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It's not every day that you hear of famous actors publicly criticizing their roles. Even if most of them have roles they hate (and with all of the box office bombs that have come out in recent years, we're sure some of them do), they know that it takes more than impeccable acting chops to make a successful career.
It's also important to not offend writers and producers of because it's highly likely they'll need them again one day. With that being said, some actors just don't care. If they're not happy with a role, they make it known. And they don't mince words, either. (Even if they definitely should.) Here are 10 actors who hated the roles that made them rich.
Nicole Kidman
In 2008, Nicole Kidman starred opposite of Hugh Jackman in an "epic romance" called Australia. It's a historical drama, which focuses on the love story between a recent widow who's traveled to Australia from Britain claim a plot of land she inherited. While there she crosses paths with a native, who in the midst of much turmoil around them, fall in love with her.
One wouldn't consider Australia to be a box office success, but it did moderately well, grossing almost $250 million dollars in the first year of release. Not even that figure could impress Nicole Kidman, who relayed this message to a Sydney radio station: "I can't look at this movie and be proud of what I've done...It's just impossible for me to connect to it emotionally."
Colin Farrell
Colin Farrell starred as Detective Crockett in the 2006 film adaptation of Miami Vice. His character was the partner of Jamie Foxx's character, Detective Tubbs. Even though the film was a commercial and critical success, the role left a bad taste in Colin's mouth.
"I didn't like it very much," he said. "I understood that we were trying to paint a relationship with Tubbs and Crockett that was so grounded and familiar that there was no need for them to incessantly talk to each other, or look at each other, over two and a half hours." Can't win them all.
Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet's most well-known role is playing Rose DeWitt Bukater in Titanic. The movie debuted in theaters over two decades ago, but fans are still just as in love with her onscreen chemistry with Leonardo DiCaprio as they were back then.
Unfortunately, Kate Winslet isn't quite as fond of her portrayal of Rose. In fact, she absolutely hates how she interpreted the material. “Even my American accent," she said of her role, "I can’t listen to it. It’s awful. Hopefully, it’s so much better now. It sounds terribly self-indulgent but actors do tend to be very self-critical. I have a hard time watching any of my performances, but watching Titanic I was just like, ‘Oh God, I want to do that again.’”
George Clooney
George Clooney starred in Batman and Robin in 1997. Despite drawing a profit of about $100 million, the film wasn't well received by audiences or critics.
George Clooney, who took on the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne, shares this opinion on the movie on The Graham Norton Show. “Let me just say that I’d actually thought I’d destroyed the franchise until somebody else brought it back years later and changed it," he said while appearing on The Graham Norton Show. "I thought at the time that this was going to be a very good career move. Ummmmm, it wasn’t.”
Megan Fox
Megan Fox starred as Makaela Banes, the car-savvy love interest of Shia LeBeouf's character in the Transformer franchise. Well, at least the first two films. Even though Transformers 1 and 2 were both commercial successes, Megan's experience on set left a bad taste in her mouth.
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At the time, Megan shared that her experience with director Michael Bay wasn't a pleasant one. In Wonderland magazine she even likened him to an infamous dictator. "He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is, so he's a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he's not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he's so awkward, so hopelessly awkward," she said. "He has no social skills at all. ... He's vulnerable and fragile in real life and then on set he's a tyrant."
Matt Damon
Matt Damon took on the role of Jason Bourne in 2002's The Bourne Supremacy, the first of five total movies with The Bourne franchise. The movies, which all grossed several hundred million dollars, have dedicated fan bases. One person who wasn't impressed with at least one of the films was Matt himself. Apparently he wasn't a fan of the screenplay for The Bourne Identity, however, he didn't take any shots at the screenwriter, Tony Gilroy, when he felt didn't turn in quality work.
"It's the studio's fault for putting themselves in that position," he said. "I don't blame Tony for taking a boatload of money and handing in what he handed in. It’s just that it was unreadable. This is a career-ender. I mean, I could put this thing up on eBay and it would be game over for that dude. It's terrible. It's really embarrassing. He was having a go, basically, and he took his money and left."
Katherine Heigl
Katherine Heigl has not one, but two major roles that she's publicly berated. In 2008, shortly after she starred in Knocked Up, she had this to say about her role: "It was a little sexist,” Heigl told Vanity Fair. “It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys.
Katherine's comments preceded swift backlash from the public. But proving that Katherine had learned absolutely nothing, she spoke out about her role on Grey's Anatomy just a few months later, when she commented on her decision to withdraw herself from Emmy consideration. “I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization, I withdrew my name from contention," she said. "In addition, I did not want to potentially take away an opportunity from an actress who was given such materials.”
Daniel Radcliffe
Daniel Radcliffe was just 11 years old when he was cast as Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which is based on the novel by J.K. Rowling. Over the next ten years, he would star in five films total for the franchise.
Overall, the Harry Potter franchise is both a commercial and critical success. And even though Daniel was incredibly young when he was given the opportunity to lead such a big project, he mostly has fond memories of his time on set. That doesn't mean that everything was perfect however. In 2015, he had this to say about his performance in 2009's Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince: "I'm just not very good in it," he said to a British newspaper. "I hate it. My acting is very one-note and I can see I got complacent, and what I was trying to do just didn't come across."
Constance Wu
Before Constance Wu landed a starring role in Crazy Rich Asians, she starred in Fresh Off The Boat, a boundary-pushing comedy that centered around a Taiwanese-American family, as Jessica Huang. One would have assumed that she was happy with her role, until earlier this year.
Constance Wu caused a bunch of kerfuffle on Twitter when she posted expletive-filled tweets around the time Fresh Off The Boat was renewed. It was an odd reaction for an actor, who just learned they would be employed for at least another year. Some people inquired as to whether or not Wu felt she was now better than her cast mates, given her box office success. Eventually, she revealed that she was disappointed about the show being renewed because it interfered with another project she wanted to appear in.
Robert Pattinson
Landing the role of Edward Cullen in the Twilight franchise, based on the novels by Stephanie Meyer, may have turned Robert Pattinson into a multi-millionaire, but he's never hidden his disdain for the character. In fact, Robert Pattinson has been so outspoken about his dislike of Edward Cullen, a 100-year-old Vampire, who fell in love with a young girl that his candid responses have been made into memes.
It would take far too long to include all of Pattinson's critiques of the character, so allow us to leave you with this one of Stephanie Meyer herself: "I was convinced Stephanie [Meyers] was convinced she was Bella and it was like it was a book that wasn’t supposed to be published... I was just convinced – I was like, ‘ This woman is mad. She’s completely mad and she’s in love with her own fictional creation.”