Jennifer Lawrence – Passengers (2016)“Adele told me not to do it! She was like, ‘I feel like space movies are the new vampire movies. I should have listened.’” Lawrence was blunt about Passengers, the film she co-stars in with Chris Pratt, about a passenger who wakes up during an interstellar journey earlier than scheduled. It all goes wrong because of her partner’s mistake, which he tries to hide, comfort her, even woo her. “I wasn’t acting, I was reacting. Who decided making that movie was a good idea? I felt people were going because of me and that I did it more out of obligation than anything else.”
Robert Pattinson – Twilight (2008)Although Twilight launched him to fame, Pattinson struggled for years to shake off the label of bad actor because of the films. He admitted he would have hated the saga if he had not been part of it, and before the premiere of the final installment he already seemed burned out. “It’s strange portraying something you don’t particularly like,” he was heard saying at the premiere.
Jessica Alba – Fantastic Four & Silver Surfer (2007)The actress has said she nearly quit acting because of her role as the Invisible Woman. She lost her love for acting. “I hate it. I really hate it,” she confessed to Elle in an interview. “I remember the scene in Silver Surfer where my character dies and the director screaming at me to try to cry being more attractive, putting on a prettier face while doing it… He said that what I was doing was too real and painful. That I should stay prettier while crying.”
Oscar Isaac - 'X-Men: Apocalipsis' (2016)“I know the reasons I did it,” Isaac explained in an interview. “I collected X-Men comics as a kid, I loved the characters, and there were amazing actors in the movies I wanted to work with. James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence… But I got to the set, saw the costume and prosthetics, couldn’t move or see anyone and I immediately knew the experience would be unbearable.”
Megan Fox - 'Transformers' (2007)Some actors at least walk away from their worst movies having worked with interesting people; Megan Fox not so much. She said in the saga “acting didn’t matter” and compared Michael Bay to Hitler. “Working with him was a nightmare. He’s a tyrant on set.” She later apologized—for saying it in public. “It was born out of rage; I should’ve kept it to myself.”
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George Clooney – 'Batman & Robin' (1997)Clooney has been very direct about his run as Bruce Wayne. “I don’t think there are enough drugs in the world for me to go back there.” He also said, “Let’s put it this way: back then I thought it would be a very important film for my career, and obviously I was wrong.”
Halle Berry - 'Catwoman' (2004)An example of different ways of handling failure. Halle Berry even showed up to the Razzies ceremony to accept her Worst Actress award for Catwoman. Fresh off winning an Oscar a few years earlier, she still stood up, faced the criticism, and even threw a verbal jab at her agent in her speech (an agent she would later stop working with, as you might guess). “I never thought I’d be here. I want to thank my manager for convincing me to be in certain projects even though he himself thinks they’re crap.”
Bill Murray – Garfield: The Movie (2004)The story of how Bill Murray ended up in Garfield is as ridiculous as you’d expect. He saw the script credited to “Joel Cohen” and assumed it was one of the Coen brothers. “They locked me in a studio with no air conditioning, and by the time I was exhausted, soaked in sweat and believing the dialogue couldn’t get worse, I sat down and started screaming, ‘Who the hell made this movie? What were they thinking, the Coens?’”—then someone told him the writer was actually a different Cohen, with an “h.” In any case, money talks. Despite absolutely hating the movie and the experience, Murray came back for the sequel after the first one’s box office success.
Charlize Theron – Reindeer Games (2000)Back in 2000, two of Hollywood’s most promising young stars (Affleck and Theron) suffered a box office stumble so loud it threatened their career. The thriller, directed by the veteran Frankenheimer (whose own career would fade in the years following, and who would pass away not long after), was a misstep. “Even though the movie was garbage, at least I got to meet John. Sometimes I wondered if I was lying to myself by saying I did it for that, but I believe that was the only reason.”
Channing Tatum – G.I. Joe (2009)Straight talk from Tatum. He’s always said that “I hate G.I. Joe with all my soul” and that he was forced to do it. “The script was terrible. I had grown up a fan of the brand; I’d watched the cartoons every morning and didn’t want to do something so awful, but I couldn’t avoid it. I turned it down seven times, but when you’re a young actor and you get offered something like that, sometimes you don’t have much choice. I had signed a deal with the production company for three movies, and I had no other option.”
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