GREAT, POPULAR, OR JUST PLAIN FAMOUS PERFORMANCES DESPISED BY THE PEOPLE WHO DELIVERED THEM
Poor Maria Schneider. I know everyone makes fun of her “acting” but I really find it interesting.
I think Daniel Day-Lewis said that he regretted doing the love scenes in The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
^^why did he hate doing the love scenes?
I liked Schneider in Last Tango In Paris, and even The Passenger, albeit to a lesser degree, but she was always a one note actress in my view.
Good thread Mark. i’ll have to think about it!
@Joks, His explanation is about halfway down the page here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/jan/13/awardsandprizes.danieldaylewis
That’s surprising, everyone is great in unbearable lightness of being bit odd he’d say that
Faye wasn’t prepared for the mean-spirited backlash to MOMMIE DEAREST: ie., bitchy San Francisco drag queens doing parodies of it and what-not.
I stand by my conviction that MD is one of the most misunderstood movies ever. The people who scoff/smirk at it do not fully understand child abuse, or have never come close to the real thing in life. Nor do they fully appreciate the great artifice in which Joan and Tina lived.
Only outsiders to the MD milieu and situation…. can afford to laugh at it.
My deep hunch? Faye does not hate the film or hate her performance in it. She hates the thoughtless backlash to it.
Burt Reynolds thought Boogie Nights was junk.
I agree but I cannot completely dismiss the film thanks to his great acting.
Elizabeth Taylor disliked her character in Butterfield 8
@ ULI CAIN
I suspect Taylor was taking a bit of a risk with her character in BUTTERFIELD 8.
After all, her character is a a fairly “easy” prostitute, and not even a very bright or resourceful or “together” one…
Fortunately, Hollywood gives Oscars to actresses who play hookers… as we also saw with Shirley Jones in ELMER GANTRY.
@DEN
Burt Reynolds was an enormously attractive presence in BOOGIE NIGHTS, and the movie is far from junk. But it must be said, we never get a chance to really understand Jack Horner; find out where he comes from, what makes him tick; how he got into the porn business, whether “Jack Horner” is truly his birth-name or what, etc.
Frankly, the movie was not “about” him, and Reynolds knew it. I think Burt is a sophisticated actor behind his “hunk” image, and he would’ve liked better a part he could truly sink his acting chops into.
Admittedly, I’ve yet to see Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford in you-know-what. It’s amazing people think they’re doing Ms. Dunaway’s legacy a favour by calling it “a bad film that has become a camp classic!” Alas, Faye Dunaway is no longer “on the radar” as far as the mainstream is concerned, whereas Meryl Streep can clean up film role after film role, award after award, for being “The Queen Of Silly Accents” (obviously they’re not all bad). Actually, I could count on one hand the amount of Meryl Streep films I’ve seen. Don’t even get me started on that culinary comedy she did, with a French (?) accent that’s about as convincing as James Bond’s Japanese disguise in “You Only Live Twice”. Speaking of unconvincing…“A dungo stole my bay-bay!” I have NEVER heard ANY Australian squawk like this…EVER! Turns me off seeing the film.
But I digress…
Quite frankly, Ms. Dunaway has every right to be frustrated over the fact more people ridicule her for “M.D.” than praise her other films she did during her heyday, such as “Network”, “Barfly” and “Three Days Of The Condor” (I would even go as far to say “M.D.” possibly has more of a following than “Chinatown”). Particularly “Network”: you’d be surprised how many supposedly “die hard Fay Dunaway fans” (the bitchy San Francisco drag queen types D.L.B. referenced) have never ever heard of “Network”…and it’s her Oscar-winning performance!
I know Burgess Meredith wasn’t especially fond of playing The Penguin in “Batman”, and before I allow this subject to slide into the realm of television shows (I’m hoping to keep this on the movies), let’s remember there was a “Batman” film given theatrical release around the time the show made its debut in 1966.
Obviously, Roger Moore loved playing James Bond, yet he did express discomfort over at least a couple of the films. Roger felt the violence in “A View To A Kill” was excessive and mean-spirited (specifically he is referring to the part where Christopher Walken guns down his own men in the mineshaft). A few years prior, Mr. Moore played opposite a much younger Lynn Holly-Johnson (she was 22, he was 53…so what’s the problem?) in “For Your Eyes Only”, in a romantic scene that made him feel as if he really was getting too old to play Agent 007 (Oh, just go with it, Roger!).
From the aforementioned Guardian article about Daniel Day-Lewis and his performance in Philip Kaufman’s “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”:
“He does, however, own up to one bad decision ‘which I don’t regret because the experience was probably one I learnt from. I was swayed by the hullabaloo surrounding The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which I was encouraged to believe every young actor was after. If I’d really shut out the din and looked at that script, I’d have known that I wasn’t ready for that. I felt I was short-changing them somehow because I was missing the centre of it. It was sliding away from me.’
In the 1988 adaptation of Milan Kundera’s novel set in the Prague Spring of 1968, Day-Lewis played Tomas, a Czech brain surgeon. ‘It was,’ he muses, ‘something to do with language. The idea of speaking English with a Czech accent without actually speaking Czech meant it wasn’t coming from anywhere – I knew that that kernel of truth that I need to have somewhere in a role would be missing. And apart from anything else, the exploration of sexuality in the film was just – well, I was in no way prepared for how that would feel. It was a mistake.’"
I don’t know, any film you do that allows you to fool around with Lena Olin and Juliette Binoche can’t be all bad. I would’ve been happy just with Lena and that derby hat. What an amazing beauty.
No citation for this, so it might not be accurate, but I was told that Al Pacino hated his role in Scarface.
—PolarisDiB
Isabelle Adjani has expressed some regret for her role in Zulawski’s Possession
Alex Dimitriades hated his performance in “Head On”. Okay, no citation for this, but he should.
Didn’t Marlon Brando hate some of his performances? When he did Apocalypse Now he hadn’t read the book and sort of held up shooting for a while talking over his role with Coppola. I read his book a long time ago, which I believe the title is Songs My Mother Taught Me and I think maybe he might have said that he might not have cared for some of the roles he played. Does anybody remember that book? I haven’t read it for a long time so I can’t remember exactly what he said in there.
Warren Beatty disowned his role in ‘MacCabe & Mrs. Miller’ because he believed the director, Robert Altman, had muddied his screen presence, but it is hard to imagine an actor who could have played MacCabe better.
he felt the film was ruined by the bad sound.
He was right about that, the film had horrid sound.
Later, in the book Altman, he claimed to be very pleased with the film just not the sound
great thread
i always thought the “D” stood for “Diva”
Interesting that Dunaway, even when she had fewer visible roles happening in Hollywood, nonetheless continued to be a highly visible fixture on red carpet runways… With her ironed blonde hair, body smoked to emaciation, and dazzling dental veneers. I actually think she is immensely talented. It won’t be long before Hollywood starts extending their various “achievement” awards to her….
This past week, I was watching on TV some of those Mexican telenovelas, you know the ones? Those extremely lurid Spanish-language soap operas? Faye should’ve been born into Latin culture, where they still cherish the dramatic type of the “virago”, the “harpy”, the “shrew”…. essentially Jung’s “Bad Mother” archetype. Every single one of those telenovelas featured a truly frightening middle-aged woman…… whose rages, snarls and daggered glances and imprecations were not to be ignored by the cast of young pretty people. (-: Riveting, and Faye would’ve been a shoo-in.
Speaking of actors not thrilled to play certain roles: I am reminded of that tale in 1950’s New York: Marilyn is walking incognito along a Manhattan street with a friend. They suddenly are dwarfed by a huge cinema marquee on a many-storied building, depicting Marilyn in that white sundress, flapping up around her midriff; beatific grin.
But on the street, Marilyn turns to her friend bitterly and scoffs, “THAT’S all they see in me. THAT’S all they see me as.”
Actually, Pacino said his FAVORITE ROLE was Scarface…you got it reversed.
I imagine that Eddie Murphy regrets 95% of the films he’s ever done, and I hope he cries himself to sleep every night.
Harrison Ford seems to hate his role in Blade Runner partially due to bad experience while filming and cut
that made to theatre.
also who’ve seen The Last House On The Left,
Fred Lincoln who played Fred “the Weasel” Padowski(he gets his dick bitten of in the film)
has stated numerous times in interviews and even dvd commentary that film is a “piece of shit”
“it sucked” and perhaps jokingly that only good thing for him making that film is that he slept with
two girls who worked as a crew.
bump
apparently after filming IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT claudette colbert told a friend, “i’ve just finished filming the worst picture ever.” she later changed her mind…
Harrison Ford doesn’t like his work in the “Star Wars” films, I know that much. He wrestled with Ridley Scott throughout “Blade Runner”, but I believe he is happy with both the film and his performance.
Besides, he got to have statuesque Daryl Hannah give him a good old fashioned scissoring. Take my word for it, it looks painful, but it’s great fun with the right woman.
MARK IS SUSPENDED IN GAFFA
I’ve heard Sir Alec Guinness wasn’t exactly fond of his part as Ben Obi Wan Kenobi in the original “Star Wars” film, yet it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, plus it’s a very famous and beloved character. I know Faye Dunaway hates talking about a particular film (ahem) where she played Joan Crawford. Personally, I believe it’s a crying shame that Ms. Dunaway is far more famous for her part in “that” film, than she is for her earlier role in “Network”. Let’s remember, Faye Dunaway won one Oscar in her career. It was for “Network”. Yet folks persist in praising her for the role she credits for damaging her career. I get the impression Maria Schneider hated her part in “Last Tango In Paris”. So what are some other great performances (or ones that are just popular or well-known) that the performers themselves despise?