Many actors look back on certain movies without fondness, thanks to on-set problems, disappointing
scripts, or any number of other problems.
Here are just a few who regretted some of their roles, movies, and decisions.
The Help told the story of several maids and the families they worked for in 1960s Mississippi.
Starring a packed cast of talented actresses including Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and
Emma Stone, the film chronicled a white woman's mission to publish a book told from the perspective
of Mississippi maids.
Even though Davis received her second Oscar nomination for the role, she has since admitted
that she has reservations about her role in The Help.
Davis has never been shy about speaking her mind, and for a film that was supposed to
support those without a voice, she eventually decided that it fell short.
The whole experience seems best summed up by her response to Empire when asked about
what it was like to wear a fat suit:
"I like playing someone other than myself.
It's only in hindsight that I go 'oh God, why did I do that?'"
Anyone who's ever opened a newspaper is familiar with Garfield, a surly orange cat who loves
lasagna and hates Mondays.
Most avid moviegoers are familiar with Bill Murray, the comedy legend who starred in famous
films like Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, and Groundhog's Day.
When Garfield: The Movie was released in 2004, it baffled Murray's fans as to why the normally
picky actor chose Garfield as one of his projects.
As it turned out, Murray apparently assumed that the writer of the film, Joel Cohen, was
one half of writer-director duo the Coen brothers, and Murray wanted to appear in one of their
films.
"You know, I think I had a nightmare like this once.”
The Fifty Shades book series became international bestsellers, so popular that it basically
guaranteed an eventual movie adaptation.
Once it was unsurprisingly announced, Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson beat off stiff competition
to play the leads.
That doesn't mean they were happy with their success, though.
Dornan notably hated the entire series and was fairly unsubtle about the entire thing—even
while on a promotional tour for the final movie, Dornan couldn't resist complaining
about watching the final cut to Jimmy Kimmel:
"By the end, I'm literally watching it like this.
I can't bear it."
Dakota Johnson was only slightly more subtle about how much she didn't enjoy having to
act in the movies—or having to pretend to be close to Dornan.
While promoting Fifty Shades Darker, she told Today:
"I think we were kind of forced into being best friends."
Upon its release in 1984, the original Terminator film became an instant classic, cementing
Arnold Schwarzenegger as a movie star and launching the career of director James Cameron.
The second film installment, 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day, was an even bigger success
than the first, thanks to its astounding visual effects and exciting action sequences, even
winning multiple Academy Awards.
Viewers demanded more adventures within this action-packed universe, and studio execs have
been only too happy to comply with an entire franchise which has spanned decades and has
included sequels, comic books, and a television series.
2015's Terminator Genisys was the fifth installment in the series — meant as a "soft reboot,"
it featured Schwarzenegger's return to the franchise.
What followed was some a poor box office performance and a terrible reception from critics, and
its planned sequel was eventually canceled — which definitely came as a relief to star
Emilia Clarke, best known as Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones.
In fact, Clarke later told Vanity Fair that "no one had a good time," not even director
Alan Taylor (with whom Clarke frequently worked on Thrones).
Based on an idea conceived by Will Smith, After Earth told the tale of a father and
son in the distant future, played by Smith and his real-life son Jaden.
The two characters spend their time leading space expeditions to find inhabitable planets
and accidentally land on a damaged, dangerous Earth.
As the two are separated and struggle to survive on an unfamiliar and hostile plane, audiences
follow the journey of Jaden's character as he struggles to reunite with his father.
Despite the stars' best efforts, the film flopped at the box office and performed similarly
poorly with critics.
In the aftermath of After Earth, Smith admitted that the film was was "the most painful failure"
of his career which is strong words for an actor that starred in Wild, Wild West.
"When you're telling this story to your grandkids, you make sure you leave this part out."
"Don't worry."
There was once a time when few actors would even consider turning down an opportunity
to work with Woody Allen.
He's a multiple Academy Award-winner, and movies like Annie Hall, Hannah and her Sisters,
and Crimes and Misdemeanors are widely viewed as classics.
However, after his controversial marriage to Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of
his former partner Mia Farrow, Allen's personal life often took over headlines; in 2014, Dylan
Farrow, one of Mia Farrow's other adopted children, repeated her allegations of sexual
abuse at the hands of the famous director.
With the rise of the #MeToo movement, Allen became a public relations nightmare for the
actors and artists who chose to work with him, and they started speaking out against
him in droves.
Two notable examples were Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page, who appeared in 2012's To Rome
With Love.
Both actors have spoken out against everything from gender inequality in film to their own
experiences with assault, and they didn't mince words looking back on their time on
the set with Allen — Gerwig has said she wouldn't work with the director again, while
Page called it the "biggest regret" of her career.
Years before the Netflix television show, there was another Daredevil live-action adaptation.
2003's Daredevil starred Ben Affleck as the blind vigilante, and Jennifer Garner as Elektra,
another superhero and Daredevil's love interest.
On the villain side of things were Colin Farrell as brutal assassin Bullseye, and Michael Clarke
Duncan as the vicious crime lord known as Kingpin.
Though the film performed well at the box office, it was panned by critics, and remains
an infamous example of one of the worst comic-to-film adaptations in the modern era.
Affleck, whose career has seen plenty of highs and lows, clearly agrees, as he admitted in
2013 that he "actually regrets" Daredevil despite loving the character.
He cited that earlier failure as one moody vigilante as the reason why he'd agree to
star as another—this time for DC as the new Batman.
It's a little crazy to think that the actor who also starred in Gigli could have an even
bigger regret, but clearly, Daredevil's botched big-screen debut still weighs on Affleck.
Sometimes, a superhero movie can catapult an actor to stardom even if they're already
well-known, like when Robert Downey Jr. breathed new life into his career by stepping into
Tony Stark's Iron Man suit.
Other times, however, that same opportunity can become an actor's biggest regret.
Even for an actor like George Clooney, who seems impervious to professional misfortune,
a bad superhero film can become a blight on any performer's career.
Clooney's time as the Caped Crusader in 1997's Batman & Robin certainly proves it.
Directed by Joel Schumacher, it's become a long-running joke, is routinely called one
of the worst films of all time, and is the lowest-grossing live-action Batman movie to
date, shutting down the entire franchise until its 2005 reboot, Batman Begins.
Clooney's career didn't suffer any serious decline after Batman & Robin — he's won
two Academy Awards, become a lauded director, and even received the AFI Lifetime Achievement
Award in 2018.
Still, he told Deadline in 2013 that he keeps a photo of himself as Batman in his office
as a reminder of what happens when you make a movie for purely commercial reasons.
As the self-made star of Rocky, Sylvester Stallone had his pick of projects for years,
since he was known as an actor capable of handling action scenes just as easily as serious,
dramatic moments.
Still, he was never exactly known for his comedy, and he shocked audiences by taking
a light-hearted detour with 1992's Stop!
Or My Mom Will Shoot.
The film was an odd buddy-cop outing that paired Stallone with Estelle Getty, best known
for her role as Sophia on The Golden Girls.
The two banded together as a mother and son team to solve crimes — a flimsy premise
that was met with predictably terrible reviews.
The script for the film was infamously bad — so bad that it was hard not to wonder
what Stallone saw in the project.
Arnold Schwarzenegger later took the blame, admitting that he feigned an interest in starring
in the film to trick his action hero rival into taking the role and harpooning his own
career.
For his part, Stallone has made it clear that he's far from fond of this film, calling it
"the worst" of his career and admitting that he regrets making it in the first place.
Released in 1993 and based on one of the most popular video games of all time, Super Mario
Bros. set an unfortunate standard for video game films.
The film was a complete failure both critically and commercially, in large part thanks to
its flimsy plot and terrible writing.
However, the actors involved certainly weren't terrible; Super Mario Bros. starred the late
Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as his brother Luigi, with a plot revolving around
a scenario that mimicked the game — Mario and Luigi had to find and rescue Princess
Peach from the evil King Koopa.
Hoskins, an accomplished and well-regarded British actor best known for Mona Lisa and
Who Framed Roger Rabbit, has made no secret of his disdain for the film — during a Q&A
in 2011, he made it clear that the project was the biggest regret of his entire career.
To his credit, Leguizamo felt the same way, but was kinder about it, praising the rest
of the cast and crew for doing their best in a bad situation.
Stephenie Meyer's Twilight book series was an immediate hit when the first installment
arrived on shelves in 2005.
The books tell the story of Bella Swan, a normal teenager who unexpectedly falls in
love with a century-old vampire, Edward Cullen, at her high school.
A film franchise followed in 2008 thanks to overwhelming demand, with Kristen Stewart
as Bella and Robert Pattinson as Edward.
The series grossed nearly $3.3 billion at the box office, creating a pop culture phenomenon
for years to come.
Still, throughout the series, the young actors involved seemed displeased with their involvement,
and have treated their experience with the saga with polite distaste in the intervening
years.
Pattinson was by far the most vocal about his hatred for the series; over the years,
he's called Edward a prude, dissed Meyer's ideas, and made it clear that he hated starring
in the movies more than anybody else involved.
"A lot of things in the Twilight world doesn't make sense.
Why are they still going to high school?
They're 100 years old."
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