# Actors that you just can't stand to watch **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 6, 2020, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024 "2020-01-06T09:28:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2020, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/121 "2020-01-10T03:27:09Z")
Oh, and I’d like to be the first to mention a real classic: Fred Astaire. Heck of a dancer, but the comic timing and acting ability of a TV huckster. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2020, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/122 "2020-01-10T04:39:43Z")
Fred Willard is toxically unfunny in everything I’ve ever seen him in. He tries so hard but never hits the mark, and he almost single-handedly ruined _WALL-E_ and _Best in Show_ for me. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2020, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/123 "2020-01-10T13:39:28Z")
> [@JpnDude](#): > > Jesse Eisenberg. After seeing him play Mark Zuckerberg and as an arrogant “magician” in “Grand Illusion”, I can’t stand his face and speaking style. Oh, I almost forgot him. He makes my list. Liza Minelli – looks and acts exactly like an unlikable first cousin of mine Julia Roberts – seems eternally sanctimonious Matthew Lillard – not a big star but born with a punchable face and awful natural demeanor Marky Mark mostly makes me laugh at his attempts to be a Big Boy Actor but he did indeed stumble into the role of a lifetime in \*Boogie Nights. - I don’t think anyone else could have pulled off that aura of bumbling amateurism in the completely believable way that he did. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2020, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/124 "2020-01-10T14:13:58Z")
I’ve yet to see the name Andy Kaufman in this thread. Maybe I’m not sophisticated or kewl enough to get his humor, but I fail to understand the adulation he got as a comedic genius. I always thought he was obnoxious and unfunny, and Latka added absolutely nothing to _Taxi_. (That show already had one quirky-funny character in Christopher Lloyd’s brilliant Reverend Jim Ignatowski; Latka was just stupid and annoying.) His “Vic Damone” persona. too, I thought, was just an excuse for him to act like a shitheel. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2020, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/125 "2020-01-10T14:38:11Z")
Richard Lewis. I don’t find him funny at all. But having said that, I thought he was really funning in an episode of the short-lived medical drama ‘Code Black,’ in which he played. . . a terrible stand-up comedian. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2020, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/126 "2020-01-10T14:48:35Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > And NO ONE is Czechoslovakian. You are Czech, or you are Slovak-- unless you are really old school, and are Moravian (or Jewish), but pretty much, you are Czech, or you are Slovak. People with one Czech parent, and one Slovak parent refer to themselves as “half-Czech, half-Slovak,” not “Czechoslovakian.” I know this. I have family living in both the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, and I have been to both-- albeit, technically, I have been to Czechoslovakia, which is how I know for a fact that NO ONE is Czechoslovakian. Is this rant about the Czech brothers, those two wild and crazy guys? ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2020, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/127 "2020-01-10T15:00:48Z")
> [@Little\_Brother\_1](#): > > Years ago, I was forced to watch him in “Pennies from Heaven”; it didn’t improve my opinion of him. Also, when Saddam Hussein was executed he posted a gloating, jingo-dripping mock obituary in “Huffington Post”; it was a self-indulgent piss on Hussein’s grave, playing to the fist-pumping patriotic peanut gallery. > > I posted a comment to that piece that if anybody deserved to be hung, it was Martin for appearing in “Cheaper by the Dozen Part II”. HuffPo deleted the post on the grounds that I was “threatening violence to a contributor.” You are mad that a comedian mocked the death of one of the 20th centuries greatest murderers? The lack of any sort of moral or ethical compass is truly frightening. FTR, from what I hear, Martin is hung. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Guy\_Incognito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guy_incognito/32/3920_2.png) [@Guy\_Incognito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Incognito)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2020, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/128 "2020-01-10T15:41:46Z")
Lucas Black: He was perfectly okay as a child actor in _Sling Blade_, but I happened to see him on _NCIS: New Orleans_ and his facial expressions when his mouth tries to form words with his hick southern accent makes me irrationally angry. ---
**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:** [January 10, 2020, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/129 "2020-01-10T22:57:24Z")
Jason Schwartzman just creeps me out. So does Jared Leto, though I’m not sure if I’ve even seen any film with him in it. Similarly that kid actor everyone is raving about, Jacob Tremblay, annoys the crap out of me, but I don’t think I’ve seen him in anything outside of trailers. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2020, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/130 "2020-01-11T02:06:56Z")
I add Bill Maher to my list; he hasn’t actually “acted” in anything in over two decades(though he has played himself in numerous movies). ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2020, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/131 "2020-01-11T03:47:53Z")
a friend says Julia Roberts does a terrible southern accent which is funny since she grew up in Georgia. Maybe she got rid of her natural southern accent and now can’t do southern any more. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2020, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/132 "2020-01-11T14:11:28Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Jason Schwartzman just creeps me out. > > So does Jared Leto, though I’m not sure if I’ve even seen any film with him in it. Ditto. Jason Schawrtzman looks chubby, greasy and unkempt. I first saw him portraying a tweeker, and wondered how someone who supposedly had a meth addiction was so chubby. Jared Leto has excelled at playing unlikable, egotistic characters: Fight Club, Requiem for a Dream, Blade Runner 2049. His portrayal of the Joker pretty much ruined Suicide Squad. It wasn’t the only thing that ruined Suicide Squad, but it was up there. ---
**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:** [January 11, 2020, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/133 "2020-01-11T14:49:01Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > I’ve yet to see the name Andy Kaufman in this thread. Maybe I’m not sophisticated or kewl enough to get his humor, but I fail to understand the adulation he got as a comedic genius. I always thought he was obnoxious and unfunny, and Latka added absolutely nothing to _Taxi_. (That show already had one quirky-funny character in Christopher Lloyd’s brilliant Reverend Jim Ignatowski; Latka was just stupid and annoying.) His “Vic Damone” persona. too, I thought, was just an excuse for him to act like a shitheel. Latka was on the show from the first episode. Jim was added later. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2020, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/134 "2020-01-11T22:44:29Z")
I might have more respect for the _ouvre_ of Liam Neeson if he maybe held off a little on all that “I’m coming after you for kidnapping X” shit. Appreciating the Hugh Grant mentions. Always fantasized about him getting beaten up by Richard E. Grant. > [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > Chris Elliott. My wife loves _Schitt’s Creek_, but Elliott is so nails on a chalkboard to me that I can’t watch it. Oh but you haven’t seen the absolutely _wonderful_ “Get a Life”? For three seasons in the early 90’s, it was a stirring portrayal of a confused, late striver, featuring his real life dad and effusive _bon vivant_ Bob Elliot as his show dad! You would embrace it, wholeheartedly. > [@Baker](#): > > Jane Fonda. I will not watch a movie with her in it. Thankfully her career seems to be over. I’ll go for exceptions with _Barbarella_ and _China Syndrome_. For the latter, I was worried she’d overdo it for that kind of role, but more or less managed to avoid heavy-handedness. And for the former…Geez, she takes on AND DEFEATS the Excessive Machine, which is pretty hot. > [@DrDeth](#): > > Kristen Stewart, that bunny sneer seems to be her only expression and she is so wooden. Despite other thoughts I might have about her, yeah - that just about sums her up, right there. She needs to be in a Gary Busey romp. Considering I’m not sure exactly what that would entail - please don’t ask. > [@JpnDude](#): > > Jesse Eisenberg. After seeing him play Mark Zuckerberg and as an arrogant “magician” in “Grand Illusion”, I can’t stand his face and speaking style. Damn yes. Even the trailer for GI made me wanna go all Batman-y on anyone watching it. (Oh _just kidding!!_) His pouty and bothersome wimposity was ideal for _Rodger Dodger_, though. > [@Chefguy](#): > > I’ll add William Hurt to the list. His acting usually consists of staring off into space with no expression, and then mumbling his lines. Concurred - watching _Altered States_ would’ve gone much better if I could understand anything he was saying. I thought he was great in _History of Violence_, though. > [@Little\_Brother\_1](#): > > Steve Martin. Yes, I know that he’s multi-talented: comedian, actor, musician, writer. But he’s always rubbed me the wrong way. Check out his velvety skeeviness as a con in _The Spanish Prisoner_. > [@Boycott](#): > > Mark Wahlberg. > > Can’t watch his films without thinking back to that cringeworthy Marky Mark shtick. Not to mention he’s a felon who racially abused young black women and beat a Vietnamese man with a stick. The fact he has made it big is a disgrace imo. > > Oh and his movies (at least the ones I know of) seem to be the same character. As others have mentioned, he was perfect for _Boogie Nights_ but yeah, face-smashingly brah-like for everything else. I would add, though, that I thought he was _miles away_ the best thing in _The Departed_. > [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > I’ve yet to see the name Andy Kaufman…His “Vic Damone” persona. too, I thought, was just an excuse for him to act like a shitheel. Good ole Tony Clifton? Yeah, he was ok. Retrospectively. > [@dorvann](#): > > I add Bill Maher to my list; he hasn’t actually “acted” in anything in over two decades(though he has played himself in numerous movies). What?!?!?! Are you kidding me?!?!?! 🆒DC CAB!!!🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2020, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/135 "2020-01-11T23:35:51Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Latka was on the show from the first episode. Jim was added later. Really? I have no memory of that. And apparently I got the name of his asshole nightclub sleazeball persona wrong, too. I just tried to blank the bastard right out of my memory. > [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > a friend says Julia Roberts does a terrible southern accent which is funny since she grew up in Georgia. Maybe she got rid of her natural southern accent and now can’t do southern any more. She grew up in Smyrna, which is a northern suburb of Atlanta. Atlanta, even back when she was a kid - and she’s a contemporary of mine - had enough transplants, especially on the north side, that the Southern accent could be diluted. Ryan Seacrest and Faith Sallie both grew up in another northern Atlanta suburb (the one where I went to high school, as it happens) and neither of them has a noticeable Southern accent. Compare all three to Jeff Foxworthy, who is from Hapeville, a much more “countrified” suburb on the south side of the city. ---
**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:** [January 12, 2020, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/136 "2020-01-12T00:24:53Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > And apparently I got the name of his asshole nightclub sleazeball persona wrong, too. I just tried to blank the bastard right out of my memory. Inside _Taxi_ he was called Vic Ferrari. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/137 "2020-01-12T00:28:34Z")
> [@Brayne\_Ded](#): > > Sometimes it’s their real-life persona. > Cruise and Travolta, and any other Scientologists. > Kevin Spacey was a great actor, but if I see any film of his from now on … I’ll just see the molester in him. > Ditto for Schwarzenegger. > Woody Allen. From tiresomely neurotic to sexually weird. > Some aged badly. I second \*Chefguy \*and his choice of Val Kilmer. Travolta also went from pretty boy to pretty bloated. Steve Seagal too, but without ever having been pretty. > Appearance: Meryl Streep and Renee Zellweger, Speaking of Renee Zellweger and bloated, my nickname for her is “Puffy”. Her face always looks swollen to me. The squinty beady little eyes don’t help either. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/138 "2020-01-12T04:31:52Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Gary Sinise and his gurning face. Wife used to know him and didn’t like him. I don’t see the appeal of his acting. She didn’t know the Belushis. Friends kept telling her she just missed them at parties and that they could get her in at Second City (she was very funny). I can’t stand either of them, especially Jim, but I’ve learned the hard way that John’s wife has many relatives around these parts and you never say an unkind word about him. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/139 "2020-01-12T04:53:57Z")
I don’t think he’s been mentioned, Sylvester Stallone! The only movie I’ve managed to watch him in was\* Death Race 2000\* and that’s only because it’s such an awesome movie! Back in the early days of HBO, when they’d show the same movies over and over and over again, I tried watching \*F.I.S.T. \*and _First Blood_. but as soon as he said anything out of his crooked mouth (how can that be hereditary???), which I swear is now purposely exaggerated, I had to switch channels. Mumble, mumble, mumble, words, mumble, mumble. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024/140 "2020-01-12T05:10:18Z")
> [@PitJ](#): > > - Eddy Murphy (he was somewhat cool in the 80s but is unbearable now) Interesting that people keep mentioning Eddie Murphy “now”, but he’s done I think 1 major film in the past 7-8 years and it’s very well received and critically acclaimed. Unless people just have a big problem with the Shrek movies or something. Yeah, Vampire in Brooklyn was a dud, but it’s been 25 years guys. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-you-just-cant-stand-to-watch/846024.md?page=8)