There’s a terrific quote attributed to the famous director, Alejandro González Iñárritu. It goes like this:
“To make a film is easy; to make a good film is war. To make a very good film is a miracle.”
The more you watch movies, the more that sentiment makes sense. Sometimes a group of remarkably talented people get together and the result is a masterpiece. A few years later, that exact same group of people can reunite, feeling equally inspired and motivated, collaborate equally well, and make another movie —that one could be a creative and commercial disaster. (If you saw Joker and Joker: Folie à Deux, which share a director, writer, producers, and stars, you should understand what I’m talking about.)
Similarly, a wonderful actor is capable under certain circumstances of delivering a mediocre or even horrible performance. And those are the kinds of performances we’re looking at today; the worst performances by 20 of our all-time favorite actors and actresses.
While it might sound like a brutal insult to be included on such a list, it could also be taken — and should be taken, I think — as a genuine compliment. After all, to earn your way on a list of the very bad performances by great actors, you first need to be a great actor — one so great that it feels inconceivable that they could deliver a performance as cruddy as the ones below.
The Worst Performances By 20 Great Actors
These actors are all giants in their field. Most have won Oscars for acting! But even with actors this good, they can’t all be winners.
READ MORE: 10 Huge TV Actors Who Never Had Huge Movie Careers
13 Terrible Movie Lines So Bad They’ve Become Iconic
These lines, and their deliveries, are so cringey we kind of have to love them.
Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky
