17 A-List Actors Who Have Openly Slated Their Own Films

Every now and then, even the most celebrated of A-listers will candidly criticise one of their own films.

Some of the biggest stars in the industry have admitted that they don’t always make the best decisions, and that the movie audiences saw wasn’t the one they thought they were making.

Whether it’s an ill-advised role for a paycheck, a favour for a friend or a passion project that didn’t turn out as expected, even Hollywood royalty are susceptible to bad choices.

Here are 17 stars who have spoken out against some their past films…

Since the first instalment in the Twilight series premiered in 2008, Robert Pattinson has been outspoken about his distaste for the vampire franchise.

During press junkets, interviews and talk show appearances, the British actor has called the films “strange” and “weird”, as well as questioning if they made sense at all and going as far as comparing the brooding Edward Cullen to “an axe murderer”.

When promoting the first movie, Robert told Empire how much he disliked his iconic vampire character, and how that hatred factored into how he played the role.

“He’s the most ridiculous person who’s so amazing at everything. I think a lot of actors tried to play that aspect. I just couldn’t do that,” he said.

“And the more I read the script, the more I hated this guy, so that’s how I played him, as a manic-depressive who hates himself. Plus, he’s a 108-year-old virgin, so he’s obviously got some issues there.”

Even after the Twilight series ended, Robert continued poking fun at the franchise and his character.

“Twilight is about this guy who finds the one girl he wants to be with, and also wants to eat her. Well not eat her, drink her blood, whatever,” he said in his 2019 Actors on Actors with Jennifer Lopez.

Passengers centres around two space travellers who are awoken from induced hibernation 90 years too early while on a voyage across space.

Jen admitted in 2021 that the worst part of the film’s poor reviews was the disappointment felt by her fans, telling The New York Times: “I was like, ‘Oh no, you guys are here because I’m here, and I’m here because you’re here. Wait, who decided that this was a good movie?’”

There was even one A-list name in her social circle who warned her against the project.

“Adele told me not to do it! She was like, ‘I feel like space movies are the new vampire movies’,” she recalled, joking: “I should have listened to her.”

Rosamund Pike has admitted that an early on-screen appearance very nearly ended her career.

The Gone Girl actor appeared in the 2005 adaptation of the video game Doom alongside Dwayne Johnson (still credited as The Rock) and Karl Urban.

During an appearance on Elizabeth Day’s podcast How To Fail in 2026, Rosamund explained how she was cast in Doom when making Pride & Prejudice, at a time when Ray Winstone was still set to play the lead.

Once she made it onto the set, it didn’t take long for her to discover how out of her depth she was.

“Suddenly, I’m in this film with The Rock, and I realise how utterly ill-equipped I am to be an action star,” she explained. “[There were] macho guys. There were weights on the set. Every time a gun was brought out, it was kind of like a holy relic for the Doom fans.

“I probably could have ended my career. I mean, it was just probably one of the worst films ever made. It was a catastrophe, I think.”

Considering the 18% Rotten Tomatoes score and poor box office taking, she isn’t wrong.

“As I say, I don’t read the reviews, but you get the sense like you are lucky to have survived that one. But then, it wasn’t career-ending for The Rock. Or me, as it turned out,” Rosamund added.

Sir Gary Oldman is one of the true acting greats, with roles in iconic films like The Fifth Element, Dracula and Darkest Hour.

But not all his films are classics, and the Oscar winner is well aware of that.

During an interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast this year, the knighted actor spoke about making the – thankfully, mostly forgotten – Tiptoes alongside Matthew McConaughey and Kate Beckinsale.

The 2002 film came during a tough period in Gary’s life, when he was a newly-single dad in Hollywood, going through a divorce.

“It was a bit of a rough time, and I needed to pay some bills, and I needed some money, and it was an actors’ strike on top of it all, which was a double whammy,” he admitted.

The project went wrong before it even started when the director wanted Gary to play Matthew’s brother.

“There were several [issues]. First of all, I got locked in to doing a voice like that, because I had to sound like Matthew. We were brothers, so somehow, I had to sound like Matthew. So that was that,” he explained. “And then, I’m on my knees… desperate measures, desperate times.” he explained.

It’s not just Tiptoes that Gary isn’t a fan of. Apparently, he also dislikes The Fifth Element, despite it being considered one of the best science fiction films of all time.

In 2014, Gary told Playboy he “couldn’t bear” the movie, admitting as recently as 2025 that he still feels “triggered” by it.

Some of Hollywood’s best-loved actors have taken the role of Batman on the big screen, but there is one A-lister who infamously hated his time as the Caped Crusader.

George Clooney disliked Batman & Robin so much that he feared he had “destroyed the franchise” completely.

The camp classic is often considered the worst Batman film of all time, and has even been called one of the worst comic book films ever made.

“It’s so bad that it actually hurts to watch,” the Ocean’s Eleven star said on The Howard Stern Show in 2020. “You’ll be flipping the channels and it’ll just pop up and I’m like ‘Oh no, no, no’.”

“The truth of the matter is, I was bad in it,” he conceded.

“Akiva Goldsman – who has won the Oscar for writing since then – he wrote the screenplay. And it’s a terrible screenplay, he’ll tell you. I’m terrible in it, I’ll tell you. Joel Schumacher, who just passed away, directed it, and he’d say, ‘Yeah, it didn’t work.’ We all whiffed on that one.”

George even admitted in 2021 that he doesn’t let his wife Amal, watch the 1997 movie.

“There are certain films I just go, ‘I want my wife to have some respect for me,’” he claimed during a Q&A session.

When Bill Murray signed on to voice animated cat Garfield in the 2004 film, he was under the impression that Joel Coen of Fargo fame had written the script.

Because he believed the No Country For Old Men director was behind the film, Bill went along with making the animated film, despite his reservations.

In fact, Joel Cohen of Cheaper By The Dozen had penned the film, which Bill only found out when he watched it back and wondered why it was so bad.

He recalled to GQ in 2011: “I worked all day and kept going, ‘That’s the line? Well, I can’t say that’. And you sit there and go, ‘What can I say that will make this funny? And make it make sense?’. And I worked.

“I was exhausted, soaked with sweat, and the lines got worse and worse. And I said, ‘OK, you better show me the whole rest of the movie, so we can see what we’re dealing with’.”

He continued: “So I sat down and watched the whole thing, and I kept saying, ‘Who the hell cut this thing? Who did this? What the fuck was Coen thinking?’. And then they explained it to me: it wasn’t written by that Joel Coen.”

Channing Tatum has publicly gone on record to say he “fucking hates” G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra, a film he starred in back in 2009.

He admitted on The Howard Stern Show that he was forced to appear in the film due to a three-picture contract he had signed with the movie studio Paramount.

“I was pushed into doing that movie,” he claimed. “From Coach Carter, they signed me to a three-picture deal… 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!’.”

Channing hated the script so much he actually turned it down seven times before eventually relenting, admitting that part of the reason he wanted to say no was because he loved the action figures so much as a child, and wanted to play Snake Eyes instead of GI Joe.

He added: “The script wasn’t any good… And I didn’t want to do something that I… was a fan of since I was a kid and watched every morning growing up – and didn’t want to do something that was, one, bad and, two, I just didn’t know if I wanted to be G.I. Joe.”

While he did appear in the sequel, he was, luckily for him, killed off in the first 10 minutes.

Dwayne Johnson instead took over as the franchise lead, while in the 2021 reboot, Snake Eyes, Henry Golding played the commando.

Despite it earning her the second of her four Oscar nominations, Viola Davis has admitted that she regrets her role in The Help, and agrees with critics about the movie’s “white saviour” narrative.

Speaking to The New York Times in 2018, Viola said her performance as a maid for a white family in the 1960s was a career lowlight, despite having a positive experience on set.

“I just felt that at the end of the day that it wasn’t the voices of the maids that were heard,” she said. “I want to know what it feels like to work for white people and to bring up children in 1963, I want to hear how you really feel about it. I never heard that in the course of the movie.”

Later, in 2020, she spoke up again about how she felt like she “betrayed” her community by taking on the role.

“There’s no one who’s not entertained by The Help. But there’s a part of me that feels like I betrayed myself, and my people, because I was in a movie that wasn’t ready to [tell the whole truth],” Viola told Vanity Fair.

She went on to admit that she only took on the role because she was a “journeyman actor, trying to get in” to the industry.

Charlize Theron considers Reindeer Games her worst film to date, although there is one reason why she doesn’t regret making it.

The film – released in 2000, and co-starring Ben Affleck – centres on an ex-convict who assumes his deceased cellmate’s identity and gets involved in a heist.

She admitted to Esquire in 2007: “That was a bad, bad, bad movie. But even though the movie might suck, I got to work with [film director] John Frankenheimer.”

“That’s why I did it,” the Oscar winner claimed, singling out his film, The Manchurian Candidate, as one of her favourites.

Reindeer Games was ultimately the director’s last feature-length project before he died in 2002.

Ben also poked fun at the film while appearing as himself in Kevin Smith’s 2001 satirical comedy, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, calling it a “payback picture”.

Sandra Bullock openly admits that Speed 2 is a film she is “embarrassed” to have made.

“[It] makes no sense. Slow boat. Slowly going towards an island,” she told Too Fab in 2018. “That’s one I wished I hadn’t done and no fans came around that I know of.”

The sequel was a box office disappointment, earning negative reviews from critics and fans of the original.

Keanu Reeves dodged the bullet when he turned down the chance to reprise his role in the second film after reading its script.

“I really wanted to work with Sandra Bullock, I loved playing Jack Traven, and I loved Speed,” he said during an episode of The Graham Norton show. “But an ocean liner? I had nothing against the artists involved, but at that time I had the feeling it just wasn’t right.”

In 2014, Josh Brolin made a public apology for his role in the 2010 superhero sci-fi, Jonah Hex.

The Oscar nominee admitted to Total Film that he regrets encouraging co-stars Megan Fox, John Malkovich and Michael Fassbender to come aboard the project.

“I think it deserved that bashing for reasons that those critics will never know,” he claimed. “We were almost ready to drop [the film] when this kid [director Jimmy Hayward] came up. He was an interesting young guy full of energy and he was obsessed with Jonah Hex. I thought, ‘This is either a really bad decision or a brilliant decision’.

He added: “[It was] really bad. If I’m ever really rich, I’ll do that movie again. Seriously.”

In the box office flop, Josh played a scarred, supernatural bounty hunter in the post-Civil War American West.

It’s no wonder the Dune actor hates it, as it currently sits on 12% Rotten Tomatoes and nearly derailed his career as a leading man.

In 2024, Josh joked to GQ that he would never “stop shitting” on that “shitty fucking movie”, but backtracked later after revealing he had since reconnected with the director who had been suffering with health issues at the time it was made.

“It reminded me [that] you can’t just keep shitting on somebody. I don’t know what the fuck’s going on in his life. I mean, total facial reconstruction, the whole thing,” he told GQ.

The Sound of Music may have earned five Oscars and become a family favourite in the 60 years since it was released, but Christopher Plummer initially thought it was a little too on the soppy side.

Christopher, who played Baron von Trapp opposite Julie Andrews’ Maria, even once referred to the musical movie as “The Sound Of Mucus”.

“I think the part in The Sound of Music was the toughest because it was so awful and sentimental and gooey,” the Knives Out actor told The Hollywood Reporter in 2011.

“You had to work terribly hard to try and infuse some minuscule bit of humour into it.”

Speaking to The Boston Globe, Christopher suggested that his character was boring despite the creative team working hard to “make him interesting” – and complained that filming in the Alps made him “fat” from all the pastries he ate.

The late actor did change his mind later, writing in his autobiography: “The more I watched, the more I realised what a terrific movie it is.”

He went on to describe The Sound Of Music as “the very best of its genre – warm, touching, absolutely timeless”, admitting he was “totally seduced by the damn thing – and what’s more, I felt a sudden surge of pride that I’d been a part of it”.

Colin Farrell has repeatedly stated he is not a fan of the 2006 Miami Vice film, believing it to be a case of “style over substance”.

Michael Mann’s movie adaptation of the hit 1980s TV show left the Irish actor unimpressed, especially as the off-screen chemistry he and co-star Jamie Foxx had behind the scenes didn’t translate in front of the camera.

“I had a certain banter with Jamie off camera that I know the tone of the film wouldn’t have allowed that degree of banter. I would have loved to have just a little bit more of the banter,” he told The Independent in 2025.

He has also opened up about some his negative experiences behind the scenes of the crime drama, stating he barely remembers it as it was made at the height of his drug and alcohol addiction.

The star of The Penguin checked into rehab 48 hours after wrapping on the film, and later told Jonathan Ross in 2008 that: “By the end of Miami Vice I was just done. Basically, I’d been fairly drunk or high since I was 14. I was very drunk and high for 16 years, so it was a tough life change, and I was dying. I’m one of the lucky ones.”

Emilia Clarke disliked her time appearing alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 2015 Terminator reboot, and she was glad at its poor box office performance.

Following a critical bashing, Terminator Genisys flopped at the worldwide box office, and Emilia was glad she would not have to return for any sequels.

She joined the project to work with frequent Game Of Thrones director Alan Taylor, but admitted to Vanity Fair that he got “eaten and chewed up on Terminator”.

“He was not the director I remembered. He didn’t have a good time. No one had a good time,” she explained.

The production of the film, which also co-starred Matt Smith and Jason Clarke, was so bad that the crew of neighbouring production (and fellow box office disaster) Fantastic Four made jackets which read: “At least we’re not on Terminator.”

Sally Field appeared twice as Aunt May opposite Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man, but the Oscar winner’s time in the Spider-verse was less than fulfilling for her.

“It’s really hard to find a three-dimensional character in it, and you work it as much as you can, but you can’t put 10 pounds of shit in a five-pound bag,” she once told Howard Stern, admitting she didn’t put a lot of effort into her performance.

“It’s not my kind of movie,” Sally added, before explaining she only took on the role because it was produced by her friend and first producing partner, Laura Ziskin.

She has not returned to the MCU with Andrew Garfield – and probably never will, judging by her opinion of the franchise. Marisa Tomei played the character of Aunt May alongside Tom Holland in the most recent Spider-Man movies.

Madame Web was so bad that it became a meme – and Dakota Johnson certainly didn’t jump to defend it.

The Fifty Shades actor later reflected on the superhero film, and admitted that the filmmakers and executives were too concerned with algorithms and statistics rather than the quality of the project.

“My feeling has been for a long time that audiences are extremely smart, and executives have started to believe that they’re not,” she told Bustle. “Audiences will always be able to sniff out bullshit.”

She added that it was an “experience” to make the film, which saw her play a paramedic who starts to show signs of clairvoyance.

“I had never done anything like it before,” she said. “I probably will never do anything like it again because I don’t make sense in that world. And I know that now.

“But sometimes in this industry, you sign on to something, and it’s one thing and then as you’re making it, it becomes a completely different thing.”

Although Dakota admitted it wasn’t a nice feeling to be involved in a project so hated, even if she understood the criticism. “Of course it’s not nice to be a part of something that’s ripped to shreds, but I can’t say that I don’t understand,” she explained.

Jacob Elordi’s dislike of his early role in Netflix’s The Kissing Booth is well-documented at this point.

Despite appearing in all three films alongside Joey King, the Euphoria actor is less than proud at its inclusion in his filmography.

“I didn’t want to make those movies before I made those movies. Those movies are ridiculous. They’re not universal. They’re an escape,” he told GQ in 2023.

Jacob plays football player and Harvard student Noah Flynn in the 2018 movie and its sequels, and explained that the film felt like a “trap” actors fall into when trying to make it in Hollywood.

“You have no original ideas and you’re dead inside. So it’s a fine dance,” he said.

The Saltburn actor also hit back at critics who called his dissatisfaction with the YA films as “pretentious”.

“How is caring about your output pretentious?” Jacob replied. “But not caring … knowing that you’re making money off of people’s time, which is literally the most valuable thing that they have. How is that the cool thing?”

His co-star, Joey King, said that his feelings towards the films were “unfortunate”, and she “had a great time making those movies, no matter what anyone says.”