# Great actors/actresses totally wasted in a movie?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 4, 2000, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387 "2000-06-04T19:20:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2000, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/1 "2000-06-04T19:20:56Z")
I just got done watching _Apt Pupil._ I am a huge Ian McKellan fan. I will pay money to watch him in anything, even including a by-the-numbers Stephen King movie. It wasn’t a BAD movie, and his performance was not unintelligent, but I sat there wondering, “Why is he doing this?” Well, obviously, for the money.
Then I sat there thinking about all the other fine actors who for various reasons got stuck in a movie that made no use of their talents whatsoever. The most egregious example I could think of was Sir Laurence Olivier with Marilyn Monroe in _The Prince and the Showgirl._ Also, there was Meryl Streep in that F/X extravaganza with Goldie Hawn, _Death Becomes Her._ You sit there wondering, “Why?”
Anybody else want to nominate something?
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### Author:  [@vandal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vandal)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2000, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/2 "2000-06-04T19:39:30Z")
Steve Buscemi is one of my favorite actors. I’ll watch any of his movies.
Then came along _The Wedding Singer_ and _Big Daddy_. I saw both of these films and could not understand why Steve took on the roles he played, let alone acted in the movies to begin with.
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### Author:  [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2000, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/3 "2000-06-04T19:51:49Z")
Sam Neill, who played the husband in _The Piano_ and starred in several hi-brow type films. Then all of a sudden he started turning up in utter crap movies like _Mouth of Madness_ and _Event Horizon_. No idea why he would do that sort of thing since it’s pretty obvious he’s not a hack who needs to grab the cash before the public tires of him (a la Jim Carrey, who has had amazing staying power, actually).
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### Author:  [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2000, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/4 "2000-06-04T20:07:43Z")
I bet Peter O’Toole regretted appearing in _Caligula_ once he saw how Bob Guccione re-edited the movie to add the porno stuff.
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### Author:  [@Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Goose)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2000, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/5 "2000-06-04T20:11:37Z")
Quentin Tarantino in From Dusk 'Til Dawn. Actually he sucks at acting, but is a great director and I wondered why he would have done that movie. It wasn’t terrible, but how do you go from Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction to a horror flick?
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### Author:  [@Anonymous\_c38f64651bbfc0fca993c5b066c30099](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anonymous_c38f64651bbfc0fca993c5b066c30099)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2000, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/6 "2000-06-04T20:17:41Z")
Anthony Hopkins in Mission Impossible 2.
He went “uncredited” for a reason. Either Jim Carey or Woody Allen could have read the same few lines and it would have made no difference to the audience.
I think he was there as a favor to someone.
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### Author:  [@Danielinthewolvesden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danielinthewolvesden)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2000, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/7 "2000-06-04T21:46:46Z")
Sean Connery in “First Knght”, man did that stink, and even Sean couldn’t save it.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2000, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/8 "2000-06-05T01:28:33Z")
I always felt that Cindy Williams – a fine actress in _The Conversation_ (“He’d kill us if he had the chance.”) completely wasted her talent in _Laverne and Shirley_.
Toward the end of his career, Lawrence Olivier was famed for taking anything and every part coming his way, including in _Inchon_.
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### Author:  [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2000, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/9 "2000-06-05T01:44:36Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I bet Peter O’Toole regretted appearing in Caligula…
I’ll bet he didn’t exactly brag about “King Ralph” either.
Orson Welles (co-starring with James Franciscus and \ ED MCMAHON) in the 1981 Pia Zadora vehicle “Butterfly.”
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### Author:  [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2000, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/10 "2000-06-05T07:28:01Z")
Harrison Ford in _Six Days, Seven Nights_. He was such a flat character in that, when he’s normally dynamic and interesting… never saw _Sabrina_, but I haven’t heard any good things about that, either…
Samuel L. Jackson in _The Phantom Menace_. He’s usually a great actor, but that role simply wasn’t for him (I don’t know how many “Use th’ Force, muthahf\*\*\*er” jokes I’ve heard…)…
And I always felt sorry for anyone who starred in a film with Pauly Shore (I gets them Shore-licks in whenever I can!)
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### Author:  [@DRY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DRY)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2000, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/11 "2000-06-05T09:35:42Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*
> I bet Peter O’Toole regretted appearing in _Caligula_ once he saw how Bob Guccione re-edited the movie to add the porno stuff.
> \*\*
Umm–who DIDN’T regret appearing in Caligula? I doubt Malcolm McDowell or the late John Gielgud point to it with pride on their respective resumes, unless it’s to say “My career actually survived this”
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### Author:  [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2000, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/12 "2000-06-05T13:53:32Z")
Malcom McDowell always struck me as someone who relished strange or offbeat roles/movies. He’s certainly been in a few.
I had forgotten about Gielgud.
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### Author:  [@annalamerino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/annalamerino)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2000, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/13 "2000-06-05T14:47:26Z")
\*\*Catherine Deneuve \*\* in Dancer in the Dark
with Björk, winner at the recent Cannes Film Festival.
She is such a good actress, but not as a factory drudge. She’s simply too sophisticated.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2000, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/14 "2000-06-05T15:06:09Z")
I always thought putting Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” was a disaster. Yes, yes, she LOOKED great, but was totally miscast as a bubbleheaded boho groupie. Truman Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe for the part, and she would have been MUCH better.
As you all know, I worship at the Giant Joan Crawford Head, and she was wasted in so many crappy films. She was capable of great work—see her in “Rain,” “Dancing Lady,” “Mildred Pierce,” “Possessed”—and she wound up in . . . I can barely say it . . . “Trog.”
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2000, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/15 "2000-06-05T16:08:35Z")
A special award should go to stars who do cameos in bad movies either as a favor to the director or to get a paycheck.
Samuel L. Jackson in Phantom Menace
Walter Matthau in Earthquake
Gene Hackman in Superman
Rod Steiger in practically everything he’s done for the last 20 years.
Dianne Keaton in Father of the Bride (she had one scene where she was given the opportunity to be funny, and she seized it – which just made the rest of the movie look more pitiful)
Glenn Close in Mars Attacks.
William H. Macey in Mystery Men
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### Author:  [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2000, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/16 "2000-06-05T21:57:16Z")
Coming to a theatre near you, this summer:
Robert DeNiro in “Rocky and Bullwinkle.”
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### Author:  [@Bullroar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullroar)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2000, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/17 "2000-06-06T01:17:42Z")
Gotta be Woody Allen in anything serious, like “Scenes in a Mall”, or that jazz one. What a waste of comic timing.
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### Author:  [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2000, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/18 "2000-06-06T01:36:06Z")
Michael Caine - [Jaws 4: The Revenge](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0093300)
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### Author:  [@evilbeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilbeth)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2000, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/19 "2000-06-06T05:36:33Z")
Kate Winslet in _Titanic_.
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### Author:  [@JavaMaven1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JavaMaven1)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2000, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-actors-actresses-totally-wasted-in-a-movie/21387/20 "2000-06-06T07:29:10Z")
Nicholas Cage in anything after he won his oscar–has that guy gone on a downslide or what?
The cast for Wings of The Dove–a stellar cast (starring Helena Bonham-Carter) bogged down with a tedious script.
What was that Bette Midler/Nathan Lane/Stockard Channing movie in which Midler is playing Jacqueline Susann? They should have had Stockard Channing playing Jacqueline–she would have been a far better choice.
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