Stars Who Openly Trashed Their Own Work
When it comes to being a celebrity, not everything you touch turns to gold, and mistakes are laid out for all the world to see. While some stars choose to keep quiet about their mishaps, pretending like everything is peachy keen, others aren't afraid to unload on a project that didn't exactly go as planned. From beloved musicals to superhero flops, you'll be surprised to see which celebs have openly trashed their own work.
Ben Affleck - Daredevil
When Daredevil (2003) attempted to hitch a ride on the comic book movie success of the X-Men and Spider-Man films, it landed with a pretty noticeable thud. With a Rotten Tomatoes score of only 44 percent, Daredevil isn't a bright spot in star Ben Affleck's career. In fact, he'll be the first to tell you how he really feels about playing the horn-headed vigilante.
"I hate Daredevil so much," Affleck told TimesTalk (via Time), explaining that his failure with the Marvel character is what inspired him to take on the role of Batman in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). He also heaped praise on the Daredevil Netflix series for doing "really cool stuff" that Affleck wishes he could've done with the character when he had the chance.
In an unfortunate twist, Batman V Superman managed to be another critically-panned misfire, and the film somehow scored even lower than Daredevil on Rotten Tomatoes. Maybe Affleck should steer clear of superhero roles altogether.
Matt Damon - The Bourne Ultimatum
Despite scoring big with audiences and critics, Matt Damon apparently wasn't a fan of the The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), the third film in the popular Jason Bourne series. In an interview with GQ, Damon candidly explained how franchise screenwriter Tony Gilroy supposedly turned in a terrible script for Ultimatum.
"I don't blame Tony for taking a boatload of money and handing in what he handed in," Damon said. "It's just that it was unreadable. This is a career-ender. I mean, I could put this thing up on eBay and it would be game over for that dude. It's terrible. It's really embarrassing. He was having a go, basically, and he took his money and left."
However, Damon continued to champion the Bourne films, including the fourth installment, The Bourne Legacy (2012), which Gilroy directed but in which Damon did not star. According to the actor, the franchise allows Damon to pursue whatever projects he wants because he knows there's always another Bourne movie out there. Then again, his return to the character in 2016 didn't knock audiences out of the park, but we have a feeling he'll be just fine.
Channing Tatum - G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
After making a name for himself in Step Up (2006), Channing Tatum found himself locked into making G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009), and he's regretted it ever since.
"Look, I'll be honest, I f***cking hate that movie," Tatum told Howard Stern (via Business Insider). "I was pushed into doing that movie... They give you the contract and they go, 'Three picture deal, here you go!' And as a young [actor] you're like, 'Oh my God, that sounds amazing, I'm doing that!'"
According to Tatum, the script was terrible, but he didn't have an option to pass on the flick. "You're doing this or we're going to sue you," is how he described the situation to Stern. Tatum also had to appear in the sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), but if you've seen that film, you know that the Magic Mike (2012) star didn't have do a whole lot. We'll just leave it at that.
Michelle Pfeiffer - Grease 2
While the original Grease (1978) is a beloved classic, its 1982 sequel, Grease 2, is far less revered, but don't take our word for it. Here's Michelle Pfeiffer telling Hollywood.com in 2007 that she wanted to star in a remake of the original in an effort to "erase all memory" of her embarrassing performance in the sequel.
"I hated that film (Grease 2) with a vengeance and could not believe how bad it was," Pfeiffer said. "At the time, I was young and didn't know better... I hear it's a cult movie now."
We're curious if Pfeiffer has changed her tune. In 2017, The AV Club declared that Grease 2 is "actually way cooler than the original," and writer Gwen Ihnat argued passionately for the sequel. Just don't tell Olivia Newton-John, who has made her stance on Grease 2 very clear.
Colin Farrell - Miami Vice
Considering the mid-2000s trend of turning classic TV shows into summer blockbusters, Miami Vice (2006) seemed like it everything going for it. Not only was the original series producer, Michael Mann, directing it, but Mann had bowled over critics with the action-packed crime drama Heat (1995), and his work on The Insider (1999) earned him an Oscar nomination for best director.
However, Miami Vice failed to ignite audiences, and star Colin Farrell was particularly blunt about the final product in an interview with Total Film (Via Miami New Times). "Miami Vice? I didn't like it so much – I thought it was style over substance and I accept a good bit of the responsibility."
George Clooney - Batman & Robin
In the mid-to-late 2000s, Christopher Nolan's trilogy of Dark Knight films restored Batman as the crown jewel of the DC Comics films. That was no easy task thanks to the infamously awful Batman and Robin (1997) starring George Clooney as the Caped Crusader. Clooney has often joked about "destroying" the character, and he reportedly keeps a poster for the film in his office to remind of him what happens when you make a movie just for the money.
"I thought at the time this was going to be a very good career move," Clooney said on The Graham Norton Show (via ScreenRant). "Um, it wasn't."
Charlize Theron - Reindeer Games
In 2007, Charlize Theron was named Esquire's Sexiest Woman Alive. During a candid interview with writer Tom Chiarella she revealed that she has made movies that she hates, but she only mentioned one:
"Reindeer Games. That was a bad, bad, bad movie," she said. "But even though the movie might suck, I got to work with John Frankenheimer. I wasn't lying to myself–that's why I did it. I mean, he directed The Manchurian Candidate, which is like the movie of all movies. F*ck regret."
In Theron's defense, she's not the only who hated the Christmas-themed action film starring Affleck, who was just coming off the huge success of Armageddon (1998). Reindeer Games currently sits on Rotten Tomatoes with a painfully low 25 percent rating, so it's probably not going to become a holiday classic anytime soon.
Shia LaBeouf - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
In 2011, Shia LaBeouf developed a habit for trashing his movies, starting with the disastrous Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), which was understandable. But then LaBeouf made a bold move by criticizing the Steven Spielberg-directed Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). LaBeouf had been personally picked by Spielberg to star as Indiana Jones' son and presumably launch a new franchise, yet LaBeouf openly badmouthed the film while promoting Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010).
"I'd already been involved in a movie where I felt like we dropped the ball on a legacy," he said about the fourth Indiana Jones at a junket (via HuffPost). "In that movie, I just felt sort of pigeonholed. Like I didn't have enough meat to chew on." He added, "I just feel like we were trying to enforce innocence on an audience that wasn't willing. You can't force things, you know?"
LaBeouf's comments earned him a sharp response from co-star Harrison Ford who called "The Beef" a "f***king idiot" for trashing the film. In 2017, when reports of Indiana Jones 5 started kicking into high gear, screenwriter David Koepp made it very clear to Entertainment Weekly that LaBeouf won't be returning.
Laurence Fishburne - Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
After appearing in Man of Steel (2013) as classic Superman character Perry White, Laurence Fishburne reprised his role in the semi-sequel Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), which turned out to be an embarrassing misstep for the studio and those connected to the project.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Fishburne was blunt about the current state of the DC films and revealed that he even turned down a cameo in Justice League (2017). "They asked me to come for a day, but I couldn't work it out, schedule-wise. And really, what do you need the newspaperman in Justice League for?" he said. "You want to see the Flash. You want to see Aquaman. You want to see Wonder Woman. You want to see the Lantern. We've been waiting 35 years for these [characters] to show up on the screen. What were they doing over there? Marvel has been kicking their ass."
Christopher Plummer - The Sound of Music
Christopher Plummer is an accomplished stage and screen performer who's tackled numerous roles over the course of his lengthy career, so you may be surprised to learn that the most difficult part he played was Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1965). Why hate on a classic?
"Because it was so awful and sentimental and gooey," he told The Hollywood Reporter with a laugh. "You had to work terribly hard to try and infuse some miniscule bit of humor into it."
Katherine Heigl - Knocked Up
The hit Judd Apatow comedy Knocked Up (2007) was a major boost to Katherine Heigl's film career. While she was recognized for her TV work on Grey's Anatomy, starring in the successful comedy gave her the box-office clout she needed to become an A-list movie star.
However, in an ill-fated interview with Vanity Fair, Heigl openly criticized her famous role opposite Seth Rogen. "It was a little sexist," she said. "It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys. It exaggerated the characters, and I had a hard time with it, on some days. I'm playing such a b***h; why is she being such a killjoy? Why is this how you're portraying women? Ninety-eight percent of the time it was an amazing experience, but it was hard for me to love the movie."
Mark Wahlberg - The Happening
With a Rotten Tomatoes score of only 18 percent, it's safe to say that The Happening (2008) was no cinematic masterpiece, and star Mark Wahlberg isn't afraid to share his thoughts on the questionable M. Night Shyamalan thriller. While attending a press conference to promote The Fighter (2010), Wahlberg revealed that earlier in the day he was talking to co-star Amy Adams about some of the bad movies they've made.
"We had actually had the luxury of having lunch before to talk about another movie and it was a bad movie that I did," Wahlberg said. "She dodged the bullet. And then I was still able to... I don't want to tell you what movie... alright The Happening. F**k it. It is what it is. F**king trees, man. The plants. F**k it. You can't blame me for not wanting to try to play a science teacher. At least I wasn't playing a cop or a crook."
Daniel Radcliffe - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
When it comes to film franchises, it doesn't get much bigger than Harry Potter, but despite it's blockbuster success, Daniel Radcliffe isn't a huge fan of his performance as the titular young wizard. While talking to the Daily Mail, Radcliffe says he has trouble watching the Potter films, especially the sixth installment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
"I'm just not very good in it. I hate it," he said. "My acting is very one-note and I can see I got complacent and what I was trying to do just didn't come across."
However, Radcliffe has received nothing but praise and support from author J.K. Rowling. "To my knowledge she was always very happy with the way I played him," he said, "but it's my job to be critical."
Ryan Reynolds - Green Lantern
When Green Lantern (2011) hit theaters, it was supposed to launch a DC Comics cinematic universe that would essentially go toe-to-toe with Marvel, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Instead, Green Lantern bombed, and DC would wait half a decade before trying to launch its cinematic universe again with Batman V Superman.
Fortunately, Ryan Reynolds was able to escape Green Lantern's demise unscathed, and he went on to star in Deadpool (2016), which not only was a box-office success, but also poked fun at Reynolds' time as the emerald space cop. In the days leading up to Deadpool's release, Reynolds was more than willing to talk about what went wrong with Green Lantern.
"That's the only time I've traversed into that mega-budget territory, and it was a slightly terrifying place to be," he told Empire (via Cosmic Book News). "You really need a visionary behind a movie like that, but it was the classic studio story: 'We have a poster, but we don't have a script or know what we want; let's start shooting!'"
However, Reynolds doesn't consider the experience all bad. Thanks to Green Lantern, he met his future wife, actress Blake Lively, and the two have launched an adorable baby-filled universe of their own.