The one actor Roger Ebert hated watching: “The same effect on me as fingernails on a chalkboard”
The job of a movie critic is to be impartial and put all personal biases to one side to dissect, analyse, and criticise a work of cinema. However, that wasn’t always the case, with Roger Ebert making a point of pointing to one actor as somebody he could never enjoy onscreen regardless of what they were doing.
Of course, critics and on-camera performers feud all the time, as has been the case for decades. Pauline Kael was among the most famous for ruffling the feathers of Hollywood’s great and good, getting on the wrong side of Clint Eastwood and Paul Newman, to name just two enduring icons she could never seem to find even the faintest hints of praise for. That’s without discussing the life-changing critique she delivered to Ridley Scott — a wound he still apparently tends to this day.
Ebert was no stranger to getting engaged in a heated back-and-forth with the stars after he and Rob Schneider became embroiled in a feud that was ultimately resolved in a wholesome and bittersweet fashion. However, there was another regular presence on screens whom he could never develop a liking for despite giving them several shots to win him over.
Rising to prominence on daytime TV and eventually being rewarded with her own talk show, Rosie O’Donnell was dubbed the ‘Queen of Nice’ for her affable persona. It’s the kind of push toward stardom that few feel disinclined to take. Seeking to capitalise on her newfound fame and visibility, she made a concerted effort to break into films in the 1990s, appearing in titles like A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle, and The Flinstones.
Some of them were hits, while others were not. Pretty Woman director Garry Marshall’s 1994 comedic thriller Exit to Eden fell firmly into the latter camp after crashing and burning at the box office, being savaged by critics to rub further salt into the wound. For her efforts, O’Donnell was named ‘Worst Supporting Actress’ at the Razzies, and as much as Ebert disliked the picture as a whole, he made special mention of the actor he simply couldn’t abide in his review.
“I’m sorry, but I just don’t get Rosie O’Donnell,” he wrote. “I’ve seen her in three or four movies now, and she generally had the same effect on me as fingernails on a blackboard. She’s harsh, and abrupt, and staccato and doesn’t seem to be having any fun. She looks mean.”
As for the Exit to Eden itself, Ebert described it as “not only dumb and ill-construed, but tragically miscast,” lamenting how “the actors look so uncomfortable they could be experiencing alarming intestinal symptoms.” Not only did he hate the movie, he also suffered the misfortune of having to sit through an actor he already knew he hated watching trying to convince him they had a modicum of talent and failing miserably. Needless to say, the vaunted critic never changed his mind about O’Donnell’s gifts.
