Doing What Actors DoLists about actors and actresses and the characters they became, how they disappeared into roles, what they really look like, and more.
Vote up the times actors savagely roasted themselves.
Actors don't stop acting when the cameras stop rolling. Their extravagant salaries cover the acting they do for reporters, talk show hosts, executives, and possibly even friends and family. Most of this acting consists of praising each and every one of their movies.
We love it when an actor goes off script to trash their work - better yet, their performances. Here are 12 times actors ripped on their own acting.
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186 VOTES
Mark Hamill Knows The ‘Power Converters’ Line Is Cringey, But Was Hamming It Up To Set Up His Character’s Growth
In the first Star Wars, Mark Hamill, as Luke Skywalker, delivers a line that is cringe-famous. "But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters," Luke cries like a banshee after his uncle Owen tells him to do his chores. Hamill has a unique explanation for this "choice" of delivery:
I thought we might only be able to make the first film, because the second and third parts were predicated on how well the first one did. So I said, I'm going to have to make this as juvenile as I can so there's room for growth. And I sort of wanted to make it sound like I had four sisters and two brothers when you'd be in the car and they'd say things like, "You said we could go to the mall." So I wanted to give that flavor.
He recognizes the line's level of cringe, but laments its infamy:
It was cringe-inducing even at the time... But I explained to George [Lucas] what I just said to you, and he said, "Yeah, okay, do it." Little did I know that it would haunt me for decades. In fact, Empire magazine said that the top Luke Skywalker moment of all five movies is that line. That's when I knew that they didn't know what they were talking about. I was so insulted.
186 votes
2
93 VOTES
Ewan McGregor Said He Was Confident He Could Do The French Accent In ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ But It Came Out Sounding Mexican
Ewan McGregor accepted the role of Lumiere in the live-action Beauty and the Beast because he had been "married to a French woman [for] more than 20 years." This made him think he could nail the accent. Garçon, was he wrong:
...I couldn’t. At all... They said "don’t do the 'rrr.'" They didn’t want the French "rrr"... So when you take the French "rrr" out... you suddenly become totally Mexican.
McGregor said he'd probably have to redo all his lines. We don't know if that happened, but you can judge the final product for yourself.
93 votes
3
96 VOTES
Dev Patel Admits He Was Overwhelmed By The Studio Experience On ‘The Last Airbender’
Dev Patel hit it big with relatively small projects. He debuted in the British teen series Skins, then the next year starred in Slumdog Millionaire, both of which were critically acclaimed but financially limited. He wasn't ready for a corporate monster like The Last Airbender, which cost $280 million, all promotion included. Patel soberly described his experience on this film:
After Slumdog, I didn't really get anything. When that came around, it was a total no-brainer on the page... You've got [director] M. Night [Shyamalan] and [producer] Frank Marshall and all these big names. I'm a big martial arts fan, so I was like, "Oh, wow." I was probably miscast, and the film didn't hit the mark. It was a really hard process for me because... It was such a bigger machine than what I was used to from Skins, that I felt a bit adrift at sea.
He went on to divulge the horrors of performing a part you're fundamentally wrong for:
I could see that the studio was worried that I wasn't really performing well. It was quite a torturous experience in that sense where you know you've maybe possibly been miscast in something, and you're not right for it, and I didn't have any confidence, and I didn't know how to apply what I now know are my good tools as a performer, and the truth I can bring to a part. And it kind of showed.
I sound so stupid, but in a lot of ways, the hair is 75% of my performance... So in the second one [New Moon] I said, "Listen, I need to tone down the hair. Let’s make it a little more real, a little bit more... method."
And then in the third one [Eclipse], I’m doing fight scenes and there’s a strand going down my forehead, and they’re like, "We need to do it again because no one will recognize you! No one will know who it is!" I have to look like the poster at all times. Just in case they want to use any clip for the trailer. Any clip at all! There were about five people in different departments who, because of my forelock, ended up in tears.
The truth of the matter is, I was bad in it. Akiva Goldsman - who’s won the Oscar for writing since then - he wrote the screenplay. And it’s a terrible screenplay, he’ll tell you. I’m terrible in it, I’ll tell you. Joel Schumacher, who just passed away, directed it, and he’d say, "Yeah, it didn’t work." We all whiffed on that one.
However, he doesn't think he could have changed anything about the performance/film, as at that time, he was "just an actor getting an acting job... [not the] guy who could greenlight a movie."
90 votes
6
99 VOTES
Daniel Radcliffe Says He Got Complacent When Shooting ‘Half-Blood Prince’ And His Acting Is ‘One-Note’
If, like us, you thought Daniel Radcliffe maintained a suitable acting level throughout the entire Harry Potter series, Radcliffe has something to tell you:
...It’s hard to watch a film like Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, because I’m just not very good in it. I hate it.
He called his acting in the film "very one-note" and admitted he had become complacent, which is understandable considering that was the fourth time in eight years he had played the same character.
As for Radcliffe's favorite of his HP performances:
My best film is the fifth one [Order of the Phoenix]because I can see a progression.
