# Bad director / actor combinations
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 13, 2014, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986 "2014-04-13T02:41:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2014, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/1 "2014-04-13T02:41:43Z")
There are a number of them in Hollywood, both past and present. However, instead of naming them all (or at least a portion of them), i will vote for my worst combo and ask you all to do the same.
My choice: Judd Apatow/Leslie Mann.
Listen. I know they are married. But that is no reason to stick her in every movie he makes and making them almost unwatchable. The last movie I saw her in was “This is 40”. Paul Rudd is his normal, humorous self, but Leslie is a piece of chalk on a blackboard. Her voice is awful, her acting is awful, she is awful.
Apatow is killing me. He actually makes some pretty funny movies, but every time I see one of his movies and she pops up in it, I want to scream.
The only movie where her terrible delivery and persona works is “40 year-old Virgin”, and that’s because she is supposed to be a drunken mess in the movie. However, it turns out she is like that all the time! Please Judd! Make it stop!
Who is your choice for this dubious honor?
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### Author:  [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2014, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/2 "2014-04-13T02:45:00Z")
Will Smith and Shakespeare.
“Open yo’ window biyatch! Daddy’s comin’ up the lattice!”
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### Author:  [@SirGalahad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirGalahad)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2014, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/3 "2014-04-13T13:44:16Z")
Eastwood/ Locke
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### Author:  [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2014, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/4 "2014-04-13T14:22:24Z")
Burton/Bonham Carter?
I actually liked Burton/Lisa Marie cause was she very easy on the eyes.
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### Author:  [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2014, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/5 "2014-04-13T20:05:57Z")
Rob Zombie/Sherri Moon Zombie.
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### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2014, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/6 "2014-04-13T21:16:55Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#):
>
> Burton/Bonham Carter?
>
> I actually liked Burton/Lisa Marie cause was she very easy on the eyes.
Couldn’t act though. That’s why she was little more than a nice-looking prop in his movies.
Oh, Guy Ritchie/Madonna.
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2014, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/7 "2014-04-13T21:20:41Z")
There’s no chance that Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke will ever make another movie together:
> **[Sondra Locke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sondra_Locke)**
>
> Sandra Louise Anderson (née Smith; May 28, 1944 – November 3, 2018), professionally known as Sondra Locke, was an American actress and director. She achieved recognition for her relationship with Clint Eastwood and the six hit films they made together.
> An alumna of Middle Tennessee State University, Locke broke into regional show business with assorted posts at the Nashville-based radio station WSM-AM, then segued into television as a promotions assistant for WSM-TV. In 1968, she made her film...
Here’s something that makes the case that Tim Burton should quit making movies with either Johnny Depp or Helena Bonham Carter:
> **[4 Artists Who Should Probably Just Take a Break for a While](https://www.cracked.com/blog/4-artists-who-should-probably-just-take-break-while)**
>
> I hate speaking negatively about any writers, or musicians, or director or artists of any guide. But these folks need to chill out.
Yeah, he’s your best friend. Yeah, she’s your long-time girlfriend with whom you’ve had two kids. That doesn’t mean you have to cast them in all your movies. You three are all good at what you do. You have just overdone working together.
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2014, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/8 "2014-04-13T21:25:58Z")
And Guy Ritchie and Madonna aren’t going to be making any more films together either.
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### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2014, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/9 "2014-04-13T21:55:01Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#):
>
> Here’s something that makes the case that Tim Burton should quit making movies with either Johnny Depp or Helena Bonham Carter:
>
> [4 Artists Who Should Probably Just Take a Break for a While | Cracked.com](http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-artists-who-should-probably-just-take-break-while/)
>
> Yeah, he’s your best friend. Yeah, she’s your long-time girlfriend with whom you’ve had two kids. That doesn’t mean you have to cast them in all your movies. You three are all good at what you do. You have just overdone working together.
It looks like Burton has taken that article’s advice. His next movie, [Big Eyes](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1126590/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_2), stars Amy Adams. Depp and Bonham Carter are nowhere in sight.
Anyway, here’s an old one: Peter Bogdanovich/Cybill Shepherd. (I will grant, however, they had one good movie together, **The Last Picture Show**.)
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### Author:  [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2014, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/10 "2014-04-13T21:55:48Z")
> [@SirGalahad](#):
>
> Eastwood/ Locke
This would have been my answer before the Apatow/Mann abomination.
Locke was one of the worst actresses of her era. However, her voice is sweet music compared to Mann’s.
Mann sounds flat out stupid. Almost the same voice and delivery and my all-time favorite actress Melanie Griffith.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2014, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/11 "2014-04-13T23:28:09Z")
How about David Mamet and Rebecca Pidgeon? Another case of married nepotism.
And there was parental nepotism with Francis Ford Coppola and Sofia Coppola.
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2014, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/12 "2014-04-14T00:58:45Z")
Sondra Locke was actually a good actress at one time. She was nominated for an Oscar. It’s only the films she did during her time living with Eastwood that were so bad. It was Eastwood who screwed up her career, and it’s never recovered. She went along with him as he made a long series of good-old-boy-comedy-adventures. When they broke up, he went on to make much better films, both as actor and as director. She couldn’t get any further roles. Read the Wikipedia entry on her that I’ve given the link for. Eastwood was a jerk who destroyed her career for the fun of it.
Peter Bogdanovich and Cybill Shepherd won’t make any more films together either. The interesting thing was that Bogdanovich’s wife at the time of _The Last Picture Show_, Polly Platt, was really sort of the co-director and co-writer of that film, despite what the credits say. It’s the best thing that Bogdanovich ever did, and by breaking up his marriage to Platt, he made sure that he would never do anything as good again.
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### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2014, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/13 "2014-04-14T08:37:15Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#):
>
> Peter Bogdanovich and Cybill Shepherd won’t make any more films together either. The interesting thing was that Bogdanovich’s wife at the time of _The Last Picture Show_, Polly Platt, was really sort of the co-director and co-writer of that film, despite what the credits say. It’s the best thing that Bogdanovich ever did, and by breaking up his marriage to Platt, he made sure that he would never do anything as good again.
I also find it interesting that since they broke up in the mid 70s, even Cybill Shepherd has actually had a comparatively stronger career than Bogdanovich.
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### Author:  [@Stealth\_Bragg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Bragg)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2014, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/14 "2014-04-14T09:29:52Z")
Roman Polanski has used his wife Emmanuelle Seigner in a few of his movies - and she can’t act for toffee.
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### Author:  [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2014, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/15 "2014-04-14T09:58:07Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#):
>
> Sondra Locke was actually a good actress at one time. She was nominated for an Oscar. It’s only the films she did during her time living with Eastwood that were so bad. It was Eastwood who screwed up her career, and it’s never recovered. She went along with him as he made a long series of good-old-boy-comedy-adventures. When they broke up, he went on to make much better films, both as actor and as director. She couldn’t get any further roles. Read the Wikipedia entry on her that I’ve given the link for. Eastwood was a jerk who destroyed her career for the fun of it.
Although I have no trouble believing Eastwood is a complete tool and ruined Locke’s career, I do have trouble believing she was ever a good actress. Being nominated for an Oscar doesn’t mean much to me. Hell, Nick Cage WON an Oscar by basically playing himself, the same character he plays in every movie. The only difference was thatin Leaving Las Vegas, his half-open eyed, slack-jawed delivery worked perfectly for the movie.
I would have to see Locke acting other than her standard stiff self, and that would mean I would purposely watch one of her movies. I can’t see that happening. Unless I saw it by accident, or lost a bet, I would never watch it. I am mildly intrigued to see her without Eastwood, because that might be a revelation, but I just can’t do it.
I am also going to add:
Woody Allen and Diane Keaton
And then
Woody Allen and Mia Farrow.
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### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2014, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/16 "2014-04-14T11:37:49Z")
No one remembers John Derek/Bo Derek? Eh, probably for the best.
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2014, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/17 "2014-04-14T12:05:46Z")
Woody Allen and Diane Keaton? What are you talking about? The OP for this thread asked for cases where an actor and a director don’t work together well, not just for any case whether an actress and a director were married or lived together and made several movies together. Allen and Keaton worked together very well. Incidentally, all of their movies together were made after they broke up. Keaton did very well in Allen’s films, and she won an Oscar for one of them. Allen and Keaton helped establish each other’s careers, and there’s nothing to complain about their work together.
Why are you always blaming the actress for the movie? Mann is “a piece of chalk on a blackboard”? Locke is “one of the worst actresses of her era”? I can’t trust your judgment on anything now. You feel it necessary to exaggerate everything. I thought that people would be coming up with cases where a (male) actor and a (male) director don’t work together well, despite being good when they weren’t working together. It appears that all you want to do is find examples of director/actress pairs who worked together and were married or living together and then blame the actress for all the problems with the movies, even when there weren’t problems with the movies.
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### Author:  [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/18 "2014-04-14T15:30:47Z")
> [@NDP](#):
>
> Oh, Guy Ritchie/Madonna.
It’s not like there are _any_ good “insert director here/Madonna” combos, though.
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### Author:  [@chargerrich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chargerrich)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/19 "2014-04-14T15:35:49Z")
Cameron/Biehn
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### Author:  [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2014, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-director-actor-combinations/685986/20 "2014-04-14T17:32:56Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#):
>
> I thought that people would be coming up with cases where a (male) actor and a (male) director don’t work together well, despite being good when they weren’t working together.
How about Norman Taurog/Elvis Presley.
Separately, Taurog won an Oscar as best director for “Skippy” (1931) and got a nomination for “Boy’s Town” (1938). Elvis was never an-Oscar caliber actor, but in his pre-Army films he at least showed some promise, notably in “Jailhouse Rock” and “King Creole.”
Together they made nine films. They started off with the mediocre but bearable “G.I. Blues” (1960) and “Blue Hawaii” (1961), then settled down into the truly wretched: “Girls! Girls! Girls!” (1962), “It Happened at the World’s Fair” (1963), “Tickle Me” (1965), “Spinout” (1966), “Double Trouble” (1967), “Speedway” (1968) and “Live a Little, Love a Little” (1968).
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