls to make sure he was fully prepared to wear women's wigs and lingerie.
Vera tells the New York Post, "He was a little shy about removing his clothes. He said, 'I don't know if I really want to take off my shirt, I'm kind of skinny.'
"And so I said everyone has body issues and I ripped his shirt off."
Dano is back on the big screen this week as he joins Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise in new action movie Knight And Day, which is his first big screen appearance of 2010.
He has also completed work on Mee's Cutoff and is currently working on Jon Favreau's new movie Cowboys & Aliens as well as For Ellen with Jon Heder.
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