10 Terrible Movie Performances so Bad They Became Iconic

There are plenty of great performances in the history of film that have been deemed iconic. Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight. Marlon Brando as mobster Vito Corleone in The Godfather. Gloria Swanson as faded silent film star Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. These performances are memorable, they’re quotable, and they’re unforgettable. It’s always a treat to watch an accomplished actor disappear into a beloved role, especially one that will be remembered for years to come.

Most of these so-called iconic performances are good, everyone seems to agree. But there are certain actors who played certain characters in certain movies who are not, shall we say, remembered for their talent or their artistry or the way they moved us to tears. These performances are remembered for the exact opposite of all of those things, because, let’s just be honest: they’re bad.

12 Movie Performances So Bad They Became Iconic

They might be bad, but they’re also impossible to forget.

Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky

Columbia Pictures

Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker’s Dracula

You may not remember where you were the first time you heard Keanu Reeves decide to pronounce the Hungarian capital of Budapest “Beeuu-dapest,” but it’s probably stuck with you all these years. I think we’ve all come around on Reeves, a charismatic and dedicated actor who loses himself in his roles in a daring, Nicolas Cage sort of way, but he was terribly out of his depth in Francis Ford Coppola’s gothic vampire adaptation Bram Stoker’s Dracula. One could argue that his portrayal of Jonathan Harker, an awkward, hapless drip way outclassed by the aristocratic undead count vying for his wife’s affections, fits perfectly with the themes of the movie, but Reeves is so hilariously odd that it’s hard to tell if it’s a choice or a mistake.

Warner Bros.

Arnold Schwarzenegger in Batman & Robin

“What killed the dinosaurs? The Ice Age!” is only one of many ice-related one-liners that Arnold Schwarzenegger had to deliver as the villainous Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin, and while they’re awful (“Let’s kick some ICE!!”), the constant stream of them becomes funnier and funnier as the movie goes on. Schwarzenegger delivers them all in his signature over-the-top tone, and the more forced his metaphors grow, the more we love them. You can certainly call his performance bad — you could (and should) call every performance in that movie bad — but somehow, once you get over how terrible it all is, it works anyway: “Hey, everyone. Chill… chill… CHILL!”

Warner Bros.

John Travolta in Battlefield Earth

We’d certainly hate to be ruled over by John Travolta and the bureaucratic alien cronies of Battlefield Earth, if only because of Travolta’s irritatingly giggly performance as Terl, the Psychlo security chief overseeing the enslavement of the local man-animals. To say that Travolta “hams it up” is not an adequate term for what he is doing in this movie — which, it must be said, was a passion project adaptation of L. Ron Hubbard’s novel that Travolta had developed for years. As Terl, Travolta is far from the menacing evil of Darth Vader or the inhuman violence of the Xenomorphs, opting instead for an effete, simpering tone in every line delivery, when he isn’t shrieking stuff like “DO YOU WANT LUNCH???” in between tittering laughs.

20th Century Fox

Hayden Christensen in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones

We’ve been over this countless times, but Hayden Christensen’s turn as Jedi in training Anakin Skywalker, while nowhere near Oscar-worthy, kind of works in Attack of the Clones’ favor. Anakin is far from the precociously heroic protagonist that the audience expects him to be, his awkward social shortcomings always standing in the way of him becoming genuinely likable (see: sand speech). Is Christensen’s acting stiff and weird? Yes. Is Anakin the character supposed to be stiff and weird? Possibly yes also? We’re maybe giving George Lucas’ writing skills a little too much credit, but if the idea was for Anakin to be the sort of accidentally charming semi-hero overcome by his own preternatural gifts and overwhelmed by the rules of his new society, then Christensen’s portrayal was right on the money.

TPW Films

Tommy Wiseau in The Room

No list of bad performances is complete without the blueprint Tommy Wiseau, who commands the screen as the hopeless romantic banker Johnny whose fiancée cheats on him with his best friend in The Room. Quadruple-threat writer/director/producer/star Wiseau delivers lines the way an alien who had never set foot on Earth might, shouting and flailing his limbs at one moment, moaning and whispering the next. It doesn’t help that possibly all of his lines were re-recorded, lending them an even more otherworldly timbre. It sticks in your brain. Who among us hasn’t dramatically screeched, “YOU’RE TEARING ME APART, LISA!!” at the slightest inconvenience?

Summit Entertainment

Kristen Stewart in Twilight

Kristen Stewart’s awkward, stuttery depiction of Twilight’s Bella Swan was so instantly unforgettable that even Taylor Swift did a pretty good parody of it while hosting Saturday Night Live. Like Hayden Christensen, Stewart’s talents in this arena were only fully recognized after the fact — while the Twilight movies were coming out, she was often ridiculed for her odd way of delivering lines like “What a stupid lamb” and “I don’t want to know what the square root of pi is.” Even her compulsive lip biting and the way she tucks her hair behind her ear were easy tics to imitate, but all this means is that, hey, if we remember Bella so well, Stewart must have been doing something right.

Warner Bros.

Eddie Redmayne in Jupiter Ascending

Of course Eddie Redmayne is off-putting and strange as the genocidal antagonist Balem Abrasax of the Wachowskis’ space opera Jupiter Ascending — he’s an alien! He’s an alien whose eternal youth comes from sucking the vitality out of planet-sized farms like Earth, whose residents are ignorant cattle for a secret off-world empire to feed upon. Do you really think someone who does all that can say “I CREATE LIFE” in a normal-sounding way?? The only reason we’re not constantly doing Balem impressions during dinner parties is because, well, no one saw Jupiter Ascending. But it’s worth watching for Redmayne’s, uh, unique acting style alone.

Paramount Pictures

Jennifer Lawrence in mother!

I am maybe in the minority of people who think that Darren Aronofsky’s mother! is good, even if it’s also kind of bad. One could say the same about its star, Jennifer Lawrence, who plays a woman married to a guy who can’t stop inviting people over to their only partially-remodeled house. I mean, the sink isn’t even braced! How is one woman supposed to entertain a bunch of incredibly rude guests under these conditions? Lawrence, granted, doesn’t have much to do in the movie besides run around frantically and wonder why everyone is being so dismissive towards her, but who are we to say we would act any differently?

United Artists Releasing

Jared Leto in House of Gucci

To say that Jared Leto’s portrayal of talentless wannabe designer Paolo Gucci in House of Gucci is offensive towards Italians might itself be even more offensive towards Italians. You half expect him to say he make-a da pasta every other line. His absurd mask of facial prosthetics and perpetually whiny voice make you long for literally anyone else to be onscreen whenever he appears — even Adam Driver and his arguably worse Italian accent. That said, he gets off a few pretty great one-liners, including one about not confusing shit for “cioccolato.” Indeed.

Warner Bros.

Tom Hanks in Elvis

Only someone as bold as Baz Luhrmann could come up with a character as cartoonishly evil as Tom Hanks’ Colonel Tom Parker, the man who apparently drained the life and money out of Elvis Presley. Elvis’ Colonel Tom sneaks around backstage in a fat suit and a tweed jacket, practically rubbing his hands together with a gleam in his eye whenever Elvis wiggles his hips around. The high-speed zoom in on his villainous face once he realizes that this new guy with the soulful voice is white is truly an unbelievable feat of cinematography. Austin Butler’s Elvis was good and all, but Hanks’ Colonel was something we can honestly say we’d never seen before or since.