15 Actors Who Were So Embarrassed by Their Own Movies That They Apologized

Sometimes, despite everyone’s best efforts, a movie doesn’t go the way an actor would like. Occasionally, there’s something in the film they feel the need to apologize for. Maybe it’s their own performance, or maybe it’s something else entirely. Sometimes, it’s even because of a serious social issue.

In the cutthroat world of Hollywood, there’s no doubt it takes guts to apologize for a movie. There’s a chance it could get film producers angry, and they’re the ones putting up the money. But fans appreciate the candor, and maybe they’ll go see the next movie the actor puts out.

Updated by Arthur Goyaz on January 31, 2025: Because some movies don’t perform well or simply age badly, actors might feel inclined to apologize for taking participating in them. It’s always okay to acknowledge past mistakes, regardless if they are personal or professional mistakes. This list was updated to include more actors who were embarrassed by their own movies and to reflect CBR’s current formatting standards.

Viola Davis Regretted Making The Help

The Movie is a Typical “White Savior” Story

The Oscar-nominated movie The Help is not aging well, and even members of the cast have publicly apologized for the way the film portrays black people. It follows Eugenia Skeeter, a wannabe journalist who decides to write a story about her relationship with two black maids during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Skeeter wants to tell the story from the perspective of the maids, exposing the prejudice and discrimination they suffer while working for white families.

Although it’s nice to have a movie with so many incredible actresses in it, The Help star Viola Davis has publicly stated that “It wasn’t the voices of the maids that were heard.” A “White Savior” story usually disguises itself as a progressive narrative centered around black people, though, in the end, their fortune is eventually granted by a white character. The Help wants to be an inclusive and self-aware movie but doesn’t succeed entirely. According to Davis, the film is content with a half-truth. She felt like she had betrayed her people by taking part in it, even though she earned an Oscar nomination for her performance.

Katherine Heigl Fired Against Knocked Up, Then Apologized to the Director

She Criticized the Film’s Negative Depiction of Women

Katherine Heigl is no stranger to controversy. In the past, she called her character arc in Grey’s Anatomy a “ratings ploy” and publicly criticized the movie Knocked Up, which has one of her most popular performances. Knocked Up is Judd Apatow’s rom-com about a good-for-nothing young man and a goal-oriented woman coming to terms with parenthood after a one-night stand.

Heigl has apologized for taking part in the movie because it was a “little sexist” and portrayed women as humorless and insensitive, while guys are fun, easygoing figures in the story. Heigl later revealed that she felt bad for not apologizing to Apatow for her negative comments about the movie because she enjoyed working on it. After so many controversies, the actress claimed she’s simply done apologizing.

Sandra Bullock Was Embarrassed by Speed 2

The Sequel’s Premise Makes No Sense

Speed is an iconic action on four-wheels movie starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock trying to maintain control of a bus locked at high speed. On the other hand, Speed 2: Cruise Control is an absolute disaster: those who watched it prefer to pretend it never happened, and the same applies to the actors involved in the movie. 28 years after the sequel, Sandra Bullock is still embarrassed by it.

While Bullock struggled to prevent a packed city bus from exploding in Speed, she united forces with her husband Alex to stop a cruise ship from crashing into a massive oil tanker in Speed 2: Cruise Control. It’s a wild change of scenery. The premise is completely absurd, and Bullock remains vocal about the film’s nonsensical plot and her absurd decision to take part in it.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the One Movie Daniel Radcliffe Regrets

The Actor Believes It Features His Worst Acting Showcase

There are eight Harry Potter movies in total, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the one Daniel Radcliffe finds very difficult to watch. The Harry Potter star kicked off his acting career at a very young age. He was only eleven years old in the first Harry Potter movie and his steady progress as a talented actor — as well as the other members of the cast — can be followed with each movie. Surprisingly, Radcliffe has publicly stated that he hates his performance in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, one of the most emotionally impactful movies in the series.

Radcliffe called his acting in the movie very one-note, claiming, “I can see I got complacent and what I was trying to do just didn’t come across.” On the other hand, Radcliffe believes the best film of his early career is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix because he can truly see a progression in there. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a very divisive entry for Harry Potter fans because of how much it differs from the book, but it still delivers plenty of epic moments. Radcliffe, however, can’t really enjoy the movie because of how he sees himself in it.

Ben Affleck Isn’t the Only One Who Hates Daredevil

It’s One of the Most Poorly Rated Superhero Movies of All Time

Netflix’s Daredevil treatment was so good that Disney brought the entire main cast on board for a new show. But before Daredevil‘s TV show, the only live-action appearance of the iconic character was the 2003 movie directed by Mark Steven Johnson. The movie was a real fiasco in terms of reception and box office numbers.

Ben Affleck starred in the movie as Matt Murdock, and the actor is on the haters’ side when it comes to Daredevil‘s bad reputation. Talking to NME, Affleck reflected on his wish to offer a satisfying rendition of Batman after the Daredevil fiasco. He said, “Part of it was I wanted for once to get one of these movies and do it right – to do a good version. I hate Daredevil so much.” Although Affleck’s performance as Bruce Wayne is also divisive, it’s still much better than 2003’s Daredevil.

Anne Hathaway Felt Terrible Over The Witches

Disability Activists Felt the Movie Was Not Inclusive

In the 2020 version of Roald Dahl’s The Witches, Anne Hathaway played the Grand High Witch and was the leading star of the movie. The witches all had three elongated fingers to mark them out as different — and no one realized that real people can sometimes also have that limb difference, and didn’t appreciate being portrayed as evil fantasy witches.

Disability activists slammed the film, and Hathaway took to Instagram to apologize. In a now-deleted post, she wrote, “As someone who really believes in inclusivity and really, really detests cruelty, I owe you all an apology for the pain caused. I am sorry. I did not connect limb difference with the [Grand High Witch] when the look of the character was brought to me; if I had, I assure you this never would have happened.” A poor reception among critics and the public audience, added to the rising controversy, made The Witches a failure.

Zoe Saldana Defended Nina, Then Apologized

A Disrespectful Performance All the Way

When Zoe Saldana was cast as Nina Simone in a biopic, people were shocked. She didn’t look anything like her. So Saldana darkened her skin and wore a prosthetic nose to play Simone, and that’s when people switched from shocked to appalled. Simone’s estate slammed the film, but Saldana insisted she was being respectful.

Eventually, though, she changed her mind. During a 2020 interview on Instagram, she said, “I’m so sorry. I know better today and I’m never going to do that again. She’s one of our giants and someone else should step up. Somebody else should tell [Simone’s] story.” But for some, the apology was too little, too late.

Paul Newman Apologized for His Debut in The Silver Chalice

He Was Very Vocal About His Disappointment With the Film

Paul Newman’s first ever film was The Silver Chalice, and he hated it with a passion. He wrote in his book Paul Newman: A Life, “I was horrified and traumatized when I saw the film. I was sure my acting career had begun and ended with the same picture. It was god-awful. It’s kind of a distinction to sayI was in the worst film to be made in the entirety of the 1950s.” Harsh words indeed.

In 1963, a Los Angeles TV channel began playing the film, and Paul Newman made a whole ad campaign apologizing for the movie. The ads read, “Paul Newman apologizes every night this week — Channel 9.” Unfortunately, this had the opposite effect, because people tuned in out of curiosity.

Rooney Mara Felt Really Bad Over Pan

Another Case of Whitewashing in Hollywood

Rooney Mara played Tiger Lily, a traditionally Indigenous character, in the 2015 Peter Pan prequel Pan. She and the movie were hit with accusations of whitewashing straight away, and Mara grew to agree with them. She shortly came to wish that she hadn’t taken the role at all.

At the New York premiere of Pan, she told People Magazine on the red carpet, “I totally sympathize with why people were upset and feel really bad about it.” But unfortunately, the damage was already done. Pan completely bombed at the box office and is only really remembered today for the whitewashing incident.

George Clooney Couldn’t Get Over Batman and Robin

The Actor Genuinely Believed He Destroyed the Franchise

Batman and Robin went down in history as one of the worst superhero films of all time. And George Clooney, who played Batman himself, accepted the criticism. Although the failure of the movie wasn’t really his fault — he did the best he could with what he’d been given — it fell on him to apologize.

“I always apologize for Batman & Robin,” he said during a 2015 appearance on Britain’s The Graham Norton Show. “Let me just say that I’d actually thought I’d actually destroyed the franchise until somebody else brought it back years later and changed it.” That was Christopher Nolan, whose Dark Knight Trilogy was critically acclaimed.

Elliot Page Was Sorry for Working With Woody Allen in To Rome With Love

She Looked Back on Her Decision to Work With an Alleged Sex Offender

Woody Allen has had sexual abuse allegations against him for years now, and these have considerably affected his career. People still work with him, but sometimes they apologize for making that decision. That was the case with actor Elliot Page, who appeared in the 2012 movie To Rome With Love.

In 2017, Page made a now-deleted Facebook post apologizing for working with Allen. “I did a Woody Allen movie and it is the biggest regret of my career,” he wrote. “I am ashamed I did this. I had yet to find my voice and was not who I am now and felt pressured, because ‘of course you have to say yes to this Woody Allen film.’ Ultimately, however, it is my choice what films I decide to do and I made the wrong choice.I made an awful mistake.” Allen continues to make movies to this day but has a hard time getting distributors. In addition, many of his long-term collaborators refuse to work with him now.

Carol Burnett Apologized to a Whole Plane for The Front Page

A Simple Miscast Can Ruin a Career

Carol Burnett starred in The Front Page in 1974, and unfortunately, she received poor reviews for her performance. Some of them were downright vicious. TV Guide said, “The miscast Burnett easily gives the most awful performance of her career” and “One never enjoys the film so much as when her character throws herself out of a window.”

Burnett clearly took all the criticism to heart. She wrote in her 2010 autobiography, This Time Together, thatwhen she was on a plane showing The Front Page as the in-flight movie, she apologized to the passengers. She stood up and said, “This is Carol Burnett, and I want to take this opportunity to apologize to each and every one of you for my performance in the film you just saw.” They applauded.

Emma Stone Yelled an Apology for Playing a Whitewashed Character in Aloha

Her Apology Was Out of the Ordinary

In the movie Aloha, Emma Stone was cast as a half-Asian woman despite not being Asian herself. It was a baffling casting choice on the part of director Cameron Crowe, and it took a long time for her to live it down. In 2015, she told news.com.au: “I’ve become the butt of many jokes. I’ve learned on a macro level about the insane history of whitewashing in Hollywood and how prevalent the problem truly is.”

Stone’s apology was unusual, though — she screamed it in a crowded amphitheater. During the 2019 Golden Globes, Sandra Oh made a joke on stage about Crazy Rich Asians being “the first studio film with an Asian-American lead since Ghost in the Shell and Aloha.” Stone yelled, “I’m sorry!” from her seat.

Shia LaBeouf Regretted Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

He Didn’t Like His Character At All

When Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came out, it got decidedly mixed reviews. One particularly controversial character was Mutt, Indy’s son, played by Shia LaBeouf. LaBeouf wasn’t pleased with his performance at all, or the movie as a whole.

“I feel like I dropped the ball on the legacy that people loved and cherished,” he said at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. ” […] The actor’s job is to make it come alive and make it work, and I couldn’t do it. So that’s my fault. Simple.” As expected, LaBeouf didn’t appear in the fifth Indiana Jones movie, Dial of Destiny. However, the early plan for the character for him to become the next Indiana Jones, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull makes that abundantly clear.

Dick Van Dyke Hated His Accent in Mary Poppins

But the Movie Wouldn’t Be the Same Without It

Mary Poppins is an iconic film that generations of children have loved. It follows a magical nanny who changes the lives of two mischievous children. Everyone remembers Dick Van Dyke’s terrible cockney accent in the movie. Dick Van Dyke remembers too, and he’s actually apologized for it.

In 2017, Van Dyke received a British Academy Britannia award from BAFTA for his long and illustrious television career, and in response, he said:

Despite everything, lots of people find his awful attempt at cockney charming, and Mary Poppins wouldn’t be the same movie without it.