10 actors who disowned their own movies
Regardless of what they actually think, actors are obligated to pretend as though their latest movie is the greatest thing they’ve ever made until the second it hits cinemas, after which all bets are off.
Hindsight is reliably 20/20, but plenty of performers have found themselves in the position of knowing they’ve made a stinker and being unable to do anything about it, which makes their predicament even worse when they have to repeatedly try and sell it to the masses.
Making bad movies is an unavoidable part of the job, but sometimes the stars have been left so disenfranchised they’ve been faced with no other option but to hold their hands up, admit they’ve made something egregious, and then try and gradually back away from it for the rest of their careers.
Nobody’s going to come right out and say their latest feature is a disaster ahead of time – in most cases, at least – but the truth always has a funny way of coming to the surface, with the following ten names making a point of distancing themselves from some truly awful works of cinema.
10 actors who disowned their own movies:
10. Jamie Foxx (Stealth, Rob Cohen, 2005)
Falling into a very familiar trap, for his first role following the crowning achievement of his career, Jamie Foxx opted to sign on for one of the worst movies he’s ever likely to star in after agreeing to headline action blockbuster Stealth.
To say it was a huge downgrade coming off the back of his Academy Award-winning performance in Ray would be an understatement, with the freshly-minted ‘Best Actor’ winner admitting he felt bad for telling people Stealth was good when he knew full well it was going to be a disaster.
“Sometimes you do a movie, and you have to go promote it,” he admitted before detailing the backlash he faced. “People would see me after saying the movie and say, I can’t believe you lied to me like that.'” It ended up as one of the biggest box office bombs in history, with Foxx continuing to pretend it never happened.
9. Edward Norton (The Italian Job, F. Gary Gray, 2003)
Edward Norton was strongarmed into playing the villain in the remake of Michael Caine’s classic car-centric thriller because there was a distinct possibility he’d be sued if he didn’t, and at no point was he interested in trying to hide his disdain.
When The Italian Job was in the midst of its promotional cycle, Norton actively advised his real fans they “should give this a miss.” On a normal press tour, actors field questions on the nature of the movie and their characters with interest and detail, but the star was so blasé he couldn’t have cared less.
His contributions to the hype campaign were effectively telling the world that he didn’t want to be in it, but he couldn’t say it in those exact terms because then Paramount would likely end up taking him to court for a breach of contract.
8. Channing Tatum (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Stephen Sommers, 2009)
At no point has Channing Tatum ever given off the impression he wanted to be an action hero, and when he did finally take that plunge, it was because Paramount exercised an option on the three-picture contract he signed with them.
He’d been a fan of G.I. Joe since his younger days, but that doesn’t mean he was thrilled at the prospect of taking top billing in the live-action adaptation. “I’ll be honest, I fucking hate that movie,” was his honest assessment. “I was pushed into doing it. The script wasn’t any good.”
Tatum did end up returning for the sequel Retaliation, though, but he was at least granted his wish after the studio followed through on his repeated insistence that his character be killed off in the first ten minutes. If Dwayne Johnson hadn’t led the ensemble, that may not have ended up being the case.
7. Halle Berry (Catwoman, Pitof, 2004)
One of the few names gracious enough to turn up to the Golden Raspberry Awards to accept their award in person, Halle Berry pointed the finger of blame squarely at her manager for her ‘Worst Actress’-winning performance in Catwoman.
Referring to him as somebody who “convinces me to do projects even when he knows they’re shit,” she advised her manager that “counting the zeroes behind the one really isn’t enough.” She was well-compensated for her efforts, sure, but the film itself was diabolical.
Berry also made a point of thanking Warner Bro. for “putting me in a piece of shit, godawful movie,” with the Oscar winner completely washing her hands of Catwoman a matter of months after it hit cinemas and went down like a lead balloon.
6. Michelle Pfeiffer (Grease 2, Patricia Birch, 1982)
Starring in the sequel to one of the most lucrative and beloved musicals ever made should have been a huge opportunity for a rising star, but Michelle Pfeiffer was left with nothing but regret after being convinced Grease 2 was the right move so early in her career.
As well as earning $380million less at the box office and being exponentially worse than its predecessor, Pfeiffer felt as though she was left with no other choice but to disown it completely. “I hated that film with a vengeance and could not believe how bad it was,” she said. “At the time, I was young and I didn’t know any better.”
Fortunately, her breakthrough lay just around the corner, with her very next role after Grease 2 coming in Brian De Palma’s gangster classic Scarface, so it all worked out in the end.
5. Mickey Rourke (Passion Play, Mitch Glazer, 2011)
There was an air of inevitability surrounding Mickey Rourke‘s descent back into the cinematic doldrums, with the actor resolutely failing to capitalise on the momentum generated by his incredible Oscar-nominated performance in The Wrestler.
Several years later, he’d taken to denigrating his own films before they’d even been released. Mitch Glazer’s awful Passion Play didn’t even begin its limited theatrical run until May 2011, but the month beforehand, Rourke didn’t exactly do a great job of convincing people to see it.
“Terrible. Another terrible movie,” he offered. “But, you know, in your career and all the movies you make, you’re going to make dozens of terrible ones.” When he was questioned on why it wasn’t given a wider rollout on the big screen, Rourke’s frank answer was “because it’s not very good.” Again, this was before it released.
4. Jamie Lee Curtis (Virus, John Bruno, 1999)
She might be an iconic scream queen and a legend of horror, but when Jamie Lee Curtis tackled blockbuster sci-fi in the $75million monstrosity Virus, she didn’t have any issues acknowledging just how bad it really was.
“That’s a piece of shit movie,” she said. “It’s an unbelievably bad movie, just bad from top to bottom. It was maybe the only time I’ve known something was just bad, and there was nothing I could do about it.” She got paid for it, but that’s where her association ended.
Virus has become something of a cult classic in the years since, though, even if that’s entirely down to how shitty it is on every conceivable level. Curtis knew that when she was on set, it was not one she held among the dearest memories of her long and illustrious career.
3. Paul Newman (The Silver Chalice, Victor Saville, 1954)
Even legends have to start somewhere, and for Paul Newman, his first feature film came in an epic historical drama he detested so much that he spent his own money to plead with people to avoid it at all costs.
A dozen years after its release and Newman’s distaste for The Silver Chalice hadn’t subsided. In fact, it was stronger than ever after he took out a full-page advertisement ahead of its television premiere to apologise for how bad his performance was, while begging viewers not to watch it from the comfort of their own home.
Branding it as “the worst motion picture produced during the 1950s,” Newman went to such lengths to disown The Silver Chalice that they ended up becoming more intertwined than ever before.
2. Jim Carrey (Kick-Ass 2, Jeff Wadlow, 2013)
The sequel to Matthew Vaughn’s profanity-laden comic book adaptation landed a huge coup when Jim Carrey agreed to star, but in the end, the only time he talked publicly about Kick-Ass 2 was when he informed the world he would never talk publicly about Kick-Ass 2.
In the aftermath of a school shooting shortly after production on the street-level superhero caper wrapped, Carrey denounced the movie and stated how “in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence.”
Teenage co-star Chloë Grace Moretz issued a rebuttal of her own, firing a shot at Carrey by suggesting that “if you are going to believe and be affected by an action film, you shouldn’t go to see Pocahontas because you are going to think you are a Disney princess.” To this day, he’s still never discussed Kick-Ass 2 in a public forum.
1. Alec Guinness (Star Wars, George Lucas, 1977)
Harrison Ford has endeared himself to millions with his complete lack of interest in chinwagging about anything even vaguely Star Wars-related, but Alec Guinness had him beaten to the punch by decades.
The actor famously said that “apart from the money, I regret having embarked upon the film,” although it did at least yield one major positive after his earnings allowed him to be more selective with the roles he played in the years that followed.
Over time, his opinion continued to sour further, with Guinness admitting, “I shrivel inside each time it is mentioned.” He was one of the greatest actors of his generation, but the last thing he wanted was to be remembered solely for Star Wars and Obi-Wan Kenobi, spurring him on to keep the franchise at arm’s length for the rest of his days.