Paul Dano's sickness worked well for new film role

There Will Be Blood star Paul Dano's sickly appearance on the set of new movie For Ellen helped the actor perfect his role as a struggling rock star.

The actor fell ill on the freezing streets of tiny Messina, New York, but he admits his strep throat and high fever worked well for his character.

He tells BlogTalkRadio.com, "It was negative something degrees in February and my character wears little leather shoes and tight black jeans and a leather jacket with a wife beater underneath it. I tried to stay healthy but when you're out there all day you forget about the cold and that you're walking around in the snow.

"When I finished the scene my feet were soaking wet and ice cold so I got strep throat which was not pleasant on an 18-day shoot, six days a week. There was a hospital there and I went and they gave me a shot of something just so I could recover as quickly as possible.

"I had to do a couple of days of filming while sick which luckily ended up working for the character... I remember we got to do a few scenes in the bar where he's kind of messed up a little, so this sort of sickly feeling and pallor works if you're really inebriated - so I used that. Also feeling the heat of my body and the breath when you're sick, something about it worked."