24 Roles Actors Are Literally Embarrassed By Their Performance In

    "I’m just not very good in it."

    Hannah Marder
    by Hannah Marder

    BuzzFeed Staff

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    Actors' performances in films are often analyzed and evaluated, but it's rare for actors themselves to look back and go, "Yep, I was bad in that."

    NBC

    However, there are some actors who have come out and said just that. Here are 24 times actors have spoken ill of their own performances:

    1. Meryl Streep, The French Lieutenant's Woman

    Streep lying on hay in the film
    United Artists / Courtesy Everett Collection

    "I was young and new at this," Meryl said on The Graham Norton Show. "I wasn't as pleased as I could...I didn't feel like I was living it." Meryl was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance.

    2. Amanda Seyfried, Les Misérables

    Amanda Seyfried in Cosette's bedroom in the film
    Universal Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Amanda said that she wished she could redo Les Misérables because she wasn't satisfied with her singing. "I still have nightmares about it. ... I was very weak. ... From a very technical standpoint, I was very unhappy with my singing.”


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    3. Nicole Kidman, Australia

    Nicole Kidman leaning out of a doorway looking alarmed in the film
    20th Century Fox / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Nicole said, "I can't look at this movie and be proud of what I've done. I sat there and I looked at Keith [Urban] and went, 'Am I any good in this movie?' ... It's just impossible for me to connect to it emotionally at all." She said she was squirming in her seat during the premiere and immediately left Australia (as in the country) afterward.

    4. Adam Driver, Inside Llewyn Davis

    Adam Driver in the film smiling with his teeth
    CBS Films

    Adam hated watching what he'd done in the above scene (in which he sings with Justin Timberlake and Oscar Isaac) so much that he decided to never watch his films again.

    5. Marilyn Monroe, The Misfits

    Marilyn in the film with Montgomery Clift
    United Artists / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Marilyn reportedly hated the film and her own work on it and didn't even want to advertise it.

    6. Pierce Brosnan, All of His James Bond Films

    Pierce Brosnan as James Bond holding a gun
    United Artists / courtesy Everett Collection

    "I have no desire to watch myself as James Bond. 'Cause it's just never good enough. It's a horrible feeling," Pierce told the Telegraph.

    7. Will Smith, Men in Black II or III

    Will Smith in Men in Black III
    Wilson Webb / Columbia Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Speaking to Jimmy Fallon about Bad Boys for Life, Will said he "fumbled" a few prior sequels, in particular the Men in Black sequel. He didn't state which he was referring to, so it could've been either Men in Black II or III.

    8. Eddie Redmayne, Jupiter Ascending

    Eddie Redmayne in the film
    Murray Close / Warner Bros. Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Talking about his accent/voice in the film, Eddie said, “My character had had his larynx ripped out by this wolf man, and so I made the slightly bold choice — which I thought was right. I won a prize for it for the Worst Performance of the Year. So, yeah, it was a pretty bad performance on my account.”

    9. Ewan McGregor, Emma

    Ewan in the film
    Miramax / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Ewan said the film was the worst thing he'd done workwise: "It's a good film, Emma, but I'm just...not very good in it."

    10. Megan Fox, Transformers...

    Megan in the film
    Paramount / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Megan said she was "terrible" in the film: "It’s my first real movie, and it’s not honest and not realistic. The movie wasn’t bad; I just wasn’t proud about what I did."

    11. ...And Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen

    Megan in the film sitting on a counter
    Buena Vista / Courtesy Everett Collection

    "I'm glad you didn't make me watch the dialogue scenes," Megan said in an Entertainment Tonight interview where she reacted to her old roles, calling it a "shame" that her old roles "survived long enough to see the dawn of the internet ... It would be nice if it had eclipsed, like the internet was born but these things had sort of fallen away and no one could find them."

    12. Katherine Heigl, Grey's Anatomy

    Izzie in Grey's Anatomy in scrubs
    Scott Garfield / ABC / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Katherine withdrew herself from Emmy consideration in 2008, saying, "I did not feel I was given the material this season to warrant a nomination," which sparked a lot of drama and rumors of her being ungrateful for her role on Grey's Anatomy. However, she later said, "I was a little defensive about my season because I thought I hadn’t had a great one. And a lot of that had to do with me and my performances," suggesting that she wasn't happy with her own performance that season.

    13. Kate Winslet, Titanic

    Kate in Titanic on the ship's deck
    20th Century Fox / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Kate described cringing at her performance to CNN, calling her American accent "awful" and saying she wished she could go back and redo it — however, she still loves the film and looks back fondly on it.

    14. Emma Watson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

    Emma in the film with her character onstage in Rocky Horror Picture Show
    John Bramley / Summit Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Emma has not said that she was embarrassed by her performance but, rather, that she felt she did not do well with an American accent, similarly to Kate Winslet. "I think it sounded terrible!" she told MTV ahead of the film's release. 

    15. George Clooney, Batman & Robin

    George Clooney as Robin
    Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

    George has admitted that he was "terrible in it," calling it a terrible film and pointing out some of the cheesier lines. 

    16. Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter

    Daniel in the sixth film looking at Dumbledore
    Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Emphasizing that playing Harry Potter gave him an incredible opportunity to start his career, Daniel also admitted that he wasn't a fan of everything he did: "Mistakes other actors get to make in rehearsal rooms or at drama school are all on film for everyone to see." He stated that he was particularly unhappy with his acting in the sixth film: "I’m just not very good in it. I hate it. 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."

    17. Sam Worthington, Clash of the Titans

    Sam in the film
    Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

    "I think I can fucking act better, to be honest," Sam said of his acting in the first film. He promised to be better in the sequel, Wrath of the Titans — however, it was also panned and currently has a 26% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

    18. Christian Bale, The Dark Knight Trilogy

    Christian in the film in a suit
    Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Christian told Yahoo, “I didn’t quite manage what I hoped I would throughout the trilogy ... My own sense of self is like, ‘I didn’t quite nail it.’ ... Heath [Ledger] turned up and just kind of completely ruined all my plans. Because I went, 'He’s so much more interesting than me and what I’m doing.’“

    19. Brad Pitt, 12 Monkeys...

    Brad in a hospital gown in the film
    Phillip Caruso / Universal / Courtesy Everett Collection

    While Brad said he "nailed" the first half of the film, he felt he got the second half wrong: “That performance bothered me because there was a trap in the writing. It’s not the writing’s fault, but it was something that I couldn’t figure out. I knew in the second half of the film, I was playing the gimmick of what was real in the first half — until the last scene — and it bugged the [expletive] out of me.”

    20. ...And Troy

    Brad Pitt in Troy
    Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

    In the same interview, Brad described being contractually obligated to make the film, saying it wasn't "painful" but wasn't made the way he would have liked. He admitted that he "made [his] own mistakes in it" as well.

    21. Colin Farrell, Miami Vice

    Colin in Miami Vice
    Universal / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Like Brad Pitt, Colin had more of an issue with the film than his acting in it, but he still felt his acting left something to be desired: "I didn't like it so much — I thought it was style over substance, and I accept a good bit of the responsibility."

    22. Anya Taylor-Joy, The Witch

    Anya in The Witch clasping her hands together
    A24 / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Anya said she was "devastated" by the performance: "I thought I'd never work again; I still get shivers thinking about it. It was just the worst feeling of, 'I have let down the people I love most in the world. I didn't do it right.'”

    23. Jennifer Aniston, Leprechaun

    Jennifer in the film
    Trimark Pictures

    Describing the time Justin Theroux made her rewatch the film, Jennifer said, "It was one of those things when I tried to get that remote out of his hand, and there was just no having it. He was like, ‘No, no, no, no, this is happening.’ I just kept walking in and out, cringing.”

    24. And finally, Josh Brolin, Deadpool 2

    Brolin in the film
    20th Century Fox / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Josh said that he thought he could've been better and he wants to "redeem [himself] to [himself]" in future films where he's playing the part, as he found a lot of the rhythm of the character's banter with Deadpool during the press tour after the movie was filmed. 

    Which one surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments below!

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