Unless an actor's in a long-running TV show or movie franchise, then they basically bounce from job to job every few months. They're probably not updating their resume for every new role they go for, though, because some actors tend to forget their previous films entirely.
Here are 14 actors who can't remember filming their movie roles:
1. Gwyneth Paltrow forgot she cameoed in Spider-Man: Homecoming. When she appeared on The Chef Show, her costar, Jon Favreau, had to remind her.
She later told Elle, "It is confusing because there are so many Marvel movies, and to be honest, I haven’t seen very many of them. It’s really stupid and I’m sorry, but I’m a 47-year-old mother."
2. Similarly, in an interview with MTV, Chris O'Dowd forgot that he played Richard, Jane's date, in Thor: The Dark World, so the interviewer had to remind him.
I highly recommend watching the full clip below, because it's hilarious:
3. Before J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony Stark's AI assistant, transformed into Vision, Paul Bettany had "no input with [The Avengers] other than spending half an hour sitting in a studio doing the voiceover." So, he ended up forgetting that he was in Iron Man.
He told Metro, "Someone said, 'I loved you in Iron Man.' I said, 'You've got me mixed up with someone else.' I forgot I did the voice because it was only 30 minutes in a recording studio laughing my arse off."
4. Sarah Jessica Parker's memory of Hocus Pocus is fuzzy. On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, she said, "I don’t have a lot of memories. I mean, I remember the filming of it. I just don’t remember what the movie’s about as much."
She continued, "Three witches, I’ve been told that, and apparently my character’s not very bright. But I fly and sing and I think I like to suck the life … I think I like to kill children? I liked making the movie and I liked flying."
5. John Boyega doesn't remember filming the scene in Red, White, and Blue (the installment he appeared in in the film anthology Small Axe) where his character, Leroy Logan, finds racist graffiti on his locker in the police locker room. He told Radio Times, "I just remember fuming and being angry."
"I didn’t see the locker room or the locker door until those cameras were rolling. So that reaction was all natural to the character and the choices I thought he would make," he said.
6. Brie Larson doesn't remember filming the most emotionally intense scene in Room, which is when her character, Joy, is released from confinement and reunited with her 5-year-old son, Jack. While filming, Brie hit her head, but her costars, who checked on her afterward, helped her put together what happened.
She told the Denver Post, "I was in such an adrenaline rush, and I was running through the snow in socks with just those track pants and a tank top and no bra. And I guess I was fighting them [the actors playing police officers] off and hitting them, and then I slipped and fell on the ice, and then, when I went to dive into the police car [where Jack was] — I guess I hit my head."
7. In 2018, Anna Kendrick tweeted, "Holy shit. I just remembered I was in Twilight."
8. After his 2015 DUI arrest, John Stamos forgot he was in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. He told The Howard Stern Show, "I was just with Rita Wilson and Nia [Vardalos] in Greece, and I realized, I forgot that the next day, they said, ‘Oh, you got to go to Toronto, you’re in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.' I’m like, ‘What?’ I was hammered. I don’t remember being on that set."
He continued, "As soon as I came back from Toronto and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, my sisters were there and my agents, and everybody was like, ‘Okay! It’s time.' It wasn’t even an intervention, it was like, ‘We packed your bags, you’re going.' … I went [to rehab] for 30 days, and I just knew it was time. That’s it. I’ve not had a drink since eight years ago."
9. Michael J. Fox was so booked and busy during Back to the Future that it's a "blur" to him. He told Live with Kelly and Michael, "When I did the movie, I was doing Family Ties at the same time. So I was doing Family Ties in the daytime and Back to the Future at night. So a lot of it is a blur to me."
He continued, "I mean, I saw the movie, and I was like, 'Oh! That's what we were doing?'"
10. On the Fitzy and Wippa radio show, Heidi Klum commiserated over the fact that she wasn't able to fit Zoolander 2 into her schedule. The hosts asked, "Because you were in the first one, weren’t you?" Heidi replied, "No, I wasn’t in the first one." However, one of her friends reminded her that yes, she had a cameo in Zoolander.
Laughing, she said, "My god, see, it was 15 years ago. That’s a brain fart, see what happens when you have four kids? They suck it all out of you."
11. Colin Farrell "couldn’t remember a single frame of doing" Miami Vice because, at the time, he had substance abuse issues. He told the Irish Mirror, "I was at the premiere and didn’t know what was happening next. But it was strange because I was in it."
"The second it was finished, I was put on a plane and sent to rehab as everyone else was going to the wrap party," he said.
12. Ewan McGregor told Total Film, "I can’t remember watching Eye of the Beholder. I can’t actually remember making very much of it either!"
He continued, "It was back in the day, you know what I mean?"
At the time of filming, he had substance abuse issues.
He said, "It was very hard to stop [drinking], but I absolutely don’t miss it. I was always drunk, you know? And because I was a dad, I was very often drinking at work, which is fucking rubbish. And I kept thinking about who I was when I made Lipstick on Your Collar and thinking, 'What the fuck are you doing?' So I just stopped, ’cos I couldn’t deal with it anymore. I hated feeling hungover all the time, and I hated feeling that I needed a drink."
13. Malcolm McDowell, who's been acting since 1967, has been in several hundred movies, but he forgets most of them as soon as he's done filming.
He told the Guardian, "People stop me and say, ‘Oh, we loved you in blah-blah,’ and I say, ‘Sorry, that wasn’t me.’ And then they’ll show me on their phone or show me the DVD cover, and sure enough, there I am. And I have no memory of doing it at all."
14. And finally, when a Variety interviewer asked Jack Black about his favorite Christmas movie, he said Elf — and he momentarily forgot about The Holiday.
