10 Actors Who Knew The Movie Was Doomed On Day 1
Matt Damon knew The Great Wall was a big ol' dud while he was filming it.
Transcript
00:00 It's easy to forget that acting is a job first and foremost, and few actors are blessed
00:05 with the luxury of only appearing in movies which speak to them on a personally and creatively
00:09 fulfilling level.
00:11 Given the many variables that go into a movie's creation, actors aren't always aware of
00:15 quite the calibre project they're starring in, whether good or bad.
00:19 But sometimes a script hits one of the two extremes so ferociously that they know precisely
00:24 what they're in for from the jump.
00:26 And while it's hardly news if an actor says they knew a great movie would be great from
00:30 the moment they read the script, it's far more interesting to hear actors admit they
00:34 knew movies would suck from day one.
00:36 And so with that in mind, I'm Ellie with What Culture here with 10 actors who knew
00:41 the movie was doomed on day one.
00:43 10.
00:44 Channing Tatum in Jupiter Ascending
00:47 The Wachowskis' 2015 sci-fi blockbuster Jupiter Ascending was certainly an ambitious
00:53 attempt at kickstarting a major new tentpole universe, albeit one that failed to strike
00:58 much of a chord with critics or general audiences.
01:01 Despite praise for the visual effects and the memorable Chicago chase sequence, the
01:06 script and Eddie Redmayne's Razzie-winning performance were largely panned, and it failed
01:10 to recoup its $210 million at the box office.
01:14 Co-star Channing Tatum, who has never been one to mince words about his career disappointments,
01:19 spoke out recently about the exhausting experience of shooting the film, which he knew wasn't
01:24 coming together as soon as he started working on it.
01:27 He said in an interview with Variety, "Jupiter Ascending was a nightmare from the jump.
01:31 It was a sideways movie.
01:33 All of us were there for seven months, bursting our hump.
01:36 It was just tough."
01:37 Tatum also went on to criticise his own performance in the film, feeling that his work suffered
01:43 from a lack of energy due to shooting four movies back-to-back without any time off.
01:48 That said, Tatum's performance in Jupiter Ascending is far from the worst thing about
01:52 it.
01:53 9.
01:54 Emily Blunt in Gulliver's Travels
01:56 It's not much of a secret that Emily Blunt was actually the first choice to play Black
02:01 Widow in Iron Man 2, but she was forced to turn down the role due to a stand-in contractual
02:07 agreement with Fox, who demanded that she appear in the Jack Black-led Gulliver's Travels
02:12 instead.
02:13 Gulliver's Travels went on to score largely negative reviews from critics and failed to
02:17 turn a profit on its monstrously over-egged $112 million budget.
02:22 During a recent interview with Howard Sturm, Blunt called missing out on Black Widow a
02:26 bit of a heartbreak, and went on to rather diplomatically explain that she knew Gulliver's
02:31 Travels was a dud project from the get-go.
02:34 Blunt added, however, that she has no ill will against anyone who worked on the film
02:37 and had fun shooting it regardless of her own lack of desire to appear in it.
02:41 She went on to say, "There were a lot of really lovely people who were heaven to work
02:45 with.
02:46 I had a good time, a laugh with all of them, but it irked my heart for it to have happened
02:50 in the first place."
02:51 8.
02:52 Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, and Dennis Hopper in Super Mario Bros
02:57 1993's Super Mario Bros may endure almost 30 years later as a bewildering cult classic,
03:03 but make no mistake, it was a major failure upon release.
03:07 Demolished by critics and fans alike for its script and deviations from the video game
03:11 source material, it was a critical flop and abysmal box office disaster.
03:16 It won't surprise anyone who's seen the film to learn that the movie's production
03:20 was abject chaos.
03:22 In his 2007 autobiography, co-star John Leguizamo, who plays Luigi in the film, revealed that
03:28 he and Bob Hoskins, who played Mario, were fully aware they were in a train wreck, and
03:32 would regularly get drunk on set just to make it through the day's shoot.
03:36 7.
03:37 Sean William Scott in Mr. Woodcock
03:40 Don't feel bad if you don't remember Mr. Woodcock, a comedy starring Sean William
03:44 Scott, Billy Bob Thornton, and Susan Sarandon that came and went in a blip in the summer
03:49 of 2007 amid negative reviews while doing little box office business.
03:54 In a 2009 interview, the ever-chill Scott talked openly about the movie's failure,
03:59 straight up admitting that he and co-star Thornton knew it sucked while they were filming
04:03 it.
04:04 He said, "We would rip on that movie, Woodcock.
04:05 Like this movie effin' sucks.
04:07 It's so sad, man.
04:09 There's nothing worse than going to a movie set knowing that this could end my career."
04:13 Thankfully for Scott, Mr. Woodcock was enough of a non-entity that it was quickly forgotten,
04:18 and basically caused his career no harm at all.
04:21 6.
04:22 Edward Norton in The Italian Job
04:24 F. Gary Gray's 2003 remake of The Italian Job saw Edward Norton playing the role of
04:30 villain Steve Frizzelli, but Norton made no bones about the fact that he wanted nothing
04:34 to do with the movie.
04:35 In a similar situation to Emily Blunt, Norton only appeared in the film due to a contractual
04:40 requirement from Paramount, who had signed him to a multi-picture deal.
04:45 Norton had turned down numerous proposed projects from the studio and balked at the idea of
04:49 starring in The Italian Job, until Paramount tied Norton up in litigation and forced him
04:54 to appear in the film for $1 million, a mere fraction of his usual $10 million fee at the
04:59 time.
05:00 Watching the film, it's clear that Norton isn't thrilled about the experience, though
05:03 ironically his performance ended up receiving the bulk of the film's critical praise.
05:08 While The Italian Job wasn't an outright disaster like most of the films on this list,
05:13 it settled for broadly positive reviews and turning a modest profit, albeit failing to
05:17 launch the wider franchise, namely a planned sequel to Brazilian Job, Paramount was clearly
05:23 hoping for.
05:24 5.
05:25 Jamie Lee Curtis in Virus
05:28 Jamie Lee Curtis is one of the straightest shooters you'll ever find in Hollywood, and
05:32 has never been scared to speak her mind about her past projects, success or failure.
05:36 But there's one movie in her filmography that she regards as a unique brand of misfire,
05:42 and that's 1999's sci-fi horror film Virus.
05:45 Beyond praise for its visual effects, the film was near-universally panned by critics,
05:50 and despite Universal splashing out on action figures and video game tie-ins, it failed
05:55 to recoup even half of its $75 million price tag.
06:00 In an interview with WEN back in 2010, Curtis singled out Virus as the only film in her
06:05 career where she went into it knowing it was a dud, and was unable to do anything to change
06:10 that fact.
06:11 She said "That's a piece of sh- movie.
06:13 It's an unbelievably bad movie, just bad from the bottom.
06:16 It was maybe the only time I've known something was just bad and there was nothing I could
06:20 do about it."
06:21 Curtis seems to have a sense of humour about its failure, though, telling IGN in 2003 that
06:26 it's fun to compare terrible movies with her friends in the business.
06:30 She said "That's the only good reason to be in bad movies.
06:33 Then, when your friends have bad movies, you can say, 'Ah, I've got the best one.
06:36 I'm bringing Virus.'"
06:38 Never change, Jamie Lee.
06:40 4.
06:41 Bruce Willis in Cop Out
06:43 The production of Kevin Smith's 2010 buddy cop movie Cop Out sounds utterly miserable,
06:49 with Smith going on the record to say that star Bruce Willis was a miserable, uncooperative
06:53 presence throughout shooting, and wouldn't even participate in promotional duties, ultimately
06:58 calling the experience "soul-crushing".
07:01 This was, of course, a long time before Willis' unfortunate recent medical diagnosis, which
07:06 prompted Smith to call his prior comments "petty".
07:08 Yet, it doesn't take much reading between the lines to see that Bruce knew he was in
07:12 a dud and just couldn't muster the effort to turn it on, so to speak.
07:16 Given that Willis turned in solid performances in Red, Lay the Favourite, Moonrise Kingdom,
07:21 and Looper in the two years that followed Cop Out, it clearly wasn't a case of him
07:25 being generally disinterested in actually acting, but simply knowing the project was
07:30 no good.
07:31 3.
07:32 Whoopi Goldberg in Theodore Rex
07:34 Granted, a comatose person could probably have realised that Theodore Rex was going
07:38 to be a terrible movie, let alone star Whoopi Goldberg, who verbally agreed to star in the
07:43 buddy sci-fi comedy in 1992, and was then litigated into holding up her end of the bargain
07:49 after attempting to back out.
07:51 Goldberg evidently knew the project was a disaster then, which went on to receive Universal
07:56 Critical Scorn and also net Goldberg a Razzie nomination for Worst Actress.
08:01 Worse still, New Line Cinema ultimately decided to release Theodore Rex straight to video,
08:07 which with its $33.5 million budget, made it the most expensive direct-to-video movie
08:12 ever at the time.
08:14 Goldberg was however paid $7 million for the role, and while she clearly knew it was a
08:18 dreadful movie from the outset, there are certainly worse outcomes than being paid more
08:23 money than most people will ever see in several lifetimes to make a terrible film.
08:27 2.
08:28 Matt Damon in The Great Wall
08:30 2016's The Great Wall was a sci-fi monster movie co-produced by American and Chinese
08:36 movie studios, starring Matt Damon as a European mercenary who joins forces with Chinese warriors
08:42 to help battle an alien threat emerging by the Great Wall of China.
08:46 Despite being directed by the great Zhang Yimou and boasting a stellar supporting cast
08:51 including Willem Dafoe and Pedro Pascal, The Great Wall received largely negative reviews
08:56 for both its weirdly boring execution and accusations that it was perpetuating yet another
09:01 white saviour narrative.
09:03 Though the film went on to grow $334.9 million globally, its $150 million budget and large
09:11 marketing spend meant it ultimately failed to turn a profit.
09:15 And star Damon has largely kept quiet about the film in the years since.
09:19 Last summer he did break his silence and confirm that he knew the project wasn't working
09:23 when he saw how director Yimou was being pressured by financiers to change his vision for the
09:28 film.
09:29 He said in an interview with Marc Maron, "I was like, 'This is exactly how disasters
09:33 happen.
09:34 It doesn't cohere.
09:35 It doesn't work as a movie.'
09:36 I came to consider that the definition of a professional actor, knowing you're in
09:40 a turkey and going, 'Okay, I've got four more months.
09:43 It's the up-at-dawn siege on Hamburger Hill.
09:46 I'm definitely going to die here, but I'm doing it."
09:48 1.
09:49 Matthew Broderick - Deck the Halls
09:52 Christmas comedy Deck the Halls was released in late 2006 to near-universal critical disdain
09:58 while failing to lure in even the most undemanding of audiences, hopped up on eggnog and turkey.
10:04 It was unable to recoup its oddly hefty $51 million budget.
10:08 According to a 2013 episode of How Did This Get Made, which featured one of the film's
10:13 cast members, Gillian Bickman, the three leads weren't thrilled about being on set.
10:18 Christian Chenoweth, who is still reeling from breaking up with Aaron Sorkin and spent
10:22 much of the shoot in tears, Danny DeVito flew in to do the bare minimum required of him,
10:27 and then there's Matthew Broderick.
10:29 Broderick, who reportedly spent months training with a real speed skater for the film's
10:34 speed skating sequence, was spotted on set shaking his head and saying to himself, "I've
10:38 hit rock bottom."
10:39 Evidently, Broderick knew he was starring in A Christmas Turkey, but unlike Chenoweth
10:44 and DeVito, he managed to avoid scoring a Razzie nomination.
10:48 Silver linings, right?
10:50 And that concludes our list.
10:52 If you can think of any we missed, then do let us know in the comments below.
10:55 And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
10:59 Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias
11:03 just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
11:05 I've been Ellie with What Culture, I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you real