7 Actors Who Tried To Be Directors (And Totally Failed)

3. Forest Whitaker

Forest Whitaker is one of our finest character actors, and so it wouldn't be much of a surprise if he could pull off a great movie from the director's chair, but sadly not to date. Whitaker has directed 5 movies, the obscure TV movies Strapped and Black Jaq, but more prominently the romantic comedies Waiting to Exhale (52% on RT), Hope Floats (24% on RT) and First Daughter (8% on RT). It's certainly unexpected material for Whitaker to take on, though common criticisms throughout his directing oeuvre include his emotional heavy-handedness and a failure to distinguish himself from similar directors making similar movies. It also appears that of the three major movies Whitaker has directed, each subsequent one has been worse than that which came before. Whitaker hasn't directed a movie since First Daughter was a critical and commercial bomb (despite his previous Hollywood features doing good business), though is rumoured to be taking another stab at it by directing an upcoming adaptation of William Paul Young's novel The Shack, possibly starring Idris Elba. We'll have to wait and see...