10 times actors confessed to struggling with their movies - from Brad Pitt to Kristen Stewart
"A week in you go, 'Oh God, what have I done?'"
Kristen Stewart's candid revelations about her Charlie's Angels experience are nothing new when it comes to Hollywood.
While speaking to Variety about the 2019 reboot, the Sabina Wilson actress recently admitted: "I hated making that movie. I don't know what else to say to you. Cameron [Diaz], Lucy [Liu] and Drew [Barrymore]... loved [the original] movie! If that says anything."
From Oscar-winners Brad Pitt, Viola Davis and Christian Bale, to Channing Tatum and Jessica Alba, profession-based misery reaches even the brightest sparks of the entertainment industry, and below you'll find 9 more instances where they came to deeply regret their project choices.
Brad Pitt – The Devil's Own (1997)
Despite brushing shoulders with the mighty Harrison Ford in this action picture, Pitt's role as Francis 'Frankie' McGuire was marred by a chaotic atmosphere behind the scenes.
The actor revealed to Newsweek in the year of its release: "We had a great script but it got tossed for various reasons. To have to make something up as you go along... what pressure!
"It was ridiculous. It was the most irresponsible bit of filmmaking – if you can even call it that – that I've ever seen. I couldn't believe it. I don't know why anyone would want to continue making that movie. We had nothing. The movie was the complete victim of this drowning studio head... who said, 'I don’t care. We're making it. I don't care what you have. Shoot something'".
Jessica Alba – Fantastic Four (2005) and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
Cast as Susan Storm/Invisible Woman in this forgettable Marvel Studios two-hander - three years before the company went stratospheric thanks to Iron Man - Alba came out the other side wanting to quit the business for good.
"I hated it. I really hated it," she told Elle. "I remember when I was dying in Silver Surfer, the director was like, 'It looks too real. It looks too painful. Can you be prettier when you cry? Cry pretty, Jessica'".
"It all got me thinking: Am I not good enough? Are my instincts and my emotions not good enough? And so I just said, 'F*** it. I don't care about this business anymore'".
Channing Tatum – G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
Based on the beloved line of toys, this sci-fi blockbuster didn't do much for Tatum's credibility at the time, having broken big four years prior in Coach Carter.
Following Rise of the Cobra's critical and commercial failure, he alleged that Paramount Pictures forced him to appear in it despite declining on seven occasions.
"I'll be honest, I f****** hate that movie," Tatum admitted to talk show host Howard Stern. "The studio calls up and they're like, 'Hey, we got a movie for you, we're going to send it to you.' And they send it to you, and it's G.I. Joe. And I love G.I. Joe: 'Can I play Snake Eyes?' And they're like, 'No, you're not playing Snake Eyes, you're playing G.I. Joe.'
"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. I was pushed into doing it."
Viola Davis – The Help (2011)
"Have I ever done roles that I've regretted? I have, and The Help is on that list," Davis sensationally informed The New York Times in 2018, having welcomed an Oscar nomination for her part as maid Aibileen Clark.
"I just felt that at the end of the day that it wasn't the voices of the maids that were heard. I know Aibileen. I know Minny. They're my grandma. They're my mom. And I know that if you do a movie where the whole premise is, 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."
Alec Baldwin – Rock of Ages (2012)
Adapted from the jukebox Broadway musical of the same name, this star-spangled comedy saw the likes of Tom Cruise, Paul Giamatti, Russell Brand, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mary J. Blige and Bryan Cranston letting loose, yet the production itself was apparently a total car crash.
"It was a complete disaster," Dennis Dupree star Baldwin told The Wrap.
"A week in you go, 'Oh God, what have I done?' The plane is buffeting, the engine is on fire."
Sandra Bullock – Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)
Reprising her Speed character Annie Porter without the comfort blanket of Keanu Reeves' Jack Traven, Bullock was instead placed opposite Jason Patric's Alex Shaw for the sequel as their Caribbean cruise gets hijacked by the unhinged John Geiger (played by Willem Dafoe).
During an interview with TooFab, the 59-year-old reflected: "I have one [film that] no one came around to and I'm still embarrassed I was in. It's called Speed 2.
"Makes no sense. Slow boat. Slowly going towards an island."
Oscar Isaac – X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
For this horrible follow-up to X-Men: Days of Future Past, director Bryan Singer managed to get his hands on one of Tinsel Town's most sought-after performers in Isaac - playing the world's first mutant En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse.
"I know exactly what I went in there wanting to do and the reasons why," the actor claimed in a New York Times chat six years after the film's release.
"There were these amazing actors involved that I really wanted to work with, [James] McAvoy and [Michael] Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence. And then you get there and you're like, 'Oh my God, I've got all these prosthetics on. I've got a suit on. I can't move. I can't see anybody.
"'All these actors I wanted to work with – I can't even see who they are.'"
Zoe Saldana - Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Although Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow was probably a joy to be around on set, Saldana's time on the first Pirates of the Caribbean left a sour taste in her mouth.
Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, the Anamaria actress suggested: "Those weren't the right people for me. I'm not talking about the cast. The cast was great. I'm talking about the political stuff that went on behind closed doors.
"It was a lot of above-the-line versus below-the-line, extras versus actors, producers versus PAs. It was very elitist. I almost quit the business. I was 23 years old, and I was like, 'F*** this! I am never putting myself in this situation again.' People disrespecting me because they look at my number on a call sheet and they think I'm not important. F*** you."
Christian Bale - Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
Promoting his fiercely-anticipated yet ultimately dull MCU threequel, Bale admitted to GQ that stepping into the creepy shoes of supervillain Gorr the God Butcher was monotonous.
"That's the first time I've done [green screen]. I mean, the definition of it is monotony," he began.
"You've got good people. You've got other actors who are far more experienced at it than me. Can you differentiate one day from the next? No. Absolutely not. You have no idea what to do. I couldn't even differentiate one stage from the next. They kept saying, 'You're on Stage Three.' Well, it's like, 'Which one is that?' 'The blue one.' They're like, 'Yeah. But you're on Stage Seven.' 'Which one is that?' 'The blue one.' I was like, 'Uh, where?'"
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