10 TV Actors Who Hated Their Storylines
They may love their characters but these actors HATED where the storylines took them.
There are plenty of actors out there who spend years, even over a decade or so dedicating their lives to specific TV shows. These actors deeply love their characters, their stories, their journeys, their fans - when they come out the other end of a series they have nothing but good things to say about the experience.
Not everyone can be so lucky though. Even actors who have been loyal, integral parts of hit shows for a long time can’t always talk their way out of storylines they dislike. Depending on your star-power, the threats you’re willing to make over quitting, the fuss you kick up about it or the alternatives you provide, you might just have to suck it up and go along with it.
Particularly in long-running shows there is bound to be at least one or two dud storylines. Whether they don’t resonate with the audience, they don’t really make sense with the story or you can tell the actors’ hearts aren’t in it, even the best writers can create a flop. It doesn’t doom a whole show, and it doesn’t have to ruin a character, but in certain circumstances it can definitely earn the actor’s undying hatred…
10. Blake Lively Hated Serena’s Morals - Gossip Girl
From what we can tell as a public who don’t know her personally, Blake Lively seems like a dream - a really lovely, genuine person. You couldn’t get a more mismatched character for her to play then than high-flying, morally twisted it-girl Serena van der Woodsen on Gossip Girl.
It was only several years after the finale of her fame-making show that Lively spoke out about her disdain for her character’s actions. In particular she felt uncomfortable portraying a character so nonchalant and at times proud of doing terrible things.
“People loved it,” she explained, “But it always felt a little personally compromising… you want to be putting a better message out there.”
Increasingly dramatic and horrific storylines were coming her way, seeing her character cause someone to overdose, sleep with someone’s boyfriend, even shoot a guy. She explained that she came to resent her on-screen self because of what she was promoting to an audience largely made of teen girls - girls who were looking up to Serena as a role model.
Her desire to be a good person was at odds with her character’s dramatic storylines, and with such a young, impressionable audience it’s no wonder she felt it weighed on her conscience.