- 9 hours ago
Matt Damon knew The Great Wall was a big ol' dud while he was filming it.
Category
đŸ“º
TVTranscript
00:00It's easy to forget that acting is a job first and foremost, and few actors are blessed
00:05with the luxury of only appearing in movies which speak to them on a personally and creatively
00:09fulfilling level.
00:11Given the many variables that go into a movie's creation, actors aren't always aware of quite
00:15the calibre project they're starring in, whether good or bad.
00:19But sometimes a script hits one of the two extremes so ferociously that they know precisely
00:24what they're in for from the jump.
00:26And while it's hardly news if an actor says they knew a great movie would be great from
00:30the moment they read the script, it's far more interesting to hear actors admit they
00:34knew movies would suck from day one.
00:36And so with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture here with 10 actors who knew the
00:41movie was doomed on day one.
00:44Number 10.
00:45Channing Tatum in Jupiter Ascending The Wachowskis' 2015 sci-fi blockbuster Jupiter Ascending was
00:51certainly an ambitious attempt at kickstarting a major new tentpole universe, albeit one that
00:57failed to strike much of a chord with critics or general audiences.
01:01Despite praise for the visual effects and the memorable Chicago chase sequence, the script
01:06and Eddie Redmayne's Razzie-winning performance were largely panned, and it failed to recoup
01:11its $210 million at the box office.
01:13Co-star Channing Tatum, who has never been one to mince words about his career disappointments,
01:19spoke out recently about the exhausting experience of shooting the film, which he knew wasn't
01:24coming together as soon as he started working on it.
01:27He said in an interview with Variety, Jupiter Ascending was a nightmare from the jump.
01:31It was a sideways movie.
01:33All of us were there for seven months, bursting our hump.
01:36It was just tough.
01:37Tatum also went on to criticise his own performance in the film, feeling that his work suffered
01:43from a lack of energy due to shooting four movies back to back without any time off.
01:48That said, Tatum's performance in Jupiter Ascending is far from the worst thing about
01:52it.
01:539.
01:54Emily Blunt in Gulliver's Travels
01:56It's not much of a secret that Emily Blunt was actually the first choice to play Black Widow
02:02in Iron Man 2, but she was forced to turn down the role due to a standing contractual agreement
02:07with Fox, who demanded that she appear in the Jack Black-led Gulliver's Travels instead.
02:13Gulliver's Travels went on to score largely negative reviews from critics and failed to
02:17turn a profit on its monstrously over-egged $112 million budget.
02:22During a recent interview with Howard Stern, Blunt called missing out on Black Widow a bit
02:26of a heartbreak, and went on to rather diplomatically explain that she knew Gulliver's Travels was a dud
02:32project from the get-go.
02:33Blunt added, however, that she has no ill will against anyone who worked on the film and
02:37had fun shooting it regardless of her own lack of desire to appear in it.
02:41She went on to say,
02:42There were a lot of really lovely people who were heaven to work with.
02:46I actually had a good time, a laugh with all of them, but it irked my heart for it to
02:50have happened in the first place.
02:518.
02:52Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, and Dennis Hopper in Super Mario Bros
02:571993's Super Mario Bros may endure almost 30 years later as a bewildering cult classic,
03:03but make no mistake, it was a major failure upon release.
03:07Demolished by critics and fans alike for its script and deviations from the video game source
03:12material, it was a critical flop and abysmal box office disaster.
03:16It won't surprise anyone who's seen the film to learn that the movie's production was abject chaos.
03:21In his 2007 autobiography, co-star John Leguizamo, who plays Luigi in the film, revealed that he
03:28and Bob Hoskins, who played Mario, were fully aware they were in a train wreck and would
03:33regularly get drunk on set just to make it through the day's shoot.
03:367.
03:37Sean William Scott in Mr. Woodcock
03:40Don't feel bad if you don't remember Mr. Woodcock, a comedy starring Sean William Scott,
03:44Billy Bob Thornton and Susan Sarandon that came and went in a blip in the summer of 2007 amid
03:50negative reviews while doing little box office business.
03:54In a 2009 interview, the ever chill Scott talked openly about the movie's failure,
03:58straight up admitting that he and co-star Thornton knew it sucked while they were filming it.
04:03He said,
04:03We would rip on that movie, Woodcock. Like, this movie effin' sucks. It's so sad, man.
04:09There's nothing worse than going to a movie set knowing that this could end my career.
04:13Thankfully for Scott, Mr. Woodcock was enough of a non-entity that it was quickly forgotten
04:18and basically caused his career no harm at all.
04:216. Edward Norton in The Italian Job
04:25F. Gary Gray's 2003 remake of The Italian Job saw Edward Norton playing the role of villain Steve
04:31Frazzelli, but Norton made no bones about the fact that he wanted nothing to do with the movie.
04:36In a similar situation to Emily Blunt, Norton only appeared in the film due to a contractual
04:40requirement from Paramount, who had signed him to a multi-picture deal.
04:44Norton had turned down numerous proposed projects from the studio and balked at the idea of starring
04:49in The Italian Job, until Paramount tied Norton up in litigation and forced him to appear in the
04:54film for $1 million, a mere fraction of his usual $10 million fee at the time. Watching the film,
05:01it's clear that Norton isn't thrilled about the experience, though ironically,
05:04his performance ended up receiving the bulk of the film's critical praise. While The Italian Job wasn't
05:09an outright disaster like most of the films on this list, it settled for broadly positive reviews and
05:15turning a modest profit, albeit failing to launch the wider franchise, namely a planned sequel,
05:20The Brazilian Job, Paramount was clearly hoping for.
05:245. Jamie Lee Curtis in Virus
05:27Jamie Lee Curtis is one of the straightest shooters you'll ever find in Hollywood and has never been
05:32scared to speak her mind about her past projects, success or failure. But there's one movie in her
05:38filmography that she regards as a unique brand of misfire, and that's 1999 sci-fi horror film Virus.
05:45Beyond praise for its visual effects, the film was near universally panned by critics,
05:50and despite Universal splashing out on action figures and video game tie-ins,
05:55it failed to recoup even half of its $75 million price tag.
05:59In an interview with When back in 2010, Curtis singled out Virus as the only film in her career
06:06where she went into it knowing it was a dud and was unable to do anything to change that fact.
06:11She said,
06:11That's a piece of shit movie. It's an unbelievably bad movie, just bad from the bottom.
06:16It was maybe the only time I've known something was just bad and there was nothing I could do about it.
06:21Curtis seems to have a sense of humour about its failure though, telling IGN in 2003 that it's fun to
06:27compare terrible movies with her friends in the business. She said,
06:30That's the only good reason to be in bad movies. Then, when your friends have bad movies, you can say,
06:35Ah, I've got the best one. I'm bringing Virus. Never change, Jamie Lee.
06:404. Bruce Willis in Cop Out
06:43The production of Kevin Smith's 2010 buddy cop movie Cop Out sounds utterly miserable,
06:49with Smith going on the record to say that star Bruce Willis was a miserable,
06:53uncooperative presence throughout shooting, and wouldn't even participate in promotional duties,
06:58ultimately calling the experience soul-crushing. This was of course a long time before Willis's
07:03unfortunate recent medical diagnosis, which prompted Smith to call his prior comments petty.
07:09Yet, it doesn't take much reading between the lines to see that Bruce knew he was in a dud,
07:13and just couldn't muster the effort to turn it on, so to speak. Given that Willis turned in solid
07:18performances in Red, Lay the Favourite, Moonrise Kingdom and Looper in the two years that followed
07:23Cop Out, it clearly wasn't a case of him being generally disinterested in actually
07:27acting, but simply knowing the project was no good.
07:313. Whoopi Goldberg in Theodore Rex
07:34Granted, a comatose person could probably have realised that Theodore Rex was going to be a
07:39terrible movie, let alone star Whoopi Goldberg, who verbally agreed to star in the buddy sci-fi
07:44comedy in 1992, and was then litigated into holding up her end of the bargain after attempting
07:50to back out. Goldberg evidently knew the project was a disaster then, which went on to receive
07:55Universal Critical Scorn and also net Goldberg a Razzie nomination for Worst Actress.
08:01Worse still, New Line Cinema ultimately decided to release Theodore Rex straight to video,
08:07which with its $33.5 million budget made it the most expensive direct-to-video movie ever at the time.
08:14Goldberg was however paid $7 million for the role, and while she clearly knew it was a dreadful movie from
08:19the outset, there are certainly worse outcomes than being paid more money than most people will ever
08:24see in several lifetimes to make a terrible film.
08:272. Matt Damon in The Great Wall
08:302016's The Great Wall was a sci-fi monster movie co-produced by American and Chinese movie studios,
08:37starring Matt Damon as a European mercenary who joins forces with Chinese warriors to help battle an alien
08:43threat emerging by The Great Wall of China. Despite being directed by the great Zhang Yimou and boasting
08:49a stellar supporting cast including Willem Dafoe and Pedro Pascal, The Great Wall received largely
08:55negative reviews for both its weirdly boring execution and accusations that it was perpetuating
09:00yet another white saviour narrative. Though the film went on to grow $334.9 million globally,
09:08its $150 million budget and large marketing spend meant it ultimately failed to turn a profit.
09:14While star Damon has largely kept quiet about the film in the years since, last summer he did break
09:20his silence and confirmed that he knew the project wasn't working when he saw how director Yimou was
09:24being pressured by financiers to change his vision for the film. He said in an interview with Marc Maron,
09:31I was like, this is exactly how disasters happen. It doesn't cohere. It doesn't work as a movie.
09:36I came to consider that the definition of a professional actor, knowing you're in a turkey
09:41and going, okay, I've got four more months. It's the up at dawn siege on Hamburger Hill.
09:46I'm definitely going to die here, but I'm doing it.
09:48Number one, Matthew Broderick in Deck the Halls.
09:52Christmas comedy Deck the Halls was released in late 2006 to near universal critical disdain,
09:58while failing to lure in even the most undemanding of audiences, hopped up on eggnog and turkey.
10:04It was unable to recoup its oddly hefty $51 million budget.
10:08According to a 2013 episode of How Did This Get Made, which featured one of the film's cast
10:13members, Gillian Vickman, the three leads weren't thrilled about being on set.
10:18Christian Chenoweth, who is still reeling from breaking up with Aaron Sorkin, and spent much of
10:22the shoot in tears. Danny DeVito flew in to do the bare minimum required of him, and then there's
10:27Matthew Broderick. Broderick, who reportedly spent months training with a real speed skater for the
10:33film's speed skating sequence, was spotted on set shaking his head and saying to himself,
10:38I've hit rock bottom. Evidently, Broderick knew he was starring in A Christmas Turkey,
10:43but unlike Chenoweth and DeVito, he managed to avoid scoring a Razzie nomination. Silver linings though,
10:49right? And that concludes our list. If you can think of any we missed, then do let us know in the
10:54comments below, and while you're there don't forget to like and subscribe, and tap that notification
10:58bell. Also head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social
11:03medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with WhatCulture, I hope you have a
11:07magical day, and I'll see you real soon.
Comments