The movie Alec Baldwin admitted was “horrible” to star in
Musicals are big business and have been for some time, but Alec Baldwin found himself stricken with such an intense degree of buyer’s remorse that he tried to back out of starring in one before he’d even set foot on the set.
The production line of Broadway showstoppers to have made their way to the silver screen has been nothing if not inconsistent, with Matt Shankman’s 2012 adaptation of Rock of Ages comfortably among the lesser examples, even if it’s a long way away from being the worst.
The filmmaker had already proven his chops in this exact arena after helming the smash hit feature-length version of Hairspray in 2007, and the star-studded cast generated plenty of excitement. Baldwin was just one cog in a well-oiled machine that featured Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta in the lead roles, with support coming from Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mary J. Blige, and Bryan Cranston, among others.
Of course, the lion’s share of the headlines went to Tom Cruise, who spent five hours a day training to convince as rock star Stacee Jaxx. As for Baldwin, he couldn’t have been less enthusiastic, so much so that he tried to extricate himself from his contractual obligations before the cameras had even started rolling.
The actor asked New Line Cinema chief Toby Emmerich what the chances were of being released from his contract, “if it all possible.” It was too late in the day for that, but based on Baldwin’s comments on the finished product, he was presumably stung by the fact he wasn’t able to run away from a film he knew in his very bones was going to be a disaster.
Per Vanity Fair, he described Rock of Ages as both “a horrible movie” and “a complete disaster,” comparing the experience to an airborne disaster where “the plane is buffeting, the engine is on fire.” Clearly showing up against his own better judgement, Baldwin couldn’t have been less complimentary of the experience. “A week in you go, Oh god, what have I done?” knowing full well there were still weeks and weeks of the schedule remaining.
Rock of Ages did land a Grammy Award nomination for ‘Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media’, but that was about as high as it managed to fly. Failing to recoup its substantial $75million budget from cinemas and marking one of those rare instances where a movie heavily marketed on the back of Cruise’s involvement crashed and burned among the general public, Baldwin was entirely right to be so sceptical.
At the end of the day, though, the studio bigwigs refused to let him out of his contract, leaving him with no other option than to power through his misery as club owner Dennis Dupree.
