# Ever seen an actor or director tell the truth about an awful movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 27, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266 "2009-01-27T19:19:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/61 "2009-01-28T20:27:26Z")
> [@shy\_guy](#): > > [Yup.](http://perezhilton.com/2009-01-09-nicole-kidman-embarrassed-by-her-latest-bomb) Kidman never slags the movie. She doesn’t once criticize it except to suggest that she didn’t like _her own performance._ That interview and article are quite dishonestly presented. ---
**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 28, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/62 "2009-01-28T20:28:19Z")
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, but she played a reporter. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/63 "2009-01-28T20:40:54Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > I heard a rumor that if you go up to him on the street and tell him you saw it in the theater he’ll give you eight dollars. I don’t know if it’s true, but it certainly is funny. I read an interview with Michael Richards where he made the offer to pay 6 bucks for anyone who brought him a ticket to Coneheads, while at the theater! (I find confirmation cites using Google News, but they are pay per view articles. No thanks). > [@Tangent](#): > > I think at least half of Sandra Bullock’s movies should never have been made. I wish Sandra Bullock’s parents had used a condom! > [@Equipoise](#): > > First of all, **Australia** has made **$179,807,870** at the box office worldwide. That’s not small change and hardly qualifies as a bomb, though with marketing and all that it probably didn’t make a big profit. > > To call **The Golden Compass** a bomb is insane. The movie has made **$372,234,864** at the box office worldwide. If that’s a “bomb,” all movies should be so lucky. I wish the US would start publishing international box office numbers more. I find those much more interesting an seek them out at BoxOfficeMojo. I even wrote a paper in business school on the subject. For example, Spiderman 3 is a smash hit globally, despite some suggesting it was a slight disappointment (relative to the first two) domestically. > [@](#): > > She had massive hits two years in a row. **Happy Feet** , which I notice Perez doesn’t mention, made $384,335,608 worldwide. Not too shabby. That said, I don’t think she gets credit for the success of this film. Who should get credit for an animated film’s success is a good topic for another thread. > [@KneadToKnow](#): > > I heard on another message board that somewhere in the commentaries for the special edition DVD of either _Batman Forever_ or _Batman and Robin_ that Joel Schumacher actually does finally apologize for what he did to the Batman movie franchise. > > As well he should. I thought that Batman Forever was a passable film. A few tweaks here and there, and it would have been a really decent installment. Even with Nicole Kidman! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/64 "2009-01-28T21:14:49Z")
> [@GraceTX](#): > > On his talk show, Craig Ferguson talks trash about all the movies he’s been in. But to be fair, the ones I’ve seen are really, really bad. As does Jon Stewart, specifically, about Half Baked. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/65 "2009-01-28T21:41:22Z")
> [@Katriona](#): > > I don’t remember where I saw or read it, but IIRC, Gwyneth Paltrow was disappointed with the final cut of that move where she was a flight attendant - View from the Sky, maybe? > > The way I remember the comment, it was something like she felt like the final version wasn’t the movie she’d made. View From The Top, with Christina Applegate. I thought it was quite a cute little film. ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/66 "2009-01-28T22:36:24Z")
> [@singular1](#): > > Yeah, I must agree. [According to Forbes in 2007](http://www.forbes.com/2007/12/11/hollywood-kidman-crowe-biz-media-cz_dp_1211overpaidcelebs.html), she tops the list of overpaid actors. Her movies generate $1 in revenue for every $1 paid to her. That’s not a box office draw. **The Invasion** was unintentionally hilarious, with her frozen face reacting to people being turned into unemotional automatons. Couple of quick notes: Your statement “Her movies generate $1 for every $1 paid to her” was true for movies released in 2007 only. If I’m not mistaken, she was in three movies released in 2007: \*The Golden Compass, Invasion \*and _Margot at the Wedding._ As noted, MatW was an indie film, and shouldn’t be considered when calculating box-office draw, in my opinion. The other two have made more than $400 million worldwide. Naturally, Nicole Kidman didn’t get paid $400 million to make those two movies. So how can Forbes claim the 1:1 ratio they quoted? Take a look at their formula: "To compile our list, we looked at each star’s last three films that opened wide before Jan. 1 (in order to give each film time for a DVD release). We didn’t count animated movies, supporting roles or anyone consistently earning under $5 million per movie. To calculate our payback figures, we took half of each film’s worldwide box office (to roughly approximate the studio’s cut of each ticket). Then we added the first three months of DVD revenues and subtracted the budget to derive the film’s gross income. After that, the actor’s total compensation (upfront pay plus any money earned from sharing in the film’s profits) was divided into the gross income to get the actor’s payback figure for the film. The payback for the last three movies for each actor was averaged to calculate ultimate payback." It sounds to me like Forbes wanted to set up a formula to claim that actors who make a lot of money are overpaid. Automatically discounting half the box-office take to account for the studio’s cut makes no sense to me. Similarly, indie films like MatW (with a small number of screens) are going to dramatically decrease the perception of a star’s overall box-office appeal. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/67 "2009-01-28T22:53:54Z")
During an episode of Wane’s World on SNL, Wayne and Garth critiques the past years movies. When Wayne (Mike Meyers) asked Garth (Dana Carvey) how he rated CLEAN SLATE [![](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51M49HANAWL._SL500.jpg) ](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51M49HANAWL._SL500.jpg) The camera zooms in on Garth as he exclaims “SUCKS!!!” ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/68 "2009-01-29T00:29:26Z")
> [@BrassyPhrase](#): > > That was **Knocked Up** > > I’m a feminist, and I loved it 🙂 Ehh, same thing. (I loved them both, too, for the most part. Despite what I may or may not have said to Judd Apatow.) I totally forgot Ed Norton. He is notorious for being a wet rag and a classic example of someone being forced to do press with little to no concern for his future commercial appeal. Someone I know spoke to him for **Pride & Glory** and says it was like pulling teeth. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/69 "2009-01-29T02:43:59Z")
> [@NAF1138](#): > > Usually they don’t say things like that for 2 reasons, > > 1. they have a financial stake in the profitability of the picture. This isn’t always true but it is becoming more often true as time goes on. Many of the major people in the movie get some form of profit participation. > > 2. They don’t want to stop getting work. If you publicly badmouth a project you are working on people are less likely to want to work with you. There are only a handfull of people who can get away with that kind of behavior. I remember from at least one of the times I was on a network TV show as a very minor character, I was contractually obligated not to publicly disparage the production and/or NBC Universal as a whole. I imagine it’s pretty standard in contracts for actors, especially when they’re the star of a show or movie. ---
**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 29, 2009, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/70 "2009-01-29T03:03:52Z")
> [@Smitty](#): > > Also, Ed Norton refused to do promotion for **The Incredible Hulk** after not liking the final cut. > > [Link](http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20191802,00.html) Not true. He didn’t attend most roundtable interviews and junkets because the usual disagreements for any filmmaking process were made out in the Press to be something more than they were, and because he knew that’s all they’d ask about at the junkets, and also because he was busy on another film at the same time, he refused to participate in what he knew would fast become a farce. Norton was perfectly happy with the film (and so he should be, I thought it was excellent) and is eager to appear in the next one. ---
**Author:** ![Meyer6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@Meyer6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meyer6)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/71 "2009-01-29T04:48:29Z")
> [@Cat\_Fight](#): > > Ben Affleck was particularly endearing when he read reviews for **Gigli** on some late night talk show. This was the first thing I thought of - it was completely hilarious. I looked for a video but couldn’t find one. The only review I remember was “This film was so bad I had to go and watch _Glitter_ just to get the bad taste out of my mouth”. That one talk show appearance really raised my opinion of Affleck - before that I always thought he seemed kind of arrogance (that and his bum-chin annoyed me). ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/72 "2009-01-29T05:13:09Z")
Denis Leary poked fun of several of his movies and himself in this gem: [http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6fc5cf60e3/denis-leary-remembers-denis-leary-movies-from-fod-team](http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6fc5cf60e3/denis-leary-remembers-denis-leary-movies-from-fod-team) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/73 "2009-01-29T05:34:59Z")
Jon Stewart always makes fun of the movies he’s done. Death to Smoochy in particular. He usually focuses on the badness of his own performances, but he’ll mock the movies too at times. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/74 "2009-01-29T10:36:40Z")
Sadly, I own _Death to Smoochy_ on DVD. I’m always too distracted by Jon Stewart’s haircut to notice his performance, but the problem with the film is that they needed to tranq Robin Williams much earlier in the filmmaking process. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/75 "2009-01-29T10:50:56Z")
French humorist/critic/socialite Laurent Baffie wrote and starred in a weird, self referential film called “The car keys”, the tag line of which was “don’t go see this film : it’s shit”. By all accounts, this was proof in advertising - but I think the whole purpose of the exercise was to make the most inane, pointless and boring movie ever. I don’t get it, either. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/76 "2009-01-29T15:35:09Z")
> [@cuauhtemoc](#): > > I seem to remember a televised interview with Bruce Willis in which he looks into the camera and begs the viewer not to go see _Hudson Hawk_. I liked Hudson Hawk! ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/77 "2009-01-29T16:10:28Z")
> [@Smitty](#): > > Alec Guinness only agreed to play Obi Wan Kenobi on the condition that he not have to promote the film. He REALLY disliked Star Wars. > > [Link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alec_Guinness) This is a bit misleading. You can’t really dislike something before it’s made. Plus, he was one of the few that negotiated a percentage cut, knowing the film would be massively popular. ---
**Author:** ![supervenusfreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@supervenusfreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supervenusfreak)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/78 "2009-01-29T18:00:53Z")
> [@ASAKMOTSD](#): > > I seem to recall an interview where Sandra Bullock said _Speed 2_ should never have been made. Basically what she said was that she agreed to make that movie so she could get “Hope Floats” made. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/79 "2009-01-29T19:47:49Z")
I have a vague memory of Brad Pitt ( on his rise to BIG FAT FAME) dissing some movie he made with a HUGE STAR ( whom I cannot remember.) ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266/80 "2009-01-29T20:39:13Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > I think George Clooney apologizes for **Batman & Robin** every chance he gets. It has the redeeming value of lending good stuff to Tilda Swinton’s speech last year: _And Sydney Pollack, and George Clooney, you know, the seriousness and the dedication to your art, seeing you climb into that rubber bat suit from “Batman & Robin”," the one with the nipples, every morning under your costume, on the set, off the set, hanging upside-down at lunch, you rock, man._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-seen-an-actor-or-director-tell-the-truth-about-an-awful-movie/483266.md?page=5)