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Big roles, big regrets: The movies these stars wish they hadn’t made

Here are the roles that left Hollywood’s biggest names saying, “What was I thinking?”
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Landing a lead role in a blockbuster film sounds like every actor’s dream, right? Not always. While some movies catapulted these stars to superstardom, they also left them with some serious regrets.

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From Jennifer Lawrence cringing over Passengers to Daniel Craig’s exhaustion with James Bond, these actors have been brutally honest about the films they wish they could erase from their résumés.

Whether it was a bad script, overwhelming fame, or just plain embarrassment, here are the roles that left Hollywood’s biggest names saying, “What was I thinking?”

Passengers

Jennifer Lawrence

Passengers (2016)

The Oscar-winning actress had a very famous friend advise her against signing on for sci-fi romance Passengers, and looking back, Lawrence really wishes she’d listened.

“Adele told me not to do it!” Lawrence admitted to The New York Times six years after the film failed to set the box office alight. “She was like, ‘I feel like space movies are the new vampire movies.’”

The film – which starred Lawrence and Chris Pratt as lovers whose hibernation in space is disrupted early – was panned by critics, and Lawrence, 34, can’t argue with the 30 per cent Rotten Tomatoes rating.

“I was like, ‘Oh no, you guys are here because I’m here, and I’m here because you’re here,’” Lawrence said. “Wait, who decided that this was a good movie?”

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Chris Hemsworth Thor

Chris Hemsworth

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

Marvel was his ticket to fame and fortune, but when it came to the fourth Thor film, Hemsworth thinks he became “a parody of myself”.

 “I would read everyone else’s lines, and go, ‘Oh, they got way cooler stuff. They’re having more fun. What’s my character doing?’” he told Vanity Fair in 2024. “It was always about, ‘You’ve got the wig on. You’ve got the muscles. You’ve got the costume. Where’s the lighting?’”

Viola Davis The Help
(Credits: Getty)

Viola Davis

The Help (2011)

Even receiving an Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of ’60s housemaid Aibileen couldn’t take away Davis’ regret at being in The Help. Since its release, the actress, 59, has been openly contrite about the way the movie marginalised black maids. 

“There’s no-one who’s not entertained by The Help,” Davis told Vanity Fair in 2020. “But there’s a part of me that feels like I betrayed myself, and my people, because I was in a movie that wasn’t ready to [tell the whole truth].”

Robert Pattinson Twilight

Robert Pattinson

The Twilight Saga (2008–2012)

Teen girls the world over were hopelessly in love with Twilight’s Edward Cullen, but the actor behind the vampire fangs and shimmering skin doesn’t have a good word to say about the character.

“You always get weirdos like Edward who seem to attract women for some reason,” Pattinson, 38, said when talking to OK! magazine. “He is like one of those guys who would probably be an axe murderer.”

The British actor, who starred in five Twilight films with then-girlfriend Kristen Stewart, has also poked fun at the fandom, saying, “Twilight fans are literally on the verge of being clinically insane.” 

He also took issue with the “weird” plot, taken from the novels by Stephenie Meyer. “There’s a lot of stuff in the Twilight world that doesn’t make sense. It’s like, why are they still going to high school? Like, up until last year? They’re a hundred years old.”

Hugh Grant nine months

Hugh Grant

Nine Months (1995)

With his good looks and posh accent, the British heart-throb reigned in rom-coms throughout the ’90s and early 2000s. But if there’s one film Grant could erase from his CV, it would be Nine Months, about a commitment-phobe readying himself for the birth of his first baby. 

“Let me stress, everyone involved with that film, with the exception of me, was brilliant and talented,” the actor, 64, told Variety in January about the movie, co-starring Julianne Moore and the late Robin Williams. “It was just me that let it down.”

He’s so down about his performance from 30 years ago, he’s even banned his wife, Anna Eberstein, from watching it!

“I’ve forbidden her. I’ve put parental controls on the screen so that you can’t get it,” he joked. 

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Jacob Elordi The Kissing Booth

Jacob Elordi

The Kissing Booth trilogy (2018–2021)

The Aussie actor, 27, bit the hand that fed him when he bagged out his breakout role in Netflix’s teen rom-com series.

“I didn’t want to make those movies before I made those movies,” Elordi admitted during a 2023 interview with GQ. “Those movies are ridiculous. They’re not universal. They’re an escape.”

Carrie Fischer Star Wars

Carrie Fisher

The Star Wars films (1977–2019)

The actress played Princess Leia for almost 40 years before her death in 2016 – and appeared in one film posthumously. But if she had her time again, the star admitted she would have turned down the role because of the immense fame that came with the Star Wars universe. 

“I would never have done it,” Fisher said during an appearance on US Today in 2008. “All I did when I was really famous was wait for it to end.”

Ben Affleck Daredevil

Ben Affleck

Daredevil (2003)

The actor and director has made a string of brilliant films in his career, but he doesn’t believe Daredevil is one of them. Affleck’s never held back on his true feelings about playing the superhero, admitting to The New York Times in 2016, “I hate Daredevil so much.”

Affleck, 52, even took on another superhero, Batman, in a do-over of sorts. “Part of it was I wanted for once to get one of these movies and do it right – to do a good version,” he said.

Explaining why Daredevil, which co-starred ex-wife Jennifer Garner as Elektra, “didn’t work at all”, he told Entertainment Weekly in 2015, “That was before people realised you could make these movies and make them well. There was a cynical sense of, ‘Put a red leather outfit on a guy, have him run around, hunt some bad guys and cash the cheque.’” 

Katherine Heigl Knocked Up

Katherine Heigl

Knocked Up (2007)

For fans, it ranks among the funniest from the Judd Apatow rom-com era, but Knocked Up was not to Heigl’s liking.

Her biggest gripe? The way the characters were “exaggerated”, mainly her part as TV host and expectant mother Alison. 

“I’m playing such a b—h; why is she being such a killjoy? Why is this how we’re portraying women?” Heigl, 46, said in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2008. “Ninety-eight per cent of the time it was an amazing experience, but it was hard for me to love the movie.”

The other two per cent of the time, the actress admitted she “had a hard time with it”.

“It was a little sexist. It paints the women as shrews, as humourless and uptight, and it paints the men as loveable, goofy, fun-loving guys,” she said. 

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Daniel Craig James Bond

Daniel Craig

The James Bond films (2006-2021)

Craig seems to have a love-hate relationship with his most famous on-screen persona, James Bond. The British actor, 56, began his stint as suave secret agent 007 in 2006’s Casino Royale, following it with Quantum of Solace, Skyfall and Spectre.  

But after the fourth round in 2015, Craig bluntly told The Guardian he’d “rather slash my wrists” than step into the role again. “All I want to do is move on,” he pleaded.

However, he did leave the door to a fifth film slightly ajar, insisting, “If I did another Bond movie, it would only be for the money.”

Hence, he returned yet again for 2021’s No Time to Die. When he finally left the franchise, 

Craig revealed he’d only ever wanted to do one Bond film but it turned into 16 years of playing the same “exhausting” role. Since then, he’s made it clear he’s done talking about all things 007!

“I don’t care,” Craig told Variety in November 2024 when quizzed on who will take over the iconic role next. Looking back, the actor had a particularly difficult time on Quantum of Solace, which he called a “f–king nightmare” thanks to a writer’s strike disrupting production.

Kate Winslet Titanic
(Credits: Alamy)

Kate Winslet

Titanic (1997)

It’s hard to believe anyone could dislike a classic like Titanic, let alone its leading lady! But Winslet, 49, has never been able to watch it with pride, confessing she has a problem with “every single scene” she’s in!

“I’m like, ‘Really, really? You did it like that? Oh, my God.’ My American accent, I can’t listen to it. It’s awful,” the British actress told CNN about the film that made her a household name, alongside co-star Leonardo DiCaprio.

Though she’s acknowledged that the 11-time Oscar-winning film opened many doors in her career, she still believes she could have played Rose better. “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,’” Winslet admitted

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