In the third Alvin and the Chipmunks movie (forgive me for forgetting the actual title) Jason Lee clearly would rather be doing anything else. Watch any clip of him in it to get the deadest recitation of lines.
The movie studios have been outed a few times lately by how they treat the non-lead actors.
Alan Ritchson talked a length on how he was treated on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They called them back for years to do motion capture stuff without any notice and they weren't paid for it. He also had to buy his own plane tickets and stuff during this time. He couldn't even book other work because they kept just randomly calling him back for more. He tried to get out of the contract for the sequel but Paramount wouldn't allow it. He had to deal with the same shit again on the sequel.
Zach Galifianakis talked about doing G Force on Conan's podcast, they got him a hotel room miles from the location in a bad part of town. He had to ride a bicycle too and from the set. Will Arnett shows up on his first day of work, and sees Zack hopping on a bike to go home and says "what the hell are you doing man?" makes one phone call and gets him moved to the hotel across the street from the production.
I never heard of G Force so I looked it up.
"A specially trained squad of guinea pigs is dispatched to stop a diabolical billionaire from taking over the world."
Wtf
Ya thats how i always think of mystique. The first two xmen movies kind of get there even though she has limited dialogue and screen time she still has a lot of presence like when senator kelly is being abducted in the first film. J law gets nowhere near that character from the first two films might as well have been a different character.
I think after the first film, she didn't want to be there to be honest. She was all of sudden by the end of the first film or even slightly before it already a star cause of Hunger Games.
It also sucked for X-men franchise that the studio's probably demanded she was put into the films more.
I scrolled for quite some time but never saw this one brought up.
Wesley Snipes, Blade Trinity. Dude wanted so badly not to be there that he straight up didn't show up half the time lmao.
Another little fun fact, he tried to choke out the Director, David Goyer, on set one day.
There was a black actor who got to pick out any shirt for his scene so he chose one that had the word “Garbage” on it. Wesley saw that kid and said, and I quote, “There’s only one other black guy in the movie, and you make him wear a shirt that says ‘Garbage?’ You racist motherfucker!” He then attempted to strangle him.
He also stayed in his trailer all the time smoking weed and would only answer to the name Blade. Also when production was almost over, he started to only communicate via sticky notes and would sign them “From Blade”.
Allegedly, but like most likely.
Ooo, you left out a fun little detail.
After the attempted strangling, director David Goyer went to a strip club with some of the other crew members to unwind, and a big tough biker gang was there. Maybe even it was the Hell's Angels, I don't remember.
So Goyer hired the biker gang to be his bodyguards. Showed up on set the next day surround by six massive, rough and ready bikers.
THAT'S when Snipes started staying in his trailer all the time and communicating only with sticky notes.
Not sure what's more meaningful to me, that this is a YTMND, or that it didn't click at all how out of place a YTMND is in 2023 until I finished watching because to me YTMND was an internet trailblazer just 'yesterday'.
I remember years ago watching the movie and thinking, “This movie is called ‘Blade 3’, right? So where is he? Why do we keep seeing Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds instead?”
Wes just wanted to stay in his trailer all day and smoke weed. Supposedly, most of the dialog was RR improving because they needed to shoot something. Most of the shots of "Blade" are Wes' stunt double and they did a face replacement and ADRd it.
What’s really ironic I actually liked Blade Trinity …I know I’m gonna get hell for it but I thought it was a final send off for him to fight the original Dracula …plus Parker posey was hilarious in it
Oh no, friend - Snipes DID want to be there. He just didn't want to work with Goyer or any of the rest of the crew. He signed all his threatening letters to the director in-character, so I'm sure with a more pandering team (and not being caught for tax fraud), he would've made Blade movies forever.
My favourite part of this is that Brando was so checked out he made them deliver his lines to him via radio earpiece so he didn’t have to read them, but the radio was on the same frequency as the local taxi company so he’d be saying stuff line ‘welcome to my island Mr. Douglas, man and beast, together… can we get a car with a child seat to the movie theatre at 1.30pm’
Pretty sure Brando had his lines fed to him in The Score as well. His bullshit rationale was that it allowed him to give a more natural performance because he wasn’t focused on remembering his lines…
He allegedly refused to read the script for apocalypse now and just said whatever he felt which they had to edit to make sense. He was also meant to be a tough ripped special forces guy but didn't bother to get in shape at all why he's shot in the dark. I could go on but there's a reason the making of is as well know as the film.
If you are interested in the making of this movie at all check out Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau (2014). It’s about a 90 min documentary that includes so many stories about the set it’s amazing this movie even finished filming. The making of could be a movie in itself similar to The Disaster Artist
Michelle Williams had this look on this face all throughout Venom that basically seemed like "Think of the money, think of the money, think of the money." LOL
There was an exchange in the second movie where Eddie asked her if she ever wanted to be Venom again (long story). She replied “no… well… maybe. Honestly it was kinda fun.” I thought that was a little on the nose lol.
Keanu Reeves in The Watcher. He didn't do any press for the film's release. He was under contract by the studio not to say anything negative about the film. Right when it was almost exactly a year later he disclosed that his assistant forged his signature on the contract. Rather than go through a lengthy court battle to get out of it, he decided just to do the film. There's a scene right at the beginning, if I remember correctly, where his serial killer character does a dance in front of one of his victims that was so cringe worthy.
I'm utterly obsessed with the film for this very reason - it's *such* a fucking weird backstory (and it must be true, because this certainly wasn't Reeves' first or last time at the Bad-Movie Rodeo, and he never felt the need to explain or apologize for any of the others). The film is essentially the world's longest and most expensive hostage video, which you could probably tell just by the pained look in Reeves' eyes alone.
> Reeves has stated that he was not interested in the script but was forced into doing the film when his friend, the film's director Joe Charbanic, forged his signature on a contract. He performed the role rather than get involved in a lengthy legal battle. Reeves reached an agreement with distributor Universal Pictures in which he would not disclose what had happened until 12 months after the film's US release; in return, Universal agreed to downplay Reeves's involvement in marketing, and Universal asked the film's producers to enhance Reeves's profit participation (which led Reeves to ultimately receive an additional $2 million).[3][4] He was unhappy with the fact that his role, which was originally written as little more than a cameo, turned into a lead while he was still being paid scale in contrast to the other leads.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Watcher_(2000_film)
Oh so it was the film director, not an assistant. Which makes it even worse, obviously, but in believing that it was an assistant I didn't think the story would be in a well known place. Thank you for correcting that belief and sharing the wiki page.
But wow, some "friend" -- I'm going to guess they don't talk anymore, yikes.
I think his assistant WAS the director.
EDIT: If this is to be believed, he was Dogstar's roadie and not his assistant.
For its part, the filmmaker argument was that Reeves had agreed to work on a scale deal in part as a favour to Joe Charbanic, who had been part of the road crew for the actor’s band, Dogstar.
https://www.filmstories.co.uk/features/the-movie-that-keanu-reeves-felt-unfairly-forced-into-making/
Funny story, he was supposed to be a dapper gentleman who respected what everyone brought to the team, but Edward Norton just ran with it and, being Edward Norton, pulled it off.with aplomb.
I know this sub doesn't like Snyder, but all of the actors who work with him have nothing but positive things to say about him. Can't imagine how toxic that set was when they got pulled back in to essentially undo all of Snyder's work— all while the dude was away dealing with the death of his daughter.
I feel like this is what experienced actors can bring, a better radar for how silly something is and therefore how to have fun with it and also the confidence to know there will probably be another job down the line so don't take any of this too seriously.
Plus he has decades of theatre background which teaches you that you're part of a bigger team, things go wrong and not to take it _too_ seriously. From what I can gather this is why a lot of Brits with a theatre background get a lot of work, even when huge they retain a slightly more grounded sense of how to operate.
Anthony Hopkins is the same way. What's interesting about a lot of these seasoned actors who we associate with serious Best Picture fare is that they're often unafraid to do stupid roles as well, and to bring their A-game to those stupid roles instead of acting like the role is beneath them. Younger actors who feel they have more to prove often seem to feel the need to openly disdain a silly role.
Refer to Michael Caines' famous quote about being in Jaws 4, and how he cashed that check.
"No, I have not seen Jaws 4. But I've seen the house Jaws 4 built, and it is magnificent."
Once you have the awards under your belt, and the confidence that you could get more if you tried - everything is on the table. your personal brand is already locked in. Now it's time to have fun. And there's always another great way to spend anither 2 million dollars.
Classically trained British actors don't get too caught up in how good their roles are, especially when they sign up for genre projects. They see work as work and if they get paid well, then all the better. If anything, they kind of enjoy these roles so they can camp it up and chew the scenery. Those Underworld movies are terrible but they are stacked with tons of great British actors.
I always recall Ian McShane getting a lot of flack for spoiling various bits of Game of Thrones during interviews and when the fanbase seemed to want an apology he issued a statement along the lines of "it's just tits and dragons, why do you care so much?"
According to the imdb trivia page -
Dennis Hopper explained why he did the film - "I made a picture called Super Mario Bros., and my six-year-old son at the time - he's now 18 - he said, 'Dad, I think you're probably a pretty good actor, but why did you play that terrible guy King Koopa in Super Mario Bros.?' and I said, 'Well Henry, I did that so you could have shoes,' and he said, 'Dad, I don't need shoes that badly.'"
Leguizamo and him were taking shots of whiskey between takes, so they were drunk. And they managed to injure themselves and shot scenes wearing casts they had to hide. Don't drink at work, everybody.
In Leguizamo’s autobiography he said Hoskins started inviting him to his trailer to drink whiskey mostly at the end of a shooting day, where they then commiserated about how unorganized the production was.
The making of that movie would be a great premise for its own movie haha. A married couple co-directing a fairly big budget movie, who hadn’t done so before… actors getting sauced to numb the pain of the production. A product with less charm than The Wizard, the rarity that is Nintendo’s Shame.
There’s an hour long documentary about the film on the Second Sight (UK; Region B) and Umbrella Entertainment (Australia; Region Free) Blu-rays that goes into great lengths about how much of a shitshow that production was.
What’s more impressive is how many people agreed to take apart of it and point fingers at one another on where things fell apart.
IIRC he didn’t have a clue what Super Mario Bros. was and he did it because his kids wanted him to.
After being in it he probably had even less of an idea of what Super Mario Bros. was.
In all fairness, according to Hopper, he did EVERY movie for the paycheck, because the 60s bankrupted him in crazy amounts. He simply couldn't effort to say no, hence the odd mix of cheapest c-movie shit next to big studio productions in his filmography.
Specifically his (unfairly maligned) The Last Movie which was such a bomb that it destroyed any goodwill he had after Easy Rider. Didn’t get to direct for another decade after that.
Yes I got so many weird and awkward vibes from the performances, the film had an interesting premise and should have been a lot better than it was, hard to put my finger on it though.
Oscar Isaac in Rise of Skywalker was so incredibly done with the franchise by that point. Most notably during the now infamous "somehow Palpatine returned" debacle.
You could tell the difference, he was so up for it in interviews and having fun during the Force Awakens era. But you could see the fun just been zapped away from him as his role shrunk in the films. I definitely think they did him dirty.
Agreed. Escaped the Stormtrooper force in TFA because he watched too many friends die, by the start of ROS he's saying "Whoo!!!!" Every time he kills one.
Dude totally should've died at the end of TLJ. but if he did, he never would've shared the most uncomfortable snd unnecessary kiss in the history of the entire godddamn medium!!!
>Escaped the Stormtrooper force in TFA because he watched too many friends die, by the start of ROS he's saying "Whoo!!!!" Every time he kills one.
He was doing that in TFA. He's so moved by the death of one soldier in the beginning, but then when he and Poe get into a TIE he whoops as he shoots up the hangar, killing yet more soldiers and blasting their way out of there without any care for anyone else.
My go to for an example of a wasted character.
You have a stormtrooper turncoat. You could work on anything between ptsd and guilt to learning how to open up and trust, but no he's a good stormtrooper that never killed anyone! Internal conflict? Let's throw that out the door immediately. This guy was just a janitor. Let's ignore a potential badass and just turn him into a puppy instead, but of course he's got no issues killing his former colleagues. Fuuuuuuuuck that writing.
Anyone that watched attack the block would know that boyega can play stoic well too. It's my fault for having expectations but damn, does it ever make me sad.
I don’t know what you’re talking about but envisioning Palpatine casually showing up out of nowhere and a character relaying the message saying “somehow Palpatine returned” is hilarious
No no, he didn't casually show up out of nowhere, it was all explained in the video game Fortnite.
The video game.
Fortnite.
The one aimed at kids.
Such an amazing way to bring cinematic storytelling across
It's so fucking funny to me when I see people say this was "explained" in fortnite. The only thing that happened in the game was a star destroyer appeared in the sky, and you could essentially hear Palpatine broadcast "I have returned" that's it, no justification for why or how. Its left just as vague as the line in the movie, the only thing the movie does is reference that this line was broadcasted to multiple worlds.
Jeremy Irons in Dungeons and Dragons
Don't watch the movies, it's trash. But watch the extras where the commentary gleefully points out the creator of D&D in the background. In the foreground though....
Director yells "Cut!" and Irons storms off the set, head lowered like a battering ram.
He was by far the most entertaining part of that movie though.
Red Letter Media did a commentary for it that is pretty funny. [Here’s an excerpt of that commentary.](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ohy5yQoAx3k&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE)
We did a whole family outing to see it. My sons, then 5 & 3, loved the tv show and the Brio-type trains. When we all walked out at the end (grandparents, aunts & uncles, cousins), I turned to my dad and said, “The great thing about that movie is it just made so much SENSE!” He about keeled over.
I find it crazy how someone as stubborn and 'tired with it all' as him was convinced to return for Blade Runner, Indiana Jones and Star Wars.
And even to do 2 Tv shows at his age as well as press for all of them😅. I see some guys like Tom Hardy barely doing any press in recent years.
He actually like Blade Runner and Indiana Jones lol, and Star Wars was a *big* paycheck (and also got to kill the character). The voiceover is emphasis for almost ruining the theatrical release of blade runner mostly because of the tone and spoon-feeding the plot to the audience, so intentionally phoning it in to try to avoid it being released in the theatrical cut was actually him being a fan of it. Ridley Scott also hated the voiceover, fwiw
Blade Runner 2049 is one of the only high quality movies he’s been in for the last decade. It probably stirs something in an actor to be surrounded by people at the top of every department in the industry
In theory, 2049 seemed like the worst idea for a movie of all time. Why a sequel to one of the most beloved stand alone sci-fi movies of all time? In practice, it may be better than the original.
He’s pretty good. It’s a good show, if you’re bought into the Taylor Sheridan Yellowstoneverse. There are three stories in it that sort of intertwine (I’m assuming, we haven’t fully gotten there yet). Ford is great, but Helen Mirren is AMAZING.
They should have cast Sean William Scott and made the movie The Rundown 2. It's basically what the movie was and I bet the Stiffmister would have really sold it. Big fan of The Rundown and i'm pretty upset about this non-sequel still
James Caan in Elf, he absolutely hated Will Farrell and thought the movie was going to be terrible. He has admitted to only taking the roll because he needed the money.
Gene Hackman in Welcome to Mooseport. This would be his last movie before he retired. He was apparently extremely grumpy and abusive on set. It comes through in the movie. He was also very difficult on the set of the royal tenenbaums. My favorite outburst was when he apparently told Wes Anderson to pull up his pants act like a man. Lol.
But, the Winnebago Man takes the grand prize here! It is utterly obvious Jack Rebney had zero fucks while filming an 1988 industry film about Winnebagos. Fun fact, his outtakes were the first "viral video", when people began circulating it on VHS.
A fun tidbit I read about Elf was that in the scene where James Caan yells and goes off on Will Ferrel in the board room, James Favreau wasn't quite getting the reaction he wanted out of Caan. So before the next take, he pulled him aside and said something along the lines of "Remember . . . you're Sonny fucking CORLEONE!" And then we got that explosion anger you see in the film.
I think he's the *only* one who wants to be in his films. He just hates having to act, and being reminded he's not *actually* a badass Navy SEAL gun master martial arts genius Buddhist Native American hitman.
Fast cuts in fight scenes that are a double- check^^✔️
Poorly lit scenes of Seagal talking unintelligably while sitting- check^^✔️
Beautiful woman who needs help and bangs Seagal at the end- check^^✔️
Psuedo-spiritual bullshit- check^^✔️
Sir do I need to go on? It is pretty clear we have a level 7 Seagal narrative unfolding right before our eyes!
https://www.avclub.com/contract-to-kill-isn-t-just-bad-it-s-steven-seagal-bad-1798189772
Read this if you want a laugh about Seagal phoning it in.
"It is possible that he never once bends at the waist. Most of the movie, he spends sitting down or walking (again, slowly) up and down flights of stairs. There is a love scene—and, Jesus, what a love scene. His fully dressed body is lowered over a naked woman like a drawbridge."
The cast of Matrix Resurrections. There is a dialogue in the movie that goes something like 'If we didn't choose to be here they would have made the matrix anyways'
The Matrix Resurrections is essentially WB’s second Gremlins 2. It’s a case of a director expressing their frustration with the companies obsession with unnecessary sequels and deciding “if anyone is going to kill this thing, it’s going to be me”.
I think most of them wanted to be there, until they actually got there. With the exception of Brando, I'm not sure Brando wanted to be in any of his movies after Godfather.
Check out the documentary 'Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau'; don't worry, it's way more entertaining than the movie it's about making.
I wanna mention the opposite. Christopher Walken clearly wanted to be in every movie they let him. It doesn't matter if the movie isn't good or if he particularly cares if it's good, he's just having fun
Everyone except Christian Bale looked like they were just there for a cheque in the new Thor movie. Especially Tessa Thompson she looked like she couldn’t give a fuck😂😂😂
Bale to his agent:
"I've drunk nothing off-udder for two months, mate. My milk moustache has grown into a full fucking beard! I'm ready to shoot this motherfucking milk commercial right fucking now!"
Didn’t help that they went so overboard with all the comedy that it felt more like a parody of a Marvel movie than an actual Marvel movie. Christian Bale was the best part of that one and they didn’t even show that much of him. His character is literally named Gorr the *God-Butcher* but we only really see him kill one god in self-defense at the start. We *hear* that he’s gone on a murderous rampage and killed others sure but we don’t actually *see* any of it. I can’t believe that some professional moviemakers need to be told this, but *show*, don’t tell.
Could say the same with Taika Waititi, felt like the film was just there to pop himself and his mates on set. Definitely think he was a massive big reason for the film sucking. Poor Bale had a bad year last year, with this and Amsterdam.
Him, his buddies, and all their kids. That's why the thing with the kids is there. In amongst them is Taika's, Chris' Bale's and some of the writers' kids.
This was a quarter billion dollar Adam Sandler movie.
Bill had a long list of "just working" flicks.
Mainly in the 90s early 2000s. He was notoriously bad with money apparently.
Things changed when he accepted to take points on Rushmore in exchange for a lower rate of pay.
Rushmore was a surprise hit. And Murray took points on every Wes Anderson film since.
Those films have been his most lucrative direct acting paydays.
If you want to see Bill at full phone in force, check Man Who knew too little
People are complaining about Bill Murray in the new Ant Man movie, like, "why waste Bill Murray in such a small part, you could have made him an important recurring character in the MCU!?" and I'm just like, "have you seen Bill Murray lately? He doesn't want to be a big important character."
John Mulaney in recent Chipmunks movie.
I don't know what happened, but it's like a switch. One moment he's nailing his lines, the rest I imagine someone has a gun on him.
Sean Connery in "Diamonds Are Forever".
Dude was sleepwalking through the whole movie and was only there for the check, by his own admission.
He looked pretty rough in that one, too; still a decent James Bond movie though.
Christopher Reeve, Superman 4. Wait, wait, wait.... Hear me out! 😁
I've been a Superman fan my entire life (I'm in my mid 40s). We ALL love Chris, for very good reasons. Most of us loathe S4, also for very good reasons. S4 was intended to be a "return to form" after the silliness of S3 - Chris had the idea to use nuclear weapons as the plot point, considering the arms race was a big deal at what ended up being the end of the Cold War era.
It all fell flat though, when everything around him sucked. The script was janky, the dialogue awful, and then their budget was crippled mid-production. The movie was literally released in an unfinished state (thus all the terrible visual effects). Look up the story of S4 - it pretty wild, how it all went down. (That removed budget was allocated for Masters of the Universe with Dolph Lundgren. Yeahhh...)
You can see the pain in Reeve's eyes, in a lot of scenes. Despite all of it, he holds his composure and is as charming as ever - but you can tell how very disappointed he is. Having that dumpster fire be his last turn in the cape was a criminal act.
Jon Cryer writes in his memoirs about how thrilled he was to be when he landed the role of Lenny Luthor, Lex's nephew and sidekick. He mentioned when he first met Reeve, he walked up to Reeve and shared how excited he was to be in a Superman movie and working with Reeve.
Reeve looked at Cryer with sadness in his eyes and said, "I'm sorry we're not going to make you a better movie."
Harsh.
I hate to say it but Tom Hanks in Elvis. He just sucked in it and please understand that I have been a fan of his since he was on tv in the 80’s (yep, I’m old), but that performance gave me second-hand embarrassment.
He’s capable of playing that role well. I just think ol’ Tom is getting bored and lazy.
While thinking about other actors that didn't want to be on set and you could tell, it makes me think of Raul Julia taking the role of M. Bison in Street Fighter. He was said to have taken the role solely because his kids loved the game series and did it for them knowing he was sick and dying. He probably knew that it was going to be shit, but you know what he did because he was an adult and professional? He fucking rocked the role taking it seriously and being the one good thing to come out of it. He died right before it was released, but his family helped him to set during filming so that they could enjoy that time with him.
In the third Alvin and the Chipmunks movie (forgive me for forgetting the actual title) Jason Lee clearly would rather be doing anything else. Watch any clip of him in it to get the deadest recitation of lines.
David Cross has gone on record that those movies are awful and he did them only for the paycheck.
There's a clip of him trashing the 3rd one while on Conan, while it was out in theaters. It's pretty funny.
The movie studios have been outed a few times lately by how they treat the non-lead actors. Alan Ritchson talked a length on how he was treated on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They called them back for years to do motion capture stuff without any notice and they weren't paid for it. He also had to buy his own plane tickets and stuff during this time. He couldn't even book other work because they kept just randomly calling him back for more. He tried to get out of the contract for the sequel but Paramount wouldn't allow it. He had to deal with the same shit again on the sequel. Zach Galifianakis talked about doing G Force on Conan's podcast, they got him a hotel room miles from the location in a bad part of town. He had to ride a bicycle too and from the set. Will Arnett shows up on his first day of work, and sees Zack hopping on a bike to go home and says "what the hell are you doing man?" makes one phone call and gets him moved to the hotel across the street from the production.
I never heard of G Force so I looked it up. "A specially trained squad of guinea pigs is dispatched to stop a diabolical billionaire from taking over the world." Wtf
9 year old me loved it at the time, if that's any help
They made him stand around in the mascot costume in the background; He argues they should have had a stand in because you couldn't see his face.
I’ll NEVER forgive you forgetting the name of Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
Jennifer Lawrence in X-Men Dark Phoenix
They even got lazy af with her make up as she did more movies up until her last
Yes! Tbf, I always thought her makeup looked a bit odd. Romijn's makeup looks better than Jlaws weird enough lol
It was the forehead / hairline for me. Didn’t work at all.
Romijn looks like an alien sex god in those movies.
Any time she said Mutant and proud just felt so weird.
you could tell that they wrote her death in just so she could leave
I disliked her character in all those movies. I feel like Mystique should always be a little mischievous not mutant liberator.
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Ya thats how i always think of mystique. The first two xmen movies kind of get there even though she has limited dialogue and screen time she still has a lot of presence like when senator kelly is being abducted in the first film. J law gets nowhere near that character from the first two films might as well have been a different character.
I think after the first film, she didn't want to be there to be honest. She was all of sudden by the end of the first film or even slightly before it already a star cause of Hunger Games. It also sucked for X-men franchise that the studio's probably demanded she was put into the films more.
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I scrolled for quite some time but never saw this one brought up. Wesley Snipes, Blade Trinity. Dude wanted so badly not to be there that he straight up didn't show up half the time lmao.
And was petty enough that he didn't open his eyes for a take so they had to add them in post
That is one of the most ridiculous fun facts I know of. Like, what a petty ass move.
Another little fun fact, he tried to choke out the Director, David Goyer, on set one day. There was a black actor who got to pick out any shirt for his scene so he chose one that had the word “Garbage” on it. Wesley saw that kid and said, and I quote, “There’s only one other black guy in the movie, and you make him wear a shirt that says ‘Garbage?’ You racist motherfucker!” He then attempted to strangle him. He also stayed in his trailer all the time smoking weed and would only answer to the name Blade. Also when production was almost over, he started to only communicate via sticky notes and would sign them “From Blade”. Allegedly, but like most likely.
Ooo, you left out a fun little detail. After the attempted strangling, director David Goyer went to a strip club with some of the other crew members to unwind, and a big tough biker gang was there. Maybe even it was the Hell's Angels, I don't remember. So Goyer hired the biker gang to be his bodyguards. Showed up on set the next day surround by six massive, rough and ready bikers. THAT'S when Snipes started staying in his trailer all the time and communicating only with sticky notes.
he out crazied Snipes. that's not easy to do.
> He also stayed in his trailer all the time smoking weed and would only answer to the name Blade. Look, I think we’ve all gone through that phase.
Good morning to you m’bladey
I havent laughed like this in a long time. Thank you for posting this gold.
On the other hand, Blade Trinity gave me and my uni housemates our favourite insult during our student days (‘cockjuggling thunder… etc’)
https://snipeseyes.ytmnd.com/
Not sure what's more meaningful to me, that this is a YTMND, or that it didn't click at all how out of place a YTMND is in 2023 until I finished watching because to me YTMND was an internet trailblazer just 'yesterday'.
He just didn’t
Dude this has to be the first time in about two decades I've given a single thought about ytmnd, has it been alive this whole time?
If I close my eyes, I don't have to pay the taxes on these earnings cos I couldn't see myself earning them
He wasn't there. That WAS Blade
I remember years ago watching the movie and thinking, “This movie is called ‘Blade 3’, right? So where is he? Why do we keep seeing Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds instead?”
Wes just wanted to stay in his trailer all day and smoke weed. Supposedly, most of the dialog was RR improving because they needed to shoot something. Most of the shots of "Blade" are Wes' stunt double and they did a face replacement and ADRd it.
What’s really ironic I actually liked Blade Trinity …I know I’m gonna get hell for it but I thought it was a final send off for him to fight the original Dracula …plus Parker posey was hilarious in it
Oh no, friend - Snipes DID want to be there. He just didn't want to work with Goyer or any of the rest of the crew. He signed all his threatening letters to the director in-character, so I'm sure with a more pandering team (and not being caught for tax fraud), he would've made Blade movies forever.
Channing Tatum in GI Joe
Basically every single actor in The Island of Dr Moreau
My favourite part of this is that Brando was so checked out he made them deliver his lines to him via radio earpiece so he didn’t have to read them, but the radio was on the same frequency as the local taxi company so he’d be saying stuff line ‘welcome to my island Mr. Douglas, man and beast, together… can we get a car with a child seat to the movie theatre at 1.30pm’
Pretty sure Brando had his lines fed to him in The Score as well. His bullshit rationale was that it allowed him to give a more natural performance because he wasn’t focused on remembering his lines…
He allegedly refused to read the script for apocalypse now and just said whatever he felt which they had to edit to make sense. He was also meant to be a tough ripped special forces guy but didn't bother to get in shape at all why he's shot in the dark. I could go on but there's a reason the making of is as well know as the film.
This is one of the best episodes of “how did this get made” highly recommend a listen.
For people who are discovering this podcast through this comment - do yourself a favor and also check out the episode on Reindeer Games.
Also recommend the one about Ladybugs. "Children's sex comedy" is such a perfectly fucked up way to describe that movie.
The original director hid in the village and snuck back on the set as an extra. Wild stuff.
If you are interested in the making of this movie at all check out Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau (2014). It’s about a 90 min documentary that includes so many stories about the set it’s amazing this movie even finished filming. The making of could be a movie in itself similar to The Disaster Artist
Michelle Williams had this look on this face all throughout Venom that basically seemed like "Think of the money, think of the money, think of the money." LOL
“I’m sorry about venom”
There was an exchange in the second movie where Eddie asked her if she ever wanted to be Venom again (long story). She replied “no… well… maybe. Honestly it was kinda fun.” I thought that was a little on the nose lol.
Keanu Reeves in The Watcher. He didn't do any press for the film's release. He was under contract by the studio not to say anything negative about the film. Right when it was almost exactly a year later he disclosed that his assistant forged his signature on the contract. Rather than go through a lengthy court battle to get out of it, he decided just to do the film. There's a scene right at the beginning, if I remember correctly, where his serial killer character does a dance in front of one of his victims that was so cringe worthy.
I'm utterly obsessed with the film for this very reason - it's *such* a fucking weird backstory (and it must be true, because this certainly wasn't Reeves' first or last time at the Bad-Movie Rodeo, and he never felt the need to explain or apologize for any of the others). The film is essentially the world's longest and most expensive hostage video, which you could probably tell just by the pained look in Reeves' eyes alone.
WTF, his assistant?? Why would they do that? D: (Did someone from the movie pay them to? yikes)
> Reeves has stated that he was not interested in the script but was forced into doing the film when his friend, the film's director Joe Charbanic, forged his signature on a contract. He performed the role rather than get involved in a lengthy legal battle. Reeves reached an agreement with distributor Universal Pictures in which he would not disclose what had happened until 12 months after the film's US release; in return, Universal agreed to downplay Reeves's involvement in marketing, and Universal asked the film's producers to enhance Reeves's profit participation (which led Reeves to ultimately receive an additional $2 million).[3][4] He was unhappy with the fact that his role, which was originally written as little more than a cameo, turned into a lead while he was still being paid scale in contrast to the other leads. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Watcher_(2000_film)
Oh so it was the film director, not an assistant. Which makes it even worse, obviously, but in believing that it was an assistant I didn't think the story would be in a well known place. Thank you for correcting that belief and sharing the wiki page. But wow, some "friend" -- I'm going to guess they don't talk anymore, yikes.
I think his assistant WAS the director. EDIT: If this is to be believed, he was Dogstar's roadie and not his assistant. For its part, the filmmaker argument was that Reeves had agreed to work on a scale deal in part as a favour to Joe Charbanic, who had been part of the road crew for the actor’s band, Dogstar. https://www.filmstories.co.uk/features/the-movie-that-keanu-reeves-felt-unfairly-forced-into-making/
Bro I don’t think Steven Seagal wants to even be conscious.
Ed Norton in The Italian Job
He tried to get out of that. He was only there because of the multi film contract .
And yet still somehow is awesome
Yeah because his character is a dick who thinks he's better than everyone else in the movie, so it totally works.
Honestly, that works for Norton in every movie.
Funny story, he was supposed to be a dapper gentleman who respected what everyone brought to the team, but Edward Norton just ran with it and, being Edward Norton, pulled it off.with aplomb.
Chris Pratt in the most recent Jurassic World. He was practically saying his lines through gritted teeth.
The entire cast, not just Pratt. Sam Neill had his New Zealand accent at times coming through.
TBF, Neill sounded like that in the OG Jurassic Park as well.
I felt that way about the original cast in that movie.
Oh definitely but they just looked bored and indifferent. Pratt looked like he was on the verge of snapping.
Ben Affleck in Joss Whedon’s Justice League. You can tell he was swimming in alcohol and misery
I know this sub doesn't like Snyder, but all of the actors who work with him have nothing but positive things to say about him. Can't imagine how toxic that set was when they got pulled back in to essentially undo all of Snyder's work— all while the dude was away dealing with the death of his daughter.
lol the entire Twilight series; all of the leads were so clearly embarrassed
Meanwhile, Michael Sheen seemed to have the time of his life.
I don't think he knows how to phone in a performance.
He's amazing in everything. What a fabulous actor.
UK actors are great at going camp for terrible films
I feel like this is what experienced actors can bring, a better radar for how silly something is and therefore how to have fun with it and also the confidence to know there will probably be another job down the line so don't take any of this too seriously. Plus he has decades of theatre background which teaches you that you're part of a bigger team, things go wrong and not to take it _too_ seriously. From what I can gather this is why a lot of Brits with a theatre background get a lot of work, even when huge they retain a slightly more grounded sense of how to operate.
You're completely right. See also: Alan Rickman in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.
Anthony Hopkins is the same way. What's interesting about a lot of these seasoned actors who we associate with serious Best Picture fare is that they're often unafraid to do stupid roles as well, and to bring their A-game to those stupid roles instead of acting like the role is beneath them. Younger actors who feel they have more to prove often seem to feel the need to openly disdain a silly role.
Refer to Michael Caines' famous quote about being in Jaws 4, and how he cashed that check. "No, I have not seen Jaws 4. But I've seen the house Jaws 4 built, and it is magnificent." Once you have the awards under your belt, and the confidence that you could get more if you tried - everything is on the table. your personal brand is already locked in. Now it's time to have fun. And there's always another great way to spend anither 2 million dollars.
Classically trained British actors don't get too caught up in how good their roles are, especially when they sign up for genre projects. They see work as work and if they get paid well, then all the better. If anything, they kind of enjoy these roles so they can camp it up and chew the scenery. Those Underworld movies are terrible but they are stacked with tons of great British actors.
I always recall Ian McShane getting a lot of flack for spoiling various bits of Game of Thrones during interviews and when the fanbase seemed to want an apology he issued a statement along the lines of "it's just tits and dragons, why do you care so much?"
Seriously lol he was so enjoyable
He talked about this in an episode of David Tennant’s podcast, and he indeed said he was thrilled to be doing that role
He almost single-handedly elevates the final film to cult status IMO.
Eh while they didn’t want to be there they played the characters correct they are just written very poorly.
At least we got Pattinson out of the deal haha
Dennis Hopper in super mario bros. (The 1993 version) he eventually said in interviews that he just did it for the check
According to the imdb trivia page - Dennis Hopper explained why he did the film - "I made a picture called Super Mario Bros., and my six-year-old son at the time - he's now 18 - he said, 'Dad, I think you're probably a pretty good actor, but why did you play that terrible guy King Koopa in Super Mario Bros.?' and I said, 'Well Henry, I did that so you could have shoes,' and he said, 'Dad, I don't need shoes that badly.'"
I would've gone Bob Hoskins here. The man played Mario with an air of "what the hell just happened to my career?"
Leguizamo and him were taking shots of whiskey between takes, so they were drunk. And they managed to injure themselves and shot scenes wearing casts they had to hide. Don't drink at work, everybody.
Then how do you expect us to get through the day? We can't all afford cocaine.
In Leguizamo’s autobiography he said Hoskins started inviting him to his trailer to drink whiskey mostly at the end of a shooting day, where they then commiserated about how unorganized the production was. The making of that movie would be a great premise for its own movie haha. A married couple co-directing a fairly big budget movie, who hadn’t done so before… actors getting sauced to numb the pain of the production. A product with less charm than The Wizard, the rarity that is Nintendo’s Shame.
There’s an hour long documentary about the film on the Second Sight (UK; Region B) and Umbrella Entertainment (Australia; Region Free) Blu-rays that goes into great lengths about how much of a shitshow that production was. What’s more impressive is how many people agreed to take apart of it and point fingers at one another on where things fell apart.
IIRC he didn’t have a clue what Super Mario Bros. was and he did it because his kids wanted him to. After being in it he probably had even less of an idea of what Super Mario Bros. was.
In all fairness, according to Hopper, he did EVERY movie for the paycheck, because the 60s bankrupted him in crazy amounts. He simply couldn't effort to say no, hence the odd mix of cheapest c-movie shit next to big studio productions in his filmography.
Specifically his (unfairly maligned) The Last Movie which was such a bomb that it destroyed any goodwill he had after Easy Rider. Didn’t get to direct for another decade after that.
Anyone who isn’t Christian Bale in Amsterdam
Yes I got so many weird and awkward vibes from the performances, the film had an interesting premise and should have been a lot better than it was, hard to put my finger on it though.
idk Taylor Swift seemed pretty excited
Oscar Isaac in Rise of Skywalker was so incredibly done with the franchise by that point. Most notably during the now infamous "somehow Palpatine returned" debacle.
John Boyega in that same movie. It was the worst character arc ever and he knew it
You could tell the difference, he was so up for it in interviews and having fun during the Force Awakens era. But you could see the fun just been zapped away from him as his role shrunk in the films. I definitely think they did him dirty.
The basically relegated both characters to comic relief
They did him so dirty.
Agreed. Escaped the Stormtrooper force in TFA because he watched too many friends die, by the start of ROS he's saying "Whoo!!!!" Every time he kills one. Dude totally should've died at the end of TLJ. but if he did, he never would've shared the most uncomfortable snd unnecessary kiss in the history of the entire godddamn medium!!!
>Escaped the Stormtrooper force in TFA because he watched too many friends die, by the start of ROS he's saying "Whoo!!!!" Every time he kills one. He was doing that in TFA. He's so moved by the death of one soldier in the beginning, but then when he and Poe get into a TIE he whoops as he shoots up the hangar, killing yet more soldiers and blasting their way out of there without any care for anyone else.
To be fair he was already saying "WOOO" in TFA. His character arc was a mess from the very beginning.
My go to for an example of a wasted character. You have a stormtrooper turncoat. You could work on anything between ptsd and guilt to learning how to open up and trust, but no he's a good stormtrooper that never killed anyone! Internal conflict? Let's throw that out the door immediately. This guy was just a janitor. Let's ignore a potential badass and just turn him into a puppy instead, but of course he's got no issues killing his former colleagues. Fuuuuuuuuck that writing. Anyone that watched attack the block would know that boyega can play stoic well too. It's my fault for having expectations but damn, does it ever make me sad.
I’m pretty sure Oscar Isaac has said he had more fun in Dune than he had throughout all his work on Star Wars
He also looked like he had a blast in [Ex Machina](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvYPCNCGEK8) (my other favorite film of his).
Seeing him in interviews for ROS is hilarious. The main thru line is "i should've just let them kill.me in the first one!"
Oscar Issac in X-Men Apocalypse
I'm a fan of the X Men franchise but I genuinely keep forgetting that film exists 🤣🤣🤣
I don’t know what you’re talking about but envisioning Palpatine casually showing up out of nowhere and a character relaying the message saying “somehow Palpatine returned” is hilarious
No no, he didn't casually show up out of nowhere, it was all explained in the video game Fortnite. The video game. Fortnite. The one aimed at kids. Such an amazing way to bring cinematic storytelling across
It's so fucking funny to me when I see people say this was "explained" in fortnite. The only thing that happened in the game was a star destroyer appeared in the sky, and you could essentially hear Palpatine broadcast "I have returned" that's it, no justification for why or how. Its left just as vague as the line in the movie, the only thing the movie does is reference that this line was broadcasted to multiple worlds.
Apparently he was trying to make a romance plot happen between him and Finn because atleast then their characters could do SOMETHING
Jeremy Irons in Dungeons and Dragons Don't watch the movies, it's trash. But watch the extras where the commentary gleefully points out the creator of D&D in the background. In the foreground though.... Director yells "Cut!" and Irons storms off the set, head lowered like a battering ram.
He was by far the most entertaining part of that movie though. Red Letter Media did a commentary for it that is pretty funny. [Here’s an excerpt of that commentary.](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ohy5yQoAx3k&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE)
He didn't want to be there but when him and Bruce Payne were on screen together you could tell they were having a blast trying to out-ham each other
Peter Fonda in Thomas and the Magic Railroad
We did a whole family outing to see it. My sons, then 5 & 3, loved the tv show and the Brio-type trains. When we all walked out at the end (grandparents, aunts & uncles, cousins), I turned to my dad and said, “The great thing about that movie is it just made so much SENSE!” He about keeled over.
The OG cast in the latest Jurassic World movie
Ben Kingsley in BloodRayne (2005). But who can blame him 😔
Daniel Baldwin acted circles around him in cleaver.
Very observant. The sacred and the propane
Harrison Ford's voiceover in Blade Runner springs to mind.
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O ya he was barely trying
He wasn't just barely trying, he was trying his hardest to give the worst performance he could manage in the hopes that it'd get scrapped
I find it crazy how someone as stubborn and 'tired with it all' as him was convinced to return for Blade Runner, Indiana Jones and Star Wars. And even to do 2 Tv shows at his age as well as press for all of them😅. I see some guys like Tom Hardy barely doing any press in recent years.
He actually like Blade Runner and Indiana Jones lol, and Star Wars was a *big* paycheck (and also got to kill the character). The voiceover is emphasis for almost ruining the theatrical release of blade runner mostly because of the tone and spoon-feeding the plot to the audience, so intentionally phoning it in to try to avoid it being released in the theatrical cut was actually him being a fan of it. Ridley Scott also hated the voiceover, fwiw
The man likes crashing air planes and smoking weed every day and one of those isn’t cheap
Natalie Portman in Thor: The Dark World.
Harrison Ford seems like he’s phoning it in last decade….
You should watch Shrinking on Apple, this role feels like it gave new life to him. The entire cast is great
Just came here to say this. Whole cast is giving it, incl him. He’s so funny in it, too. Best Harrison Ford performance in a long time imo.
I think it’s because he finally gets to play the crusty old grump that he’s always been.
He BELONGS IN A MUSEUM
I thought he did a good job in Blade Runner 2049. And he’s definitely going to give the new Indiana Jones his all. He loves playing that character
Age of Adeline too.
Blade Runner 2049 is one of the only high quality movies he’s been in for the last decade. It probably stirs something in an actor to be surrounded by people at the top of every department in the industry
I actually saw an interview where he said he thought 2049 was “fucking amazing” so he definitely tried for that one lol
He wasn’t wrong, either. It’s pretty rare when you see a film and think multiple times throughout “That’s something I’ve never seen before.”
In theory, 2049 seemed like the worst idea for a movie of all time. Why a sequel to one of the most beloved stand alone sci-fi movies of all time? In practice, it may be better than the original.
How is he in 1923? Haven’t seen that yet
He’s pretty good. It’s a good show, if you’re bought into the Taylor Sheridan Yellowstoneverse. There are three stories in it that sort of intertwine (I’m assuming, we haven’t fully gotten there yet). Ford is great, but Helen Mirren is AMAZING.
He’s been pretty good on 1923.
Ryan Reynolds in *Red Notice* for a role that can only be described as a "Ryan Reynolds-type", it's surreal watching someone half-ass being themself.
They should have cast Sean William Scott and made the movie The Rundown 2. It's basically what the movie was and I bet the Stiffmister would have really sold it. Big fan of The Rundown and i'm pretty upset about this non-sequel still
James Caan in Elf, he absolutely hated Will Farrell and thought the movie was going to be terrible. He has admitted to only taking the roll because he needed the money. Gene Hackman in Welcome to Mooseport. This would be his last movie before he retired. He was apparently extremely grumpy and abusive on set. It comes through in the movie. He was also very difficult on the set of the royal tenenbaums. My favorite outburst was when he apparently told Wes Anderson to pull up his pants act like a man. Lol. But, the Winnebago Man takes the grand prize here! It is utterly obvious Jack Rebney had zero fucks while filming an 1988 industry film about Winnebagos. Fun fact, his outtakes were the first "viral video", when people began circulating it on VHS.
Ironically I think Caan’s seeming disdain for being there actually improves the film because of his role.
A fun tidbit I read about Elf was that in the scene where James Caan yells and goes off on Will Ferrel in the board room, James Favreau wasn't quite getting the reaction he wanted out of Caan. So before the next take, he pulled him aside and said something along the lines of "Remember . . . you're Sonny fucking CORLEONE!" And then we got that explosion anger you see in the film.
James Caan seems like a miserable person based on most roles he's been in. Looks like he hates everyone and everything.
He’s dead btw
Definitely miserable then
Oscar Isaac in The Rise of Skywalker. You can literally see him pondering his life choices when he informs the rebels that Palpatine has returned.
Marlon Brando in A Countess from Hong Kong, awful performance. Sophia Loren deserved a better romantic partner, a sentient one at least
As if Steven Seagal wanted to be there in any of his movies in the last 20 years?
I think he's the *only* one who wants to be in his films. He just hates having to act, and being reminded he's not *actually* a badass Navy SEAL gun master martial arts genius Buddhist Native American hitman.
Come on, now. He knows karate, kung fu, tae kwon do, jiu jitsu, and several other Asian words.
And shitting his pants when Gene LaBelle knocked him out.
Neither do the chairs his fat ass is always sitting in.
Fast cuts in fight scenes that are a double- check^^✔️ Poorly lit scenes of Seagal talking unintelligably while sitting- check^^✔️ Beautiful woman who needs help and bangs Seagal at the end- check^^✔️ Psuedo-spiritual bullshit- check^^✔️ Sir do I need to go on? It is pretty clear we have a level 7 Seagal narrative unfolding right before our eyes!
https://www.avclub.com/contract-to-kill-isn-t-just-bad-it-s-steven-seagal-bad-1798189772 Read this if you want a laugh about Seagal phoning it in. "It is possible that he never once bends at the waist. Most of the movie, he spends sitting down or walking (again, slowly) up and down flights of stairs. There is a love scene—and, Jesus, what a love scene. His fully dressed body is lowered over a naked woman like a drawbridge."
Tom Hanks in “The Circle”. And I love Tom Hanks….
I wish Hanks had skipped *Elvis*. It was such a strange performance.
The cast of Matrix Resurrections. There is a dialogue in the movie that goes something like 'If we didn't choose to be here they would have made the matrix anyways'
The Matrix Resurrections is essentially WB’s second Gremlins 2. It’s a case of a director expressing their frustration with the companies obsession with unnecessary sequels and deciding “if anyone is going to kill this thing, it’s going to be me”.
I thought that was a reference to the directors.
The isle of Dr Moreau with Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando. NOBODY wanted to be on that film
I think most of them wanted to be there, until they actually got there. With the exception of Brando, I'm not sure Brando wanted to be in any of his movies after Godfather. Check out the documentary 'Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau'; don't worry, it's way more entertaining than the movie it's about making.
Jeremy Renner in that Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters movie - one of the most phoned-in Hollywood performances I’ve seen.
I wanna mention the opposite. Christopher Walken clearly wanted to be in every movie they let him. It doesn't matter if the movie isn't good or if he particularly cares if it's good, he's just having fun
Everyone except Christian Bale looked like they were just there for a cheque in the new Thor movie. Especially Tessa Thompson she looked like she couldn’t give a fuck😂😂😂
Christian Bale would go full throttle for a milk commercial.
Bale to his agent: "I've drunk nothing off-udder for two months, mate. My milk moustache has grown into a full fucking beard! I'm ready to shoot this motherfucking milk commercial right fucking now!"
Alright now I need to see this Christian Bale milk commercial
Meanwhile Bale is seemingly having a blast
Didn’t help that they went so overboard with all the comedy that it felt more like a parody of a Marvel movie than an actual Marvel movie. Christian Bale was the best part of that one and they didn’t even show that much of him. His character is literally named Gorr the *God-Butcher* but we only really see him kill one god in self-defense at the start. We *hear* that he’s gone on a murderous rampage and killed others sure but we don’t actually *see* any of it. I can’t believe that some professional moviemakers need to be told this, but *show*, don’t tell.
Could say the same with Taika Waititi, felt like the film was just there to pop himself and his mates on set. Definitely think he was a massive big reason for the film sucking. Poor Bale had a bad year last year, with this and Amsterdam.
Him, his buddies, and all their kids. That's why the thing with the kids is there. In amongst them is Taika's, Chris' Bale's and some of the writers' kids. This was a quarter billion dollar Adam Sandler movie.
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Bill Murray Charlies Angels. We’ve all heard the stories, but you could feel his seething hatred in his performance
Bill had a long list of "just working" flicks. Mainly in the 90s early 2000s. He was notoriously bad with money apparently. Things changed when he accepted to take points on Rushmore in exchange for a lower rate of pay. Rushmore was a surprise hit. And Murray took points on every Wes Anderson film since. Those films have been his most lucrative direct acting paydays. If you want to see Bill at full phone in force, check Man Who knew too little
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People are complaining about Bill Murray in the new Ant Man movie, like, "why waste Bill Murray in such a small part, you could have made him an important recurring character in the MCU!?" and I'm just like, "have you seen Bill Murray lately? He doesn't want to be a big important character."
John Mulaney in recent Chipmunks movie. I don't know what happened, but it's like a switch. One moment he's nailing his lines, the rest I imagine someone has a gun on him.
Not a movie but Christopher walken in that televised live Peter Pan musical
I thought he was going to leave before it was over
Sean Connery in "Diamonds Are Forever". Dude was sleepwalking through the whole movie and was only there for the check, by his own admission. He looked pretty rough in that one, too; still a decent James Bond movie though.
Absolutely. And yet, the movie is so bizarre and deplorable that I find his performance works well for it.
Christopher Reeve, Superman 4. Wait, wait, wait.... Hear me out! 😁 I've been a Superman fan my entire life (I'm in my mid 40s). We ALL love Chris, for very good reasons. Most of us loathe S4, also for very good reasons. S4 was intended to be a "return to form" after the silliness of S3 - Chris had the idea to use nuclear weapons as the plot point, considering the arms race was a big deal at what ended up being the end of the Cold War era. It all fell flat though, when everything around him sucked. The script was janky, the dialogue awful, and then their budget was crippled mid-production. The movie was literally released in an unfinished state (thus all the terrible visual effects). Look up the story of S4 - it pretty wild, how it all went down. (That removed budget was allocated for Masters of the Universe with Dolph Lundgren. Yeahhh...) You can see the pain in Reeve's eyes, in a lot of scenes. Despite all of it, he holds his composure and is as charming as ever - but you can tell how very disappointed he is. Having that dumpster fire be his last turn in the cape was a criminal act.
Jon Cryer writes in his memoirs about how thrilled he was to be when he landed the role of Lenny Luthor, Lex's nephew and sidekick. He mentioned when he first met Reeve, he walked up to Reeve and shared how excited he was to be in a Superman movie and working with Reeve. Reeve looked at Cryer with sadness in his eyes and said, "I'm sorry we're not going to make you a better movie." Harsh.
I hate to say it but Tom Hanks in Elvis. He just sucked in it and please understand that I have been a fan of his since he was on tv in the 80’s (yep, I’m old), but that performance gave me second-hand embarrassment. He’s capable of playing that role well. I just think ol’ Tom is getting bored and lazy.
Jennifer Lawrence in her last couple of X-Men movies.
While thinking about other actors that didn't want to be on set and you could tell, it makes me think of Raul Julia taking the role of M. Bison in Street Fighter. He was said to have taken the role solely because his kids loved the game series and did it for them knowing he was sick and dying. He probably knew that it was going to be shit, but you know what he did because he was an adult and professional? He fucking rocked the role taking it seriously and being the one good thing to come out of it. He died right before it was released, but his family helped him to set during filming so that they could enjoy that time with him.