10 great actors who made terrible movies
There isn’t an actor, alive or dead, to have accrued a filmography that doesn’t contain a single bad movie, but the failures of some stars are distinctly more notable than others.
Apart from the rare occasions where money is the clear and obvious main motivator, no self-respecting performer signs onto a film knowing right from the off that they’re about to be forever linked to something truly abhorrent.
In certain cases, the lure of a bumper payday can admittedly soften the blow, but the common denominator is that the biggest names will make a point of coming clean about their worst films once they’re no longer obligated to pretend otherwise, with some being particularly scathing.
The following ten actors are all big names, with some of them being Oscar winners and genuine icons of the screen, but the one thing they have in common is their very public dismissal of productions that are unequivocally and inarguably awful.
10 great actors who made terrible movies:
10. Robert Downey Jr (Dolittle, Stephen Gaghan, 2020)
Having conquered Hollywood in the second act of his career, Robert Downey Jr embarked upon the third by starring in one of the worst movies he’s ever lent his name to, a major misstep for his first on-screen appearance since exiting the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
On the plus side, he was at least cognisant enough to admit that his arrogance heading into Dolittle proved to be so woefully misguided, with the star and producer reshuffling his entire team in the aftermath to ensure such unmitigated disaster wouldn’t strike again.
Funnily enough, after headlining an awful blockbuster that netted him a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for ‘Worst Actor’, his next step was to partner up with Christopher Nolan on Oppenheimer, immediately vindicating his decision.
9. Al Pacino (Hangman, Johnny Martin, 2017)
Although Adam Sandler’s Jack and Jill is objectively worse than Hangman, it does at least boast Al Pacino in unhinged form as an exaggerated caricature of himself, whereas the laborious crime thriller features the iconic star in sombre, solemn, and ultimately tedious straight-faced form.
The single worst crime film to ever feature somebody so closely associated with the genre through the greatness of their work, Pacino’s veteran detective is tasked to track down a serial killer who bases their murders on the titular game of guessing letters and drawing stick figures.
Virtually every single one of Pacino’s most widely-panned efforts have released since the turn of the millennium, which isn’t a coincidence when he openly admitted how “I’m starting to want to do films that aren’t really very good and make them better.” When it came to Hangman, though, he failed.
8. Charlize Theron (Reindeer Games, John Frankenheimer, 2000)
The festive action thriller might have gained a second lease of life as an alternative Christmas movie that gets revisited every year, but Charlize Theron regards Reindeer Games as the single worst movie of her career.
Admitting she actively hated it in a conversation with Esquire, the Academy Award winner called the Yuletide romp “a bad, bad, bad movie.” It definitely merits at least one ‘bad’, but four might be pushing it, considering Reindeer Games has its defenders.
That being said, she was happy enough to get the chance to work with John Frankenheimer “even though the movie might suck,” which was a bucket list item given her fandom of the filmmaker’s work.
7. Jamie Foxx (Stealth, Rob Cohen, 2005)
Jamie Foxx became the victim of an all-too-regular curse when he followed up his Academy Award-winning performance as Ray Charles with a colossal flop that was dragged around the back and bludgeoned to death by critics.
Rob Cohen’s Stealth was presumably intended to be Top Gun for a new generation but instead became one of the biggest box office bombs in history, leaving Foxx to apologise to anybody he’d tried to convince otherwise during the promotional circuit.
“Sometimes you do a movie and you have to go promote it, so on Stealth I was like, ‘Yeah, this is the greatest,'” he said once the dust had settled. “And people would see me after seeing the movie and say, ‘I can’t believe you lied to me like that.'”
6. Michelle Pfeiffer (Grease 2, Patricia Birch, 1982)
Grease is inarguably one of the most popular and beloved movie musicals ever made, one that continues to captivate every subsequent generation that discovers it. The sequel, however, absolutely was not.
Michelle Pfeiffer would go on to achieve great things, but when it comes to the film that was intended to serve as one of her first major breakthroughs, she’s happy to call it like it is. “I hated that film with a vengeance and could not believe how bad it was,” was the actor’s honest assessment.
Putting it down to youth and inexperience, she blamed it on how she was “young and didn’t know any better.” It’s better to pretend as if it doesn’t exist at all, which is what everybody else does anyway.
5. Bob Hoskins (Super Mario Bros, Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, 1993)
Winner of a ‘Best Actor’ award from the Cannes Film Festival, the recipient of a Golden Globe and a Bafta as well as being an Oscar nominee, Bob Hoskins‘ grizzled demeanour saw him carve out a prominent spot as one of the most distinguished character actors of his generation.
His filmography was littered with big hits and critical darlings, but when it came to naming the lowest point of his on-screen back catalogue, Hollywood’s first-ever live-action adaptation of a popular video game easily took the biscuit.
“The worst thing I ever did? Super Mario Bros. It was a fucking nightmare. The whole experience was a nightmare,” he understatedly put it. “It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. After so many weeks their own agent told them to get off the set! Fucking nightmare. Fucking idiots.”
4. George Clooney (Batman & Robin, Joel Schumacher, 1997)
With two Academy Award wins from eight nominations covering six different categories, George Clooney has evolved into one of the most prominent hybrids of actor and filmmakers in modern Hollywood, which may not have happened at all were it not for Batman & Robin.
Joel Schumacher’s neon-soaked ode to rubber nipples was such a bust that its leading man reset his entire list of priorities, focusing on choosing the material that appealed to him most as opposed to the roles that would net him the biggest paydays or the largest amount of mainstream attention.
Not only did it alter the trajectory of his career, but it paved the way for Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, so in a strange way, the movie Clooney trashes at any opportunity did a world of good in the long run.
3. Sandra Bullock (Speed 2: Cruise Control, Jan de Bont, 1997)
Jan de Bont’s Speed is one of the greatest action movies ever made, combining its high-concept central premise with jaw-dropping practical stunts, held together by sizzling chemistry between its two leads. Everything the opening instalment was, the sequel was not.
The entire crux of Speed 2 emerged from a recurring dream the director had where he’d envision a boat crashing into a densely-populated island. Her financial compensation no doubt softened the blow, but Sandra Bullock has no issue branding Cruise Control as the biggest misfire of her career.
Referring to it as the film “I’m still embarrassed I was in,” Bullock conceded that the plot “makes no sense” in a truly wretched follow-up that endures as “one I wished I hadn’t done” for the star, who was at least paid a reported $12 million for her efforts.
2. Halle Berry (Catwoman, Pitof, 2004)
Even though it flopped in cinemas and failed to recoup its budget, Halle Berry‘s Catwoman still spent a mind-boggling 13 years as the highest-grossing superhero movie with a female title character.
Ever the good sport, Berry appeared in person to collect her Golden Raspberry Award for ‘Worst Actress’, and made a point of singling out the studio, showcasing her gratitude for convincing her it was the right move to make in her post-Oscar years.
“First of all, I want to thank Warner Bros, thank you for putting me in a piece of shit, godawful movie,” she began her speech before bringing her manager out onto the stage. “This guy love me, he loves me so much. He loves me so much that he convinces me to do projects even when he knows they’re shit.”
1. Paul Newman (The Silver Chalice, Victor Saville, 1954)
Paul Newman may have become an era-defining star eventually, but he held a special type of disdain for his first feature film appearance in 1954’s The Silver Chalice.
Martin Scorsese defended it as one of his guilty pleasure favourites years later, but Newman detested it so much that when his debut movie was gearing up for its first television broadcast in 1966, he took out a full-page advertisement in a trade offering profuse apologies for his performance and asking people not to waste their time watching it.
In his estimation, The Silver Chalice was “the worst motion picture produced during the 1950s,” giving Newman’s big screen bow a unique place among the pantheon of greats he’d eventually add to his collection.
