9 Times Actors Famously Expressed Their Dissatisfaction
Sometimes, you just can't keep quiet.
"I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible," said Michael Caine. "However I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific."
Those were the legendary words the actor said of his role in Jaws: The Revenge, a film that notoriously winds up on every bottom ten list ever written (even when said lists aren't film-related). It's one of the harmless lines revealed well after a film's box office is over and done with that the public looks at with churlish glee. But there are other occasions when the language used is a lot less friendly.
Even when it's caked in PR doublespeak or diplomacy, there's something slightly off about the way an actor talks about a film in the press. Usually, they're under some sort of obligation to speak positively, but you can usually tell even when the best actors are putting on a facade.
Usually, suspicions are confirmed years later in easily written off bits of trivia such as the Caine quote, but there are other times actors are still vitriolic when speaking about a particular project.
Here are the times it slipped out, either obviously or not so publicly.
9. Nicole Kidman - Australia
After Baz Lurhmann had made a name for himself in the states with Strictly Ballroom and Romeo and Juliet, the director made what some consider his magnum opus Moulin Rouge! The filmmaker never laid any claim on being particularly deep, and the shallow spectacle of Rouge is certainly material more befitting than the literary depth of The Great Gatsby.
And the same can be said of Australia, Luhrmann's WWII Outback epic shot with the same grandiose style, but with some understanding of tone. Some critics, particularly those native to Australia, thought it important, though other countries were less receptive. Even critics who were kind to the film's style and Nicole Kidman's performance had noted that the film felt a little self-important.
For reasons that remain unclear but were certainly speculated on by old IMDB message board threads with titles like, "Why do Australians hate Nicole Kidman?" and "Nicole Kidman Aussie hate?!?" or "I am Australian and I love Nicole Kidman", Nicole Kidman didn't like the movie.
She told a Sydney radio station shortly after seeing it, "I can’t look at this movie and be proud of what I’ve done [...] It’s just impossible for me to connect to it emotionally.”