14 Actors Who Have Hit Back At A Critic Who Gave Them A Negative Review
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In her New York Times review of Bodies Bodies Bodies, film critic Lena Wilson called the movie an "advertisement for cleavage.”
Amandla Stenberg, one of the actors in the movie, called out Wilson in an Instagram DM. Wilson then made a video sharing Stenberg's message with her audience.
The whole thing has sparked a conversation around film criticism with some people arguing that Wilson shouldn't have commented on the actors' appearances, while others think Stenberg overreacted to the negative review.
This isn't the first time an actor has responded to a critic. Here are 14 actors who have spoken about or called out a negative review:
1.Carey Mulligan — Promising Young Woman
In his 2020 Variety review of Promising Young Woman, critic Dennis Harvey commented on Carey Mulligan’s appearance in the film, stating that she “wears her pickup-bait gear like bad drag; even her long blonde hair seems a put-on.” He goes on to suggest that Mulligan was an “odd choice” and that the role was more suited for Margot Robbie, a producer on the film.
Mulligan later revealed in a New York Times interview that she felt the review was “basically saying that [she] wasn’t hot enough to pull off this kind of ruse.”
She added, “It drove me so crazy. I was like, ‘Really? For this film, you’re going to write something that is so transparent? Now? In 2020?’ I just couldn’t believe it.”
Variety has since issued an apology.
2.Maisie Williams — The New Mutants
The reviews of 2020’s The New Mutants were less than favorable, with critics comparing it to the likes of a CW show and citing its tone as inconsistent. But it was Scott Mendelson of Forbes that called it “the worst X-Men movie ever.” He also suggested that while "Anya Taylor-Joy makes for a compelling Illyana Rasputin, none of the other kids, all of whom have done fine work elsewhere, make an impression.”
Maisie Williams, who plays Wolfsbane in the film, tweeted a link to Mendelson's review with the caption: "Sounds like a must see! Get your tickets now."
Sounds like a must see! 🧚🏼♀️ Get your tickets now ✨ https://t.co/4fqry3JAse
3.Melissa McCarthy — Identity Thief
In his review of 2013's Identity Thief, film critic Rex Reed spent a considerable amount of time attacking Melissa McCarthy's appearance. He referred to her as "tractor-sized," a "female hippo," and "a gimmick comedian who has devoted her short career to being obese and obnoxious with equal success."
When McCarthy was eventually asked about it in an interview with the New York Times, she responded, "I felt really bad for someone who is swimming in so much hate. I just thought, that’s someone who’s in a really bad spot, and I am in such a happy spot.”
McCarthy added that if she had read this review when she was 20, “it may have crushed [her].”
Unfortunately, this wouldn't be the last time that McCarthy received a critique of her appearance in a film review.
4.Melissa McCarthy — Tammy
The reviews for the 2014 movie Tammy were pretty harsh and not just on the plot. Critics were particularly hard on Melissa McCarthy. One particular critic, though, got a little too personal in a review, commenting on her appearance and her relationship with her husband, who directed the movie.
Shortly after, McCarthy saw the critic at the Toronto Film Festival. After he came up to her and complimented her performance in St. Vincent, the movie she was there to promote, she asked, "Are you the one who wrote I was only a good actor when I looked more attractive and that my husband should never be allowed to direct me because he allowed me to look so homely?”
After he said yes, she asked, “Would you say that to any guy? When John C. Reilly — or any actor — is playing a character that is depressed and dejected, would you say, ‘Well, you look terrible!?'”
After McCarthy found out the critic had a daughter, she said, "Watch what you say to her," and asked, “Do you tell her she’s only worthwhile or valid when she’s pretty?”
5.Jamie Dornan — Fifty Shades of Grey
Fifty Shades of Grey was never a big hit with the critics, with some citing Jamie Dornan's rigid performance as a major factor. One particular review said Dornan had the charisma of oatmeal.
In a 2020 Variety interview, while discussing a time in his life when he read bad reviews, Dornan brought up the oatmeal review, a critique he still remembers well. He said, "Some people like oatmeal, so I thought it was kind of harsh. I remember that stuck with me, and I don’t entirely disagree with it either.”
He said of similar bad reviews that he finds them funny and actually "let them drive [him]."
6.John Krasinski — A Quiet Place
While most reviews praised A Quiet Place, the New Yorker called it "regressive" and accused the film of being political in that it centers on a white family protecting their home while armed with guns. The review asserted that the movie is, "as horror films go, the antithesis of Get Out."
A few years later, John Krasinski commented on the New Yorker's review in an Esquire interview, stating that he never intended for his film to have a political slant. He claims that the film is a metaphor for parenthood.
7.Rosalie Chiang and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan — Turning Red
In CinemaBlend's Turning Red review, critic Sean O’Connell said that he thought the film was not "made for" him as it's "rooted very specifically in the Asian community of Toronto." He argued the film was unrelatable and limiting, and that he was unable to connect with any of it.
In response to O'Connell's review, Rosalie Chiang, who voices Mei, stated, "This is a coming of age film, everyone goes through this change. … I think different people of different cultures are going to go through it differently, but at the end of the day, the core messiness and change is something everyone can relate to.”
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, who plays Priya, also chimed in, saying that the story in Turning Red is "universal" and relatable, "regardless of whether you are a young Chinese girl from Canada or not."
After the review faced backlash, CinemaBlend removed it from their site, and O'Connell and editor-in-chief Mack Rawden apologized.
We failed to properly edit this review, and it never should have gone up. We have unpublished it and assigned to someone else. We have also added new levels of editorial oversight. Thank you to everyone who spoke up. - Mack Rawden, Editor-In-Chief https://t.co/kfkfwlf4q8
8.Samuel L. Jackson — The Avengers
In his New York Times review of The Avengers, A.O. Scott praised the film for its small, amusing moments, but criticized the big action sequences. Overall, his review was negative, as Scott said, the "light, amusing bits cannot overcome the grinding, hectic emptiness, the bloated cynicism that is less a shortcoming of this particular film than a feature of the genre."
In regards to Samuel L. Jackson's performance, Scott said his Nick Fury is "more master of ceremonies than mission commander." This didn't go over well as Jackson called out Scott on Twitter, suggesting the critic needs a new job.
#Avengers fans,NY Times critic AO Scott needs a new job! Let's help him find one! One he can ACTUALLY do!
9.Amy Schumer — Trainwreck
After seeing just the trailer for Amy Schumer's 2015 movie Trainwreck, Jeffrey Wells, who runs Hollywood Elsewhere, wrote a semi-review where he asserted that "Judd Apatow is once again introducing a chubby, whipsmart, not conventionally attractive, neurotically bothered female comic to a mass audience — first Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids, then Lena Dunham in HBO’s Girls and now Amy Schumer."
He goes on to say that "there’s no way she’d be an object of heated romantic interest in the real world." He continues, “Schumer’s wide facial features reminded me of a blonde Lou Costello around the time of Buck Privates, or Jennifer Aniston’s somewhat heavier, not-as-lucky sister who watches a lot of TV.”
Along with a now-deleted tweet about how happy she is with her size-6 body, Amy Schumer posted pictures to Instagram in response to Wells' unwarranted review of her appearance with the captions: "Loving your feedback on my appearance. Am I ok now?" and "Hollywood here I come #pretty enough."
10.Daniel Kaluuya — Nope
Logan Paul is not a film critic, in any sense of the word, but his Twitter thread "critiquing" Nope gained a lot of traction. After its release, he tweeted that the film was "one of the worst movies [he's] seen in a long time." He then posed a series of questions that attempted to invalidate the plot. While many people called Paul out for not understanding the film's nuances and for asking questions that were clearly answered throughout the movie, some people still supported his stance on Nope.
Paul also tweeted that Daniel Kaluuya's character, OJ, was "possibly the most mundane, vanilla character [he's] ever seen."
9.) Way to strip all the life from a phenomenal actor, Daniel Kaluuya, by casting him as possibly the most mundane, vanilla character I’ve ever seen. Not a question I’m just pissed
When asked about the tweets on Capital FM, Kaluuya jokingly responded, "Logan Paul, God, we're going to talk about this?"
He goes on to question Paul's authority on filmmaking: “Why is his opinion top of the tree? Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but what’s he done in cinema? Imagine if they asked me about Eric Clapton.”
Kaluuya tells the hosts, “I’d take everyone’s opinion on. I’ll listen to it, but I’m just going, ‘I don’t know why you over everybody else.'" He ends the segment by saying, "It's just Logan Paul, innit?"
11.Rose McGowan — Bridget Jones’s Baby
In another case of "the trailer just dropped, so let's prematurely critique the movie," film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote about the release of Bridget Jones’s Baby. In his Variety piece, titled "Renée Zellweger: If She No Longer Looks Like Herself, Has She Become a Different Actress?" he talks extensively about actors "having work done." He ends with, "I just hope it turns out to be a movie that stars Renée Zellweger rather than a victim of 'Invasion of the Face Snatchers.'"
In response, actor Rose McGowan, who is not in the movie, but refers to herself as someone "who was abused by Hollywood by people like [Gleiberman]," wrote an article for the Hollywood Reporter directly addressed to the film critic.
She wrote, in defense of Zellweger, "How dare you? Who are you to approve of anything? What you are doing is vile, damaging, stupid, and cruel. It also reeks of status quo white-male privilege."
She ends the article with, "Men like you and the women who sit idly by and say nothing should know that aiding and abetting is a moral crime, and if it were punished in Hollywood, most of you would be in some form of jail."
12.Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman — Big Little Lies
In 2017, the New York Times posted a negative review of Big Little Lies, calling the show uninteresting and stating that "the women’s stories are just a compendium of clichés about upper-middle-class angst."
The review went on to criticize a particular subplot which, it says, "strays into Fifty Shades territory."
Two years later, at the Television Critics Association, while promoting Big Little Lies, the cast was asked if they've ever gotten a review that they felt was sexist.
Reese Witherspoon responded, sharing a time a "critic who probably didn't watch more than one episode [of Big Little Lies] said it was a 'chick show' or something, and really tore the show apart. I remember Nic and I talked about it."
Nicole Kidman added that in the same review, her character's abusive relationship with her husband was compared to Fifty Shades of Grey.
Kidman said, "I was like, please watch the whole show, which is what I always say! Which I know is a massive time commitment because there are only so many hours. But you make the show whole."
Neither Witherspoon nor Kidman named the publication or critic during the interview.
13.Alysha Umphress — Smokey Joe’s Cafe
In her New York Times review of an off-Broadway production of Smokey Joe’s Cafe, critic Laura Collins-Hughes wrote, "[actress Alysha] Umphress, by the way, is bigger than the other women onstage, and the costume designer, Alejo Vietti, doesn’t seem to have known how to work with that, dressing her in an unnecessarily unflattering way."
In a tweet directed at Collins-Hughes, the New York Times, and Deputy Editor of Arts & Leisure for the New York Times, Scott Heller, Umphress wrote, "It's shocking to see a woman body shame an actress who isn't a size 0 and praise one who is. Her wording wasn't constructive. It was full on mean girl."
A thought. @collinshughes @nytimes @hellerNYT #bodypositivity
Collins-Hughes responded to Umphress tweeting that she was critiquing the costuming, not anyone's body.
@MatthewRisch_ @nytimestheater It is in no way shameful to be big, let alone bigger than the other women onstage. My remark about the costuming reflects on the designer. This is not the first time I’ve noticed a designer seemingly at a loss about how to dress a larger woman well.
@MatthewRisch_ My issue was with a particular costume. It was on a human body. I said nothing negative about anyone’s body.
14.And finally, James Corden's dad — Peter Rabbit
In 2018, the BBC's Mark Kermode reviewed the James Corden-led Peter Rabbit. He didn't like the film and blamed a lot of that on Corden's "almost instantly irritating voice."
In response to this critique, James Corden's father, Malcolm, sent a letter to Kermode.
It read, "To hear you describe our son as ‘appallingly irritating’ was very difficult to listen to. One sincerely hopes that you never have to hear someone else describe your children as such, especially live on air, and especially as it seemed James was the only one drawn out for any criticism.”
Kermode responded, “Well, I don't know what to add to that except that I believe my parents have heard me called much worse things than appallingly irritating.”
