# Acting role that soured you on an actor **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 18, 2014, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026 "2014-06-18T01:15:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/21 "2014-06-18T14:15:08Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Derek Jacobi as his role as a very bad actor on an episode of _Frasier_. Ever since then I’ve thought of him as being a very bad actor. I still suspect I’m right, even though I am aware of being unfairly influenced. In addition to great turns as Claudius (in I\*, Claudius\*), Claudius (in _Hamlet_), and Alan Turing, Jacobi was EXCELLENT as, well, me. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/22 "2014-06-18T14:15:22Z")
> [@independentDemocrat](#): > > Sean Connery- League of Blah Blah Gentlemen I figured Zardoz would be more of an image shatterer, if not his _Jeopardy!_ appearances. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/23 "2014-06-18T14:36:23Z")
> [@independentDemocrat](#): > > Pierce Brosnan as Crown whatever Affair. [Well, then maybe you shouldn’t BE LIVING HEEEEEEEEEERE!!!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXcgt6l_LcA) ---
**Author:** ![MostlyUseless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MostlyUseless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyUseless)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/24 "2014-06-18T15:05:00Z")
Joaquin Phoenix was so loathesome to me in Gladiator that I can’t see him as anything but a nasty perv. Malcolm McDowell in Caligula is the same thing. Not to mention the creepy guy in A Clockwork Orange. Just…:eek: ---
**Author:** ![toast\_pakora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@toast\_pakora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toast_pakora)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/25 "2014-06-18T15:36:12Z")
Benedict Cumberbatch was SO loathsome in _Atonement_ that I avoided all his other roles until Sherlock. He was good in the recent Star Trek but I’m not going to rush out and see him in anything else. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/26 "2014-06-18T15:45:09Z")
It took me a long time to get over Kim Hunter in the TV movie _Bad Ronald_. I finally did, after a few viewings of _A Streetcar Named Desire_, and _Planet of the Apes_, and plenty of time. I can never, ever watch _Bad Ronald_ again, though. There’s an actor named Tim Guinee, who “did it” on an episode of _Law & Order_, and it was a particularly heinous crime, even for _L&O_. It was the first thing I ever saw him in, and ever since, I’m always suspicious of him when I see him playing a nice guy in anything else. He was just too good in that \*L&O \*ep. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/27 "2014-06-18T16:12:55Z")
I’m sure that Glenn Close is a very nice person in real life, but she’s given me the heebie-jeebies ever since _Fatal Attraction_ (1987). I can’t disassociate her from that role. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/28 "2014-06-18T16:49:05Z")
> [@toast\_pakora](#): > > Benedict Cumberbatch was SO loathsome in _Atonement_ that I avoided all his other roles until Sherlock. He was good in the recent Star Trek but I’m not going to rush out and see him in anything else. Steven Moffatt & Mark Gatiss were planning their modern Sherlock Holmes when Moffatt (& his wife) saw _Atonement_. Cumberbatch’s appearance in that film convinced the Moffatts that he had sufficient “authority” to play Sherlock. Gatiss had already worked with him & thought it a fine idea. Cumberbatch is a real chameleon & his roles vary widely… ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/29 "2014-06-18T16:50:36Z")
He’s a great actor and I love him (so I’m not really soured on him, per se), but Tim Roth was so loathsome in _Rob Roy_ that I hated him for a bit afterwards. It’s a really outstanding performance, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/30 "2014-06-18T16:56:55Z")
I have an irrational dislike for actors who made their bones playing dim witted or retarded characters- like Ashton Kutcher, Matt LeBlanc, Woody Harrelson, etc. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/31 "2014-06-18T17:03:20Z")
Gave up on Meg Ryan after _Sleepless in Seattle._ God, what an insipid role in an insipid movie. ---
**Author:** ![neofishboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/neofishboy/32/444_2.png) [@neofishboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neofishboy)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/32 "2014-06-18T17:10:11Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > In addition to great turns as Claudius (in I\*, Claudius\*), Claudius (in _Hamlet_), and Alan Turing, Jacobi was EXCELLENT as, well, me. … and he was that nice, old Professor Yana in the Doctor Who episode “Utopia”.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/33 "2014-06-18T17:15:29Z")
Bill Paxton in Big Love. I just can’t see him as anything but a Mormon polygamist anymore. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/34 "2014-06-18T17:58:37Z")
**Batman & Robin** soured me on **George Clooney** for nearly 10 years, I couldn’t get his smirky head-waggly acting method out of my head. I think **Syriana** was where I started to objectively re-acknowledge that he could be anything but a terrible actor. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/35 "2014-06-18T19:20:33Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > You have to worry about Amy Adams; I hear she ages too. SAY IT AIN’T SO! I apologize for this hijack. You may now resume your regularly scheduled thread. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/36 "2014-06-18T19:20:49Z")
I’ve posted about him in other threads. When I was in high school [James Rebhorn](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0714310/?ref_=nmmd_md_nm) played an awful, awful man who beat his wife and raped his stepdaughter on the CBS soap, Guiding Light. That was in the mid 80s. He’s had over a hundred other credits since then. He hasn’t had any huge starring roles but you’ve probably seen him in a few things. Often he’s played a perfectly benign Deputy Chief, No Nonsense boss, Guy in a suit. But in all these years I have never, not once, seen him on my screen and not thought “Aaaahhh. Bradley Raines!!!” I might be misinterpreting the intent of the OP. It didn’t make me think he was not a perfectly capable actor. It just inclined me to think that whoever he was playing was going to turn out to be a very bad man. It rarely happened that way. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/37 "2014-06-19T02:20:43Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > In addition to great turns as Claudius (in I\*, Claudius\*), Claudius (in _Hamlet_), and Alan Turing, Jacobi was EXCELLENT as, well, me. I watched the whole series of _Cadfael_, and that just cemented my position. I thought he was horrible. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/38 "2014-06-19T14:28:06Z")
Paul Reiser in _Aliens_. I was convinced he would backstab anybody he starred with after that. Somebody mentioned Gene Hackman earlier. I was so used to him being a heavy, it took me by surprise when Dennis Farina kicked his ass in _Get Shorty_. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/39 "2014-06-19T15:20:47Z")
I’d really liked Sandra Bullock when Love Potion #9 came out, so when Jeff Bridges, a super creepy, sadistic killer kidnapped and buried her alive in [The Vanishing](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108473/), it was a long time before I could forgive him and enjoy his acting talents again, this despite the fact I’d though he was great in The Last Picture Show and Thunderbolt & Lightfoot. His only crime really was that he played the part _too_ well. I guess it was The Big Lebowski that finally brought me back into the fold. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026/40 "2014-06-19T17:00:26Z")
David Schwimmer as Ross Geller. Gary Burghoff as Radar O’Reilly. Meryl Streep as Mrs. Kramer, it took me years to enjoy her again, and then mostly in comedies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-role-that-soured-you-on-an-actor/691026.md?page=3)