# Worst acting you've seen lately **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 19, 2016, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652 "2016-04-19T15:51:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/41 "2016-04-21T00:41:26Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > You’ve probably never heard of her (I hadn’t) but it would be Cody Horn in Magic Mike. > I wasn’t even watching the movie and just happened to be in the same room when my wife was viewing it but her acting was so horrendous it caught my attention and I had to find out who this person was. > I was convinced she got cast in the movie as a favor some producer owed someone. You mean there were females in Magic Mike? I swear I never saw any. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/42 "2016-04-21T01:26:55Z")
It’s not exactly “new” but Omar Epps as Dr. Foreman on “House”. Ugh. I hate looking at him, every single expression on his face is the exact same; smug, sneering and basically inappropriate for the situation at hand. I like “House” but every time a scene involves Dr. Eric Foreman, I think to myself what a terrible actor Omar Epps is. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/43 "2016-04-21T01:35:40Z")
Someone mentioned this in another current thread, but Jeremy Piven is no longer doing well as an actor in _Mr. Selfridge_. I actually thought he was a great part of \*Entourage \*but I think the gist is that he can only play himself. \*Selfridge \*starts out with him as a young brash guy on his way to the top but now that the character is an older established gentleman, he’s absolutely lost in the part. Every time he says something about “my fam-uh-ly” I LOL ---
**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:** [April 21, 2016, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/44 "2016-04-21T02:16:52Z")
Matthew Perry as Oscar Madison. Unwatchable. I’d rather see the kid who played young Anakin in Phantom Menace do\* Hamlet\*. And I liked Perry in _Friends_, so I just feel sorry for him. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/45 "2016-04-21T03:08:09Z")
Are we allowed to counter on these? I’m no fan of Emilia Clarke, but if she was anywhere near “worst acting” it would be all anyone talked about given the stellar cast and awesome performances on that show. It is not. And Omar Epps (Foreman) on House? If someone had said “they hate that bad actor on House”, I think I would have guessed three or four people ahead of him. In acting there’s always that balance between trying to look as real as possible versus trying to emote such that the audience understands the feelings of the character and/or make the situation more humorous. _House_ always swung more to the latter. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/46 "2016-04-21T04:04:41Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > January Jones in everything. Her non-emoting usually worked for Betty Draper, but I think only because they quickly learned not to write her anything remotely challenging. When she ventured off- onto SNL for example- she was so wooden she got dry rot. **Thank you.** I’m glad I’m not the only guy who finds this woman so completely unappealing. She dragged _X-Men: First Class_ down from what could have been a great movie into mediocrity. Any woman who can take an inherently steamy, sexy role like Emma Frost and fail to generate even the SLIGHTEST interest in her during this movie is incapable at her craft. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/47 "2016-04-21T04:13:40Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > So changing her to ‘Eve’, where wooden acting is required, was the right move? 😃 She’s who I came in to mention, and no, she can’t even play a friggin’ cyborg without evoking that a sandwich would have more feelings. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/48 "2016-04-21T05:07:43Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Matthew Perry as Oscar Madison. Thomas Lennon as Felix Unger isn’t any better. Felix is supposed to be a neurotic fussbudget, but Lennon plays him as a stiff with a frozen half-smile. His version of acting is to wobble his head when he talks. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/49 "2016-04-21T05:43:28Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Dermot Mulroney in _Shameless_; mumbling, stumbling through every scene. How did this guy ever get any sort of acting rep? The casting directors get him confused with Dylan McDermott. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/50 "2016-04-21T05:51:29Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > It’s not exactly “new” but Omar Epps as Dr. Foreman on “House”. Ugh. I hate looking at him, every single expression on his face is the exact same; smug, sneering and basically inappropriate for the situation at hand. I like “House” but every time a scene involves Dr. Eric Foreman, I think to myself what a terrible actor Omar Epps is. He was pretty good the first two seasons, but following that (particularly after they did the cast shakeup) his role became rather samey and, he seemed to give up trying. I wonder if, in a parallel to what was depicted on the show, he tried to find other roles but there weren’t any and the writers kept him in so that he at least had a regular paycheck. ---
**Author:** ![Made\_in\_Macau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@Made\_in\_Macau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Made_in_Macau)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/51 "2016-04-21T08:02:43Z")
This is a bit niche, but when watching this bad acting, I thought of this thread and the ‘Why am I still watching’ thread too. There’s a second series (amazingly) of the Sky version of The Bridge called The Tunnel. The actor who plays the UK police chief. Oh boy. Can’t find him on IMDB. If anyone has seen it, I mean the heavy set guy with the goatee who keeps calling our hero ‘a clever cunt’. My guess is he’s a dock worker who was at the scene at the port when the actual actor had a heart attack, and the producers looked around and said ‘fat bloke, can you swear?’ MiM ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/52 "2016-04-21T12:19:31Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > Thomas Lennon as Felix Unger isn’t any better. Felix is supposed to be a neurotic fussbudget, but Lennon plays him as a stiff with a frozen half-smile. His version of acting is to wobble his head when he talks. I can’t believe that my wife likes this show. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/53 "2016-04-21T12:40:42Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > And Omar Epps (Foreman) on House? If someone had said “they hate that bad actor on House”, I think I would have guessed three or four people ahead of him. Same here, and I’d give all four spots to that marble-mouthed chick who played Dr. Park, whose brief tenure made the show nearly unwatchable, and who is one of the worst actors I’ve seen not just recently, but ever. But she’s Asian and female and wears glasses, which automatically qualifies her as adorable to some people, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/54 "2016-04-21T12:41:48Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > I’m no fan of Emilia Clarke, but if she was anywhere near “worst acting” it would be all anyone talked about given the stellar cast and awesome performances on that show. It is not. She does really well with quiet scenes where she’s allowed to show some vulnerability, but it seems like all too often she’s given bad dialogue or just starts screaming about her dragons, and it doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/55 "2016-04-21T13:43:13Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > So changing her to ‘Eve’, where wooden acting is required, was the right move? 😃 > [@faithfool](#): > > She’s who I came in to mention, and no, she can’t even play a friggin’ cyborg without evoking that a sandwich would have more feelings. Heh, heh. I’m glad to see I’m not alone in my assessment. I cheered when Juliet “died”. Then when she became Eve I figured it was a perfect match for her lack of acting ability. Then subsequently discovered that she can’t even play a semi-dead zombie-like creature effectively. It seems like her facial muscles are all paralyzed. How she got cast in this lead role is beyond my comprehension. What makes it worse is the comparison with Bree Turner (Rosalee) in the same show, who is a wonderfully talented and expressive actress. ---
**Author:** ![Obeseus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbce88/32.png) [@Obeseus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obeseus)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/56 "2016-04-21T14:16:24Z")
Skeet Ulrich has been terrible in several things, and somehow had a lead role in Law & Order: LA. It would have been better if his roles were limited to playing dead bodies. At least they killed off his character on L&O:LA so the same character wouldn’t pop up and totally ruin the other L&O series. ---
**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:** [April 21, 2016, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/57 "2016-04-21T14:17:49Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Manny (Rico Rodriguez) and Luke (Nolan Gould) on _Modern Family_. They’re both extremely wooden, and they _almost_ take me out of the show. Fortunately they’re not getting many lines these days (if anything, they’re focusing on the even-younger kids, Joe and Lily). I don’t know what happened with Modern Family in the last couple of seasons but it seems like for all the adult roles they’ve gone with the strategy of “overact as much as you can, and if you yell all of your lines it will be so much funnier.” I don’t know if they are trying compensate for weaker writing or what, but I can hardly stand to watch the show anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/58 "2016-04-21T15:03:55Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > I don’t know what happened with Modern Family in the last couple of seasons but it seems like for all the adult roles they’ve gone with the strategy of “overact as much as you can, and if you yell all of your lines it will be so much funnier.” I don’t know if they are trying compensate for weaker writing or what, but I can hardly stand to watch the show anymore. Mitch and Cam are the worst written couple. I honestly can’t understand why either is attracted to the other one. Cam’s a needy drama queen prone to histrionics and Mitch is a bitter snarking he-bitch who makes constant cutting comments and there’s rarely any evidence of warmth between them. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2016, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/59 "2016-04-22T23:38:06Z")
Evan Peters on the most recent American Horror Story. He was fine in the first couple, the. Started kind of phoning it in, and in the most recent he just did an imitation of Johnny Depp from ED WOOD. This was the first AHS I could not complete watching, so perhaps he got better. ---
**Author:** ![Marlonius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Marlonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlonius)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2016, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652/60 "2016-04-23T00:10:20Z")
I saw a guest spot by Buzz Aldrin as himself in “30 Rock” a few years back that was painful to watch. I was embarrassed for both him and Tina Fey for having to act with him. What a disaster. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acting-youve-seen-lately/752652.md?page=4)