15 Movie Roles That Actors Say Utterly Sucked The Joy Or Passion Out Of Their Work
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Faking their emotions is basically the core of an actor's job. Sometimes, they're so good at it that audiences don't even realize they were actually having a horrible time. Other times, actors purposefully put themselves into a challenging emotional state through method acting.
Here are 15 times actors were secretly miserable on set (and why):
1.In 2024, Anya Taylor-Joy told the New York Times, "I've never been more alone than making [Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga]. I don't want to go too deep into it, but everything that I thought was going to be easy was hard."
When the interviewer asked her what precisely made the shoot so challenging, she paused for a few seconds and then replied, "Next question, sorry. Talk to me in 20 years. Talk to me in 20 years."
Later in the interview, Anya said that because preparing for the role required a lot of motorcycle riding and stunt training, she had to get over the "emotional hurdle" of a motorcycle crash she was in when she lived in Buenos Aires.
She also said that, on set, she went "months" without speaking on camera while filming a 197-shot action sequence.
She said, "I do want to 100 percent preface this by saying I love George [Miller, the director], and if you're going to do something like this, you want to be in the hands of someone like George Miller. But he had a very, very strict idea of what Furiosa's war face looked like, and that only allowed me my eyes for a large portion of the movie. It was very much 'mouth closed, no emotion, speak with your eyes.' That's it, that's all you have."
She also said she had to "fight" for certain character choices. She spent three months advocating for a single scream in the film, and while disputing another decision with the director, she started crying.
2.Charlize Theron reportedly had a contentious working relationship with costar Tom Hardy on Mad Max: Fury Road. According to Mark Goellnicht, a camera operator who was interviewed for the book Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, the actors argued after Tom was three hours late while Charlize had been waiting on set in costume the entire time. Mark said, "[Tom] was quite aggressive. She really felt threatened, and that was the turning point because then she said, 'I want someone as protection.' She then had a producer that was assigned to be with her all the time."
In an interview for the same tell-all book, Charlize corroborated Mark's account. She said, "It got to a place where it was kind of out of hand, and there was a sense that maybe sending a woman producer [Denise Di Novi] down could maybe equalize some of it. A lot of what I felt was coming my way from Doug [Mitchell, another producer] was … oh, [screw] it. I'll just say it. It was a man forgiving another man for really bad behavior, and I didn't feel safe."
She said that, after the director barred Denise from set, she "still felt pretty naked and alone" and like she was "walking on thin ice."
She said, "We were either fighting, or we were icing each other – I don't know which one is worse – and [our costars] had to deal with it in the back," she said. "It was horrible! We should not have done that; we should have been better… It was not a conducive working environment, I apologize profusely...I don't want to make excuses for bad behavior, but it was a tough shoot. Now, I have a very clear perspective on what went down. I don't think I had that clarity when we were making the movie. I was in survival mode; I was really scared shitless."
However, Tom said, "She's a very serious actor. So, I don't see why she would ever be intimidated by me or in any way feel frightened. I think that was more bollocks."
3.Likewise, Charlize Theron tried out method acting for The Devil's Advocate because director Taylor Hackford wanted her to. In 2022, Charlize told the Smartless podcast, "I realized on that film that that was definitely not a process that was gonna work for me. There was something so exhausting about it. My life was miserable. I wasn't happy."
She continued, "And then, of course, you worry because then you're like, 'Well, if I don't do that, then maybe I won't be as good as the Marlon Brando's and Monty Clift's,' and you read all these biographies...And then I did some work, non-method, and I was actually really happy with the work. I think for me, having the energy to be able to go a lot further in darker material is way more helpful than being exhausted. When I'm exhausted, I'm just tired. I almost don't want to go in the dark room. So, I made it a real discipline. I think dance really helped me with this. I work, I leave it behind."
4.Zoë Saldaña hated working on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. In 2014, she told the Hollywood Reporter, "Those weren’t the right people for me. I’m not talking about the cast. The cast was great. I’m talking about the political stuff that went on behind closed doors. It was a lot of above-the-line versus below-the-line, extras versus actors, producers versus PAs. It was very elitist. I almost quit the business."
She continued, "I was 23 years old, and I was like, 'Fuck this!' I am never putting myself in this situation again. People disrespecting me because they look at my number on a call sheet and they think I’m not important. Fuck you."
In 2023, she told BBC Radio 1, "I really had a not so good experience because of just the poor management at that time. And [producer]Jerry Bruckheimer knows this. We spoke about it eventually. I think he read some somewhere where I had, you know, expressed my discomfortand my disappointment. And years later, he apologized, which felt, really, quite honorable, I actually have to say. But, from that experience, I was like, 'I'm never gonna do this again. I'm just gonna stay in New York and work out of New York, and that's it.'"
5.In 2016, Amy Hill told the AV Club that she didn't like working on The Cat in the Hat because of her costar Mike Meyers's behavior. She said, "He had his handlers dress his trailer, and his area was all covered with tenting because he didn't want anybody seeing him. It was so weird. It was just the worst. It was like I was there forever, and my daughter was 2 and a half, and I felt like I was missing her first everything. I was miserable. I just thought it was really rude for him to not take all of us into consideration."
She also said, "It was just a horrible, nightmarish experience. I don't think he got to know anybody. He'd just be with his people and walk away. People would come, and then he'd stand there. There was a guy who held his chocolates in a little Tupperware. Whenever he needed chocolate, he'd come running over and give him a chocolate. That's what divas are like, I guess. Or people who need therapy."
6.According to her The Devil Wears Prada costar Emily Blunt, Meryl Streep was "miserable" playing Miranda Priestly. In 2023, Emily told Variety's Actors on Actors, "She said it was one of the first times she’s tried Method acting. But it made her so miserable."
Emily also said, "She’s amazing and was slightly terrifying on that film."
7.In 2019, Sanaa Lathan told CBS Local, "I was miserable [filming Love & Basketball]. I can laugh about it now. I got the job, and I think Gina [Prince-Bythewood, the writer/director] finally got to the point where she had to hire somebody. It's almost like she hired me because she couldn't find somebody else. There wasn't a lot of joy, and there wasn't a lot of trust in me."
She continued, "It was her baby, and it was her first time directing. It was a big deal for her and nobody knows me then really. She gets to the point where she makes this decision with me, but I felt like the default."
She also found the basketball scene challenging because she'd never played the sport.
She said, "I had to go through so much to get the part, and in all the basketball scenes, [they] surrounded me with real ballplayers. There was a lot of crying behind the scenes for me."
8.In 2018, Christopher Eccleston told the Guardian, "Working on something like [G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra] was horrendous. I just wanted to cut my throat every day."
He clarified that the responsibility fell on his shoulders, not anyone else's.
9.Christopher Eccleston also told the Guardian, "And [Thor: The Dark World]? Just a gun in your mouth."
"But GI Joe and Thor were…I really paid for being a whore those times," he said.
For the role of Malekith, he reportedly had to spend a grueling six hours in the makeup chair minimum, and multiple scenes explaining the character's backstory were cut from the finished movie.
10.Michael B. Jordan allowed himself to get to a difficult emotional place for his Black Panther role. In 2023, he told Rolling Stone, "Killmonger allowed me to access the pain. And the unapologetic frustration that I had. But then, obviously, there’s a sadness that comes along with that. I dove into that for a lot longer than I ever had before. So coming out of that [role] it was hard to want love. Because during shooting I kept myself from family and children, and away from everything that Killmonger never had."
Previously, appearing on SuperSoul Conversations in 2019, he told Oprah Winfrey, "I was by myself, isolating myself. I spent a lot of time alone. I figured Erik [Killmonger], his childhood growing up was pretty lonely. He didn't have a lot of people he could talk to about this place called Wakanda that didn't exist...I didn't have a process. I just did whatever I felt I needed to do or whatever I felt was right in the moment every step of the way. I didn't have an escape plan, either. When it was all over, I think just being in that kind of mind state...It caught up with me...It was a little tough for me at first. Readjusting to people caring about me, getting that love that I shut out. I shut out love, I didn't want love. I wanted to be in this lonely place as long as I could."
He started going to therapy after filming ended.
11.In 2015, Brie Larson told Variety that playing Ma in Room was an "emotional marathon." She said, "It hit a point near the end of shooting that there was so much intensity with every scene — tears you want to come out, you don’t have the hydration for them."
To prepare for the role, Brie spent six months learning about the impacts of sexual abuse, captivity, and solitary confinement. She also stayed away from the sun and undertook a physical transformation.
12.In 2023, Freddie Prinze Jr. told TooFab that he had a challenging time on the I Know What You Did Last Summer set because director Jim Gillespie didn't want him there. He said, "It's not that we weren't on the same page. I knew what the correct choices were for the Ray character. He wanted a different actor, a really good actor named Jeremy Sisto, who I know and I like and respect very very much...There was no passive aggressiveness — which I hate — he was very direct in the fact that 'I don't want you in this movie.' So when that's your first job, and you hear those words, it just wrecks you, man. It just wrecks you."
However, his costar Ryan Phillippe helped him get through it.
Freddie said, "So, when I did have those moments where the director was giving me psychotic notes, like 'Don't leave your mouth open. You look stupid when you do that' — that was the exact note, word for word, I'll never forget it – and I'm like, I'm either gonna break down, or I have to beat this guy's ass. Like those were the only two options in my head. I remember Ryan came up to me and was like, 'Screw that guy, man. How many times did you audition for this movie?' and I go, 'Five times,' he goes, 'Yeah, you earned it. You didn't get offered the role; you earned it. There were less people every single time you went and then it was just you. Remember what booked you this role. Screw his notes. Any note he gives you just say, 'Okay, and do what you want to do.' He was the first person to say that to me."
13.Then-17-year-old Nicolas Cage reportedly had a miserable time filming Fast Times at Ridgemont High because some of the other actors made fun of him. In 1996, he told Entertainment Weekly, "I was pretty much the nerd to everybody — people would ask me to be removed from their eye line."
"I was the brunt of jokes because my name was still Coppola [his real last name], so there'd be a congregation outside my trailer quoting lines from Apocalypse Now, like, 'I love the smell of Nicolas in the morning,'" he said.
In an interview for the book How Coppola Became Cage, costar Eric Stoltz said, "Nick was one of the younger ones. He was big for his age, and he was quite bold and animated. In the midst of all this hanging around, on occasion, he would drop his uncle's name. Which isn't a crime, but it didn't feel very good. So we would give him guff about it until he stopped. I remember us all laughing and having a good time. In retrospect, we were undoubtedly envious of his God-given Hollywood access. And he was probably a bit insecure behind all that bravado. But I certainly didn't have the maturity to understand any of that. So yeah, I did take part in the teasing, and I'm sorry I did. I do hope that didn't cause him too much pain."
14.In Batman Returns, Michelle Pfeiffer was so miserable in her Catwoman suit that, once filming wrapped, she burned them all. In 2007, she told the Oklahoman, "I hated wearing that catsuit so much. By the end, we had a bonfire, and I was just so happy. There were a zillion of them because they'd break, and you'd have to throw one on."
"I never wanted to see it again, and of course, now, I wish I had one. But I kept my whip," she said.
In 2017, she told the Hollywood Reporter, "It was the most uncomfortable costume I've ever been in. They had to powder me down, help me inside, and then vacuum-pack the suit. They'd paint it with a silicon-based finish to give it its trademark shine. I had those claws, and I was always catching them in things. The face mask was smashing my face and choking me…we had a lot of bugs to work out...Originally, they didn't leave me a way to use the restroom in the suit, so that also had to be remedied as well."
15.And finally, David Cross only appeared in all three Alvin & the Chipmunks movies out of contractual obligation. In 2011, he told IndieWire, "This last film [Chipwrecked] was literally, without question, the most unpleasant experience I've ever had in my professional life."
He continued, "It's safe to say I won't be working with some of those people ever again. Not the actors. And the director [Mike Mitchell] was great. We got along. There were a couple of people, though…it was just a really awful, unpleasant experience."
In 2017, he told the Jim and Sam Show, "There were just a handful of producers. This woman — Karen Rosenfelt — and then this other woman, can't remember her name, just...inexplicably shitty. And, like, took measures to make my life miserable."
