50 Actors Who Distanced Themselves From Their Movies

Bob Hoskins

The Movie: Super Mario Brothers

The Distance: Hoskins was rather succinct when he spoke to the Guardian about his career low. When asked about the worst job he'd ever done, his biggest disappointment and what he'd change about his career, the actor answered all three questions with "Super Mario Brothers".

“It was a fuckin’ nightmare." The directors were a “husband-and-wife team,” Hoskins explained, and “their own agent told them to get off the set! Fuckin’ nightmare,” he added. “Fuckin’ idiots.”

The Fall-Out: None. Who are any of us to argue with the man himself?

John Cusack

The Movie: Better Off Dead

The Distance:
Cusack apparently hated the cult 80s comedy so much that the then 19-year-old actor walked out of the screening and later told the film’s director Steve Holland that "was the worst thing I have ever seen. I will never trust you as a director ever again, so don’t speak to me."

The Fall-Out: In a 2004 interview with The Sneeze Holland claimed that Cusack's comments "made me not care about movies anymore."

But in a 2013 Reddit 'Ask Me Anything' chat, when asked if he hated filming Better Off Dead , Cusack responded "No, I just thought it could have been better, but I think that about almost all my films. I have nothing against the film… Glad people love it still."

Kate Winslet

The Movie: Titanic

The Distance: During promotion for Titanic 3D in 2012, Winslet revealed she's horrified by her nude scenes, haunted by Titanic jokes and wants to vomit every time she hears Celine Dion's ballad My Heart Will Go On. (Don't we all?)

She told MTV: "I do feel like throwing up. I wish I could say 'Oh listen, everybody! It's the Celine Dion song!' But I don't. I just have to sit there, you know, kind of straight-faced with a massive internal eye roll.

"Honestly, I actually now get onto boats and say, 'No jokes, OK? No jokes. Can we just move on from that? And if you have any jokes, let's just get them out of the way right now. Thank you. Anyone? Jokes, jokes? OK, moving on.' And then they still tell jokes,"

The Fall-Out: With a huge body of brilliant work under her belt, nobody could begrudge Kate her small vent.

Halle Berry

The Movie: Catwoman

The Distance:
Even Oscar-winner Halle Berry couldn't save 2004's Catwoman , but she knowingly accepted her Worst Actress Razzie in person with a bold acceptance speech.

"First of all, I want to thank Warner Brothers. Thank you for putting me in this… god-awful movie. It was just what my career needed."

The Fall-Out:
Frankly, it was the best thing Berry could have done. Her speech was received with massive applause.

Jude Law

The Movie: Alfie

The Distance: Three years after his poorly-recieved Alfie remake was thrust upon the world, Law admitted it wasn't his best work.

Speaking at the 2007 Venice Film Festival, he said: "From my point of view, it didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to. But part of the reason you embark on a creative journey is to sometimes fall flat. It can also sometimes lead to triumph."

The Fall-Out: Nobody blamed Law for his comments, but Sir Michael Caine, who'd played the role originally went on record saying that his friend had been miscast.

"Jude, being so knowing looking, looked like it was deliberate and it became sinister instead of funny," he said.

"It just became some guy who doesn’t care about women, he just screws them and leaves them – a male chauvinist pig, but with knowledge. I played an innocent male chauvinist pig."

Michelle Pfeiffer

The Movie: Grease 2

The Distance: Pfeiffer has been open about her experience working on the musical sequel.

"I hated that film with a vengeance and could not believe how bad it was. At the time I was young and didn't know any better," she reportedly said when rumours of a Grease 2 remake surfaced.

The Fall-Out:
The role itself nearly cost the actress her career — Brian De Palma didn’t want to audition her for Scarface because of Grease 2 . But Hollywood doesn't seem to hold her embarrassment against her.

Hugo Weaving

The Movie: Transformers

The Distance: Weaving has given his part in Michael Bay's Transformers series as the voice of Megatron the ultimate insult. He doesn't dislike it - he just doesn't care.

The actor told Collider: “I didn’t care about it, I didn’t think about it. I don’t regret doing it, but I very rarely do something if it’s meaningless. It was meaningless to me, honestly…

"I never read the script. I just have my lines, and I don’t know what they mean. That sounds absolutely pathetic! I’ve never done anything like that, in my life. It’s hard to say any more about it than that, really."

The Fall-Out: Perhaps fed up of his cast slating his movies, Bay responded defensively by calling for “all those whiners” to donate their salaries to a charity.

Ben Affleck

The Movie: Daredevil / Gigli

The Distance: What with being a bona fide respected, Oscar-winning director, it was only a matter of time before Affleck looked ruefully upon past mistakes.

In an interview with Details magazine he talked about his "annus horribilis" in 2003: "I liked Sum of All Fears. Daredevil I didn't at all. Some movies should have worked and didn't. At a certain point, it's just up to the movie gods…

"People bring up 2003, and I get it. Jennifer Lopez, and Gigli, and all this shit just kind of blew up."

The Fall-Out: None whatsoever, everybody loves Ben Affleck now. But he did meet his future wife on the set of Daredevil , so surely he can't complain too much, eh?

Jessica Alba

The Movie: Fantastic 4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer

The Distance: Apparently, the Fantastic 4 sequel was as much of a low point for its leading lady as it was for the rest of us.

Alba has said that the movie made her stop caring about the quality of her projects, revealing that her "low point" came when director Tim Story said they'd just CGI tears in because her crying wasn't "pretty enough." After that, Alba "just said, 'Fuck it. I don't care about this business anymore.'"

The Fall-Out:
That upcoming Fantastic 4 reboot? Yeah, we doubt Alba will be in it.

Hugh Grant

The Movie: Nine Months

The Distance: Though he seemed perfectly happy to snuggle up to Julianne Moore in 1995, Hugh Grant revealed during the News of the World scandal that he regretted working for Fox Studios once he realised it was owned by Rupert Murdoch.

"It would certainly stick in my craw to work for Fox," the actor told Entertainment Weekly. "I did make one film for them 16 years ago, but I was naive then. I didn't even know who owned it [the studio]."

The Fall-Out: The actor hasn't done a movie with the studio since, though we doubt old Rupert has noticed.