Dakota Johnson boldly promotes Madame Web in Los Angeles, February 12, 2024. Photo: AFP
After a much-derided trailer and a suspicious lack of press previews, it's likely that Madame Web is the latest Spider-Man spinoff to flop. Early reactions to the film (released February 14) ranged from «embarrassing» to «worse than Morbius.» Alas, its star Dakota Johnson is not leading any rearguard action. While she didn't openly criticize the end result, eyebrows were certainly raised in the industry when she left her WME talent agency just a week after this trailer was released.
Her press tour is a torturous game of reading between the lines. And it's not even necessary. When first asked about the process of making a blue-screen blockbuster, Johnson could barely hide her lack of enthusiasm.
“I’ve never done a movie where you’re on a blue screen. , and there are fake explosions, and someone says, “Explosion!”, and you act like there was an explosion. It was absolutely psychotic for me. I thought, “I don’t know if this is going to be any good!” I hope I did well!”
If you can't convincingly promote your own movie before it's even released, it seems unlikely that you'll remember your decision to become a star fondly. Many other actors — often after the fact — spoke out against films they either really hated making or hated watching. Here are some of the most notorious.
Jamie Dornan — Fifty Shades of Gray (2015)
The Fifty Shades films made a tidy profit—especially the first one, which is the only one that isn't terrible. Dakota Johnson herself explained that “no one would have done this” if they knew how “psychotic” the clashes with EL James at work would be.
But in the reviews they treated her favorably. Dornan took the brunt of the attack. While not going so far as to say he regretted the career break they envisioned, he saw it all coming, as he recently told Desert Island Discs. “I think I hid,” he admitted. “I’m moving away from the career-altering reviews of The Fall to just ridicule.” He and his wife fled to the country house of Sam and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan in Fifty Shades of Gray
“[Then] they made so much money that two or three films they gave the green light overnight. […] Now I am under contract to do two more of them and I know that there will be even more of this curse.”
Much of Dornan's recent work, such as Belfast, has been received with enthusiasm, but the ghost of Christian Gray still haunts him. “A lot of the reviews are like, 'He's great, but lest we forget when he wasn't great…'
Christopher Plummer — The Sound of Music (1965)
If there's one thing Christopher Plummer should have made clear after 50 years, it's that he really didn't like The Sound of Music. “Sentimental and tacky” were his typical objections to the evergreen classics, which he liked to deride as “S&M” or even “The Sound of Slime.” In a 2010 interview, he admitted that trying to make Captain von Trapp interesting was like «flogging a dead horse.»
Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music Photo credit: Bettmann The entire cast of Cats — Cats (2019)
Tom Hooper's star-studded, big-budget, all-time disaster of Andrew Lloyd Webber's adaptation was universally panned by critics (this the newspaper claimed that «the only real way to reform Cats is to neuter them») and was ridiculed by viewers.
Judi Dench as Deuteronomy in the film «Cats» Photo: AP
Note that most of the A-list actors are quietly distancing themselves from the film. Rebel Wilson poked fun at it in her Bafta acceptance speech, saying she recycled her black dress from «the funeral I just went to for the feature film Cats.» Taylor Swift called it a «weird movie,» and James Corden and Judi Dench said they heard it was terrible, although they claimed they hadn't seen it.
Dench was particularly disparaging about her costume. which, she said, made her look “like a beaten, mangy old cat… The cloak they made me wear!” Like five foxes on my back.”
Daniel Craig – “Spectre” (2015) (and Bond in general)
Amid all the hoopla over which lucky guy will play 007 next, the likes of Tom Hardy should probably be warned that the role is no cakewalk. Sean Connery famously hated Bond — «I wish I could kill him?» he said — and feuded with Cubby Broccoli for decades over salary disputes, which explains why he kept quitting the series.
But Daniel Craig was even more candid about the routine challenges of getting one of his films into the can. Two days after filming Phantom wrapped in 2015, he gave an infamous interview to Time Out London, declaring that he would “rather slit my wrists” than do another one.
Wants to cut his wrists: Daniel Craig in the 2015 film “Spectre.” Photo: Colombia
It's not a very efficient shoot, but a chaotic race against time, with script rework and/or third-act repairs required at an excruciatingly late stage. Despite all this, perhaps Craig is just a canny negotiator who knows which side his bread is buttered on: his £37m fee for Phantom was increased to a reported £50m when they lured him back to “No Time to Die.”
Elizabeth Taylor – Butterfield 8 (1961)
“It stinks!” — Elizabeth Taylor is said to have screamed, throwing her shoes at the screen, when she first saw this drama about an expensive call girl. She never wanted to do it in the first place, telling MGM production chief Saul Siegel, “This is the most pornographic script I've ever read. I've been working here for 17 years and I've never been asked to play a role as terrible as Gloria Vandrous. She is a sick nymphomaniac. There's no way I'm going to do that.”
Elizabeth Taylor was furious about her role in Butterfield 8 Photo: Alamy
Unfortunately, MGM kept her under the pressure of a stale multi-year contract, forcing her to do it for $125,000 before her $1 million salary for Fox's Cleopatra (1963). John O'Hara's novel was duly turned into a trash fest that sleazyly capitalized on the scandalous image of Taylor seducing her married co-star Eddie Fisher from Debbie Reynolds.
“I was the whore of them all.” time!» — this line best characterizes her character. The consolation prize was a victory in the category «Best Actress» after three defeats at the Oscars — the victory was usually attributed to sympathy during Taylor's recovery from pneumonia and tracheotomy.
Channing Tatum — GI Joe: Rise of Cobra (2009)
The film adaptation of the popular US comic book series did well at the box office, earning $302 million, but no amount of money could convince Tatum that he had not made a mistake by starring in it.
Channing Tatum
Tatum claims he only accepted the role after he was encouraged to do so by Paramount, with whom he had worked earlier in his career and signed a three-picture deal. “I fucking hate that movie,” he said in a radio interview, adding that “the script was bad.”
Alec Guinness – Star Wars (1977)
What made Alec Guinness work so hard on the nominated An Oscar for a role in the most beloved blockbuster of our time? The answer is simple: the script by George Lucas.
“New meaningless dialogue reaches me every day on pieces of pink paper — and none of it makes my character clear or even bearable,” he wrote to a friend from the set. In the same letter he vaguely refers to «Tennyson (it can't be) Ford» and admits that the money, doubled during negotiations, was the only thing that kept him going.
He wasn't the only actor to doubt Lucas's writing ability: «George, you can type this crap… but you can't say it! Harrison Ford famously made the joke, and Carrie Fisher found it so ineffable that it perversely inspired her to become a screenwriter.
Ryan Reynolds — Green Lantern (2011)
Ryan Reynolds excelled in his starring role in what is often called the worst superhero movie ever made: a few years later, he turned it into a running joke in another film, Deadpool. He tried to deflect criticism by claiming that his character, Hal Jordan, was the source of much of the scorn. “Look, I've never seen the complete final cut of Green Lantern. I saw a very late rough cut of the film.»
Ryan Reynolds George Clooney — Batman and Robin (1997) )
Even now, George Clooney makes it a point to «always apologize for Batman and Robin,» which he believes was so terrible that it killed the franchise (until it was revived by Christopher Nolan a few years later). The saddest part? He honestly thought it was a good idea: “At the time I thought it would be a very good career move. Hmm, that's not true.»
George Clooney Harrison Ford – Blade Runner (1982)
Rick Deckard in Blade Runner is a grumpy cynic on a hellish mission in a completely inhospitable environment. Harrison Ford didn't so much get used to the character as he lived through all of the above for months. “It was a long job,” he told Vanity Fair in 2017. Ridley Scott had just lost his 45-year-old brother Frank to skin cancer and had to calm hordes of meddling studio friends. His gloomy mood infected the atmosphere on the Warner Bros. set. Smoke and boiling noodles as they filmed night after night.
Harrison Ford in the movie «Blade Runner» he found in 'slog' Photo: Alamy
“In some ways it’s a benevolent dictatorship,” Scott likes to say of his non-collaborative directing style. But he and Ford argued over whether Deckard was truly a replicant, an idea that Ford despised and which Scott continued to try to introduce into the story. Ford exploded when an origami unicorn sneaked in as a clue. «Damn it, I thought we said I wasn't a replicant!» The voiceover growl, which he considered «clumsy and boring», set the tone for post-production, and the film's box office performance was no less dismal.
Halle Berry — Catwoman (2004)
The DC Universe gave Halle Berry the rotten short straw. Three years after winning the Oscar for Best Actress for Monster's Ball, she won a Razzie Award for her work in the famously terrible Catwoman. It was her biggest payday and biggest humiliation, but she took it like a champion. She bravely showed up to the year's worst film awards, thanking Warner Bros «for casting me in this terrible movie.» /> Halle Berry Emilia Clarke – Terminator Genisys (2015)
After this over-the-top attempt to reboot Arnold Schwarzenegger's killer robot franchise failed to pan out in 2015, plans for a sequel and TV spin-off were put on hold. Even if a sequel were made, Clarke probably wouldn't say, «I'll be back.» In an interview with Vanity Fair, she admitted that she was «relieved» that the franchise failed.
Problems in production took a toll on the film's director Alan Taylor, who previously worked with Clarke on Game of Thrones. Thrones. According to the actress, Taylor was «eaten and chewed by the Terminator.» He was not the director I remembered. He had a bad time. Nobody had a good time.»
Emilia Clarke, Maxwell Caulfield and Michelle Pfeiffer — «Grease 2» (1982)
The millions of fans who were hopelessly devoted to «Grease» weren't the only ones left disappointed by its lackluster sequel. Main stars Maxwell Caulfield and Michelle Pfeiffer were also clearly underwhelmed — to put it mildly. While Pfeiffer was a triumph, unlike Halle Berry as Catwoman, she was no Olivia Newton-John: “I hated that movie with a rage and couldn’t believe how bad it was,” she said in 2007.
Maxwell Caulfield and Michelle Pfeiffer
But even as Pfeiffer struggled to come back from her failure, Brian De Palma initially refused to let her audition for Scarface (1983) — Caulfield had it much worse. “I learned a pretty hard lesson early on. After Grease 2, the films that were promised to me never materialized.”
“Michelle was smart. Immediately after this, she starred in Scarface with Al Pacino. It showed that she had range, that she was versatile. To me? Well, my reputation as a bubblegum actor stuck for a while.”
Wesley Snipes — Blade: Trinity (2004)
If ever the third time wasn't the charm, it was the unfortunate ending to Wesley Snipes' vampire superhero saga, which could have continued if he hadn't hated it . so much. “Bad ingredients come in, bad cake comes out,” Snipes concluded in 2014.
David S. Goyer wrote the first two scripts, but their relationship collapsed after Snipes complained that his white co-stars, Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel, were taking attention away from him.
Wesley Snipes in Blade, which didn't end well in production. Photo: Alamy
According to supporting player Patton Oswalt, Snipes had been «smoking weed all day» and seemed constantly on edge. At one point, he allegedly tried to strangle Goyer — although Snipes denies this. The next day, a group of bikers appeared on the set — Goyer met them at night in a strip bar and bribed them to pose as his security. They say Snipes got scared and retreated to his trailer. By the end of filming, he communicated only through stickers signed “from Blade.”
Robert Pattinson – The Twilight Saga (entire) (2008–2012)
Although Pattinson caught the attention of teenage Harry Potter fans after playing the doomed Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, he landed leading roles in the Twilight Saga blockbusters that made him a Hollywood star.
How tragic vampire Edward, Pattinson received a significant body glow for the role, several million dollars and a girlfriend in Kristen Stewart (they later broke up after she had an affair with Snow White and The Huntsman director Rupert Sanders), but he also did not become a Twihard.
Robert Pattinson
“When I read it, I feel like it should never have been published,” he said of the series that would go on to inspire other great works… like Fifty Shades of Grey.
Matt Damon – The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
The Bourne Ultimatum won three Oscars and made Matt Damon his biggest moneymaker to date, but that doesn't mean he liked the third action movie. Damon, who, let's not forget, wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for the film Good Will Hunting while still a student, took offense at screenwriter Tony Gilroy.
“I don’t blame Tony for taking a ton of money and giving back what he gave,” Damon told GQ. “It was just unreadable. This is the end of a career. I mean, I could put this thing on eBay and it would be game over for this dude. It's really awkward. Basically, he had a try, he took his money and left.»
Ben Affleck — Daredevil (2003) and Batman v Superman (2016) Ben Affleck also won an Oscar for co-writing Good Will Hunting, but in 2003, when he was famous for his premature engagement, it seemed very far away. Jennifer Lopez, who starred in the video for her hit Jenny From the Block and directed by Gigli. He also starred in the now little-loved Daredevil.
Affleck despised superhero films so much that it prompted him to try to redeem himself by playing DC's caped crusader in Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). During this press tour, he confessed his motivation: “I wanted to get one of these movies for once and do it right—do a good version. I hate Daredevil so much.»
Unfortunately, this noble career goal backfired. When the embargo on the Snyder cut was broken and caused criticism around the world, and someone talked about it in an interview, Henry Cavill was walking around in circles doing damage control while Affleck just sat next to him, dying inside. The above slow-zoom version of the moment, titled «Sad Affleck» to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel's «The Sound of Silence,» quickly went viral.
Sylvester Stallone — Escape Plan 2: Hades (2018)
Perhaps he should have been wary of the potential nominative determinism in Escape Plan 2's subtitle, but Stallone certainly seems to have gone through hell for the middle film of this prison trilogy. I've ever had the misfortune of starring in,” Stallone wrote on his Instagram account to promote Escape Plan 3: Extractors (2019), which (apparently) was a relative breeze to make.
Sylvester Stallone, Kate Winslet — Titanic (1997)
It would have gone wildly over budget, stunned studio executives and turned into a record-breaking box office phenomenon. But the daily process of creating Titanic was simply torture for 21-year-old Kate Winslet. She told Rolling Stone that James Cameron called her «Kate Weighs a Lot,» which brought back unpleasant memories of the nicknames she was given at school.
The conditions under which production continued were grueling: 20-hour days were sometimes required, and most scenes were filmed at night, which meant breakfast at 4 a.m. and wild disorientation. Despite all the swimming scenes, Winslet was one of the few actors who did not wear a wetsuit for fear that it might show through the chiffon. “It was like swimming in the coldest winter in the history of Scottish winters,” she later recalled. “No acting was required because my reactions were real.”
Kate Winslet
It is not surprising that she fell ill with pneumonia, which is why she almost quit smoking. She also nearly drowned when her coat got caught underwater. Now she hates watching herself in this film and dreams of redoing every scene — but perhaps without the ordeal.
Daniel Radcliffe — Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Agreeing to appear in eight films when you're barely eight years old is one of the riskiest strategies for adolescence. So it's no surprise that Daniel Radcliffe had a hard time remembering the sixth film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: «I'm just not very good at it,» he said during the interview. «I hate it. My game is very one-note and I see that I've become complacent and what I tried to do just didn't work.»
Daniel Radcliffe, Matthew Goode – Leap Year (2010)
Goode took a pragmatic approach to the sentimental rom-com Leap Year. He told The Telegraph: «I just know there are a lot of people who will say this is the worst film of 2010,» but explained that the film's appeal lies in its workability rather than its artistry: «That was the main reason.» The reason I took it was the opportunity to come home on weekends.
“It wasn't because of the script, believe me. I was told it would be something like The Quiet Man with a Vaughan Williams soundtrack, but it ended up having pop music all over it. A bit like Chasing Freedom. Do I feel like I've let myself down? No. Was it a bad job? Yes, it was. But, you know, I had a good time and I got paid.”
Matthew Goode Sylvester Stallone — Stop! Or my mother will shoot (1992)
Stallone and Estelle Getty took on this gimmicky buddy-cop movie in 1992 only after Arnold Schwarzenegger (who had been sent the dismal script) feigned interest solely to lure the Rocky star. Since then, Stallone has made it a point to film it in increasingly inventive ways, including in 2010: “If you ever want someone to confess to murder, just make him or her sit through this movie. In 15 minutes they will admit to anything.”
Sylvester Stallone, Jamie Lee Curtis – Virus (1999)
Nearly 20 years after its release, the ridiculous alien invasion film Virus has achieved cult status, but star Jamie Lee Curtis, now an Oscar winner, remains unconvinced. She told Venn in 2010 that she regretted making «a piece of crap», deriding it as «an incredibly bad movie, just bad from the bottom up». There is a scene where I run away from this alien and hide under the stairs. It’s something that can open steel walls and I’m hiding under the stairs!”
Like the virus, there seemed to be no cure for the film—Curtis simply had to ride it out: “That was probably the only time I knew something was just bad, and there wasn’t.” there's nothing I could do about it.”
Nicole Kidman — Australia (2008)
Kidman is known for not watching the films she stars in, but she did watch Baz Luhrmann's lavish flop Australia and she wasn't happy. She told a Sydney radio station: «I can't watch this film and be proud of what I've done… It's just impossible for me to connect with it emotionally.» .jpg» /> Nicole Kidman Katherine Heigl – Knocked Up (2007)
Judd Apatow's goofy pregnancy comedy triumphed at the box office and received good reviews, but Katherine Heigl had a hard time swallowing the film's gender politics. Heigl, who was forced to stress that being on Apatow's set was «the best filming experience of her career,» complained to Vanity Fair that she also found it «a little sexist.»
Katherine Heigl
She continued: “Women are portrayed as obstinate, humorless and nervous, while men are portrayed as sweet, silly, fun-loving guys. Some days I had a hard time with this. I play such a bitch. Why is she so boring?
Mickey Rourke — Play of Passion (2010)
Rourke just came agonizingly close to winning the Best Actor Oscar for his career-best film, The Wrestler (2009) . But the pendulum swung for the worse again when his 2010 drama Passion flopped. Rourke played a former heroin addict and jazz trumpeter who falls in love with a woman who has real wings (Megan Fox); he called it «Terrible». Another terrible movie.»
Mickey Rourke
But he added: “You know, in your career and in all the films that you make, you're what we're going to do dozens of terrible ones.” When he was told that the film would have a limited release, he was quite understanding and replied: «That's because it's not very good.»
Megan Fox — Transformers (2007)
Even more unfortunately for Fox, she would was already the poster girl for Michael Bay's hugely profitable Transformers, treated lustfully by the cameras all the time, even though she wasn't such a fan of her own performance.
Megan Fox
“I’m terrible at this,” she told Entertainment Weekly in 2009 before parting ways with the franchise. “This is my first real film and it is dishonest and unrealistic. The movie wasn't bad, I just wasn't proud of what I did… But unless you're a seasoned veteran, working with Michael Bay is not an acting experience.»
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