10 A-List Actors Who Did Z-Grade Horror Films

If you were disappointed by the 2010 Elm Street reboot then spare a thought for Rooney Mara, who couldn’t wait to throw the movie under the bus. Describing the audition process in 2011, she said: “I didn’t even really want it. And then I went in and I was like ‘F**k, I totally got that’.”

Of all the criticisms you could hurl at the movie (it’s sluggish, senseless and condescends to its audience, after all), the casting is the least of its problems. Horror fans noted the actress’s contempt for the role with disdain, but in fact she’s only the third Elm Street performer to receive an Oscar nod. Johnny Depp, who made his film debut in the original Elm Street, has been nominated 3 times while Patricia Arquette (A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors) won in 2015 for her performance in Boyhood.

So cheap horror movies would seem to be a springboard to future success, but Ms Mara thinks otherwise. “I didn’t want to act anymore,” she said after the movie opened. “If this is what my opportunities are going to be like, then I’m not interested in acting.”