30 Actors Share Which Of Their Own Performances Make Them Cringe

In the end, we're all humans with delicate egos

Kylin

• Published in Interesting
• June 30, 2022

Actors come across as the type of people who have some fantastic self-confidence. Some may seem like totally self-absorbed assholes, while others just have this air about them that comes off as confident but still friendly and approachable.

No matter the type, most people wouldn’t really consider actors to be overly critical of their performances. Especially as fans all over the world love most things their favorite actors are in.

But it turns out actors deal with a lot of embarrassment and feelings of cringe when it comes to some of their old roles. Which makes sense, we’re all human with egos, and if we do something that doesn’t live up to our own expectations, it can definitely sting.

We managed to find 30 different actors who have shared what roles they’ve had in the past that they feel are the most cringe-worthy of their acting careers. Many on the list are large and well-known celebrities, too.

From prominent and beloved actors like Meryl Streep, George Clooney, and Pierce Brosnan to relatively newer favorites like Adam Driver, Emily Blunt, and Anya Taylor-Joy, we have more than thirty stories to share with you. Keep scrolling to see who said what about their own acting roles that they look back on and cringe at.

1. Meryl Streep

Streep was critical of her Oscar-nominated performance as Sarah and Anna in 'The French Lieutenant's Woman'

"I was young and new at this,"

she said on The Graham Norton Show.

 "I wasn't as pleased as I could...I didn't feel like I was living it."

You can watch some of her performance below:

2. Kate Winslet

Winslet felt her performance in 'Titanic' was cringe-worthy

Winslet told CNN that she felt her American accent was "awful" and wished she could go back and redo it. Regardless, she looks back fondly on the film, and overall loves the film itself.

You can watch some of her performance below:

3. Ewan McGregor

Ewan McGregor called his film Emma, in which he starred as Frank Churchill, the worst thing he'd done workwise: "It's a good film, Emma, but I'm just...not very good in it," he admitted.

McGregor considers 'Emma' the worst thing he's done workwise.

He starred as Frank Churchill, and said about the film:

"It's a good film, Emma, but I'm just...not very good in it."

You can watch some of his performance below:

4. Adam Driver

While this wasn't necessarily a singing role, Adam Driver sang briefly in the film Inside Llewyn Davis. He reportedly hated watching the scene so much that he decided to never watch his films again.

Driver reportedly hated watching the scene where he sang with Oscar Isaac and Justin Timberlake

Watching the scene made him decide to never watch his films again.

Although he might have enjoyed it, you can check out fun scene:

5. George Clooney

'Batman & Robin' is an infamously bad movie, and Clooney takes a some of the blame for it.

In an interview with GQ, Clooney shared

"Like, when I say Batman & Robin's a terrible film, I always go 'I was terrible in it.' Because I was..."

Watch a clip from the movie:

6. Megan Fox

'Transformers' may have been Fox's first big movie, she thinks she was "terrible."

In an interview with Today, she said:

"I’m terrible in it. It’s my first real movie and it’s not honest and not realistic. The movie wasn’t bad, I just wasn’t proud about what I did."

Watch the scenes with Megan below:

She also cringed watching a scene from 'Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen'

"I'm glad you didn't make me watch the dialogue scenes. That's before people knew I could do my own stunt work, so I had a stunt lady for that. But I can do that kind of stuff now. That was one of the first things I did. I just don't really have a lot to say about it. 'Why?' It's a shame that these things survived long enough to see the dawn of the Internet...It would be nice if it had eclipsed, like the Internet was born but these things had sort of fallen away and no one could find them. But here we are."

Fox said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.

You can check out a clip of her role in 'Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen':

7. Emily Blunt

 Emily Blunt also said she was embarrassed by her singing in Into the Woods, even though she'd received vocal training, saying, “Oh, my God! It’s hideous watching it,” though she didn't clarify if she was ultimately unhappy with her performance.

She also, notably, went on to appear in the movie musical Mary Poppins.

Emily Blunt said she is embarrassed to watch herself singing in 'Into the Woods'

Emily Blunt said that even though she had vocal lessons, she is embarrassed to watch herself singing in Into the Woods

“Oh, my God! It’s hideous watching it.”

However she felt about her singing at the time, she notably went on to star in the movie musical Mary Poppins Returns.

You can listen to her singing in the clip below:

8. Christian Bale

Bale felt he "didn't quite nail" his role in the 'Dark Knight' trilogy

Christian Bale told Yahoo:

“I didn’t quite manage what I hoped I would throughout the trilogy ... My own sense of self is like, ‘I didn’t quite nail it.’ ... Heath [Ledger] turned up and just kind of completely ruined all my plans. Because I went, 'He’s so much more interesting than me and what I’m doing.’“

Watch his performance below:

9. Colin Farrell

Farrell thinks that the movie 'Miami Vice' was horrible

Colin Farrell starred in Miami Vice in 2006 and ended up not liking the movie at all, and felt that his acting left something to be desired:

"I didn't like it so much — I thought it was style over substance, and I accept a good bit of the responsibility."

Take a look at his performance:

10. Marilyn Monroe

The iconic actress hated her work on the film 'The Misfits'

Even though her performance and the movie itself were critically acclaimed, Monroe hated it so much that she didn't want to advertise it.

You can watch some of her peformance:

11. Emma Watson

Watson did not like how her American accent sounded in 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower'

"I think it sounded terrible!"

she told MTV.

Take a look at a bit of her performance:

12. Zac Efron

While having fond memories of the 'High School Musical' films, Efron is embarrassed by his dancing

While the High School Musical movies helped launch his career, Zac Efron shared in an interview with BBC 1 that he didn't actually know how to dance:

“I didn’t know how to dance during those High School Musical movies, I was just a kid, like, from the street. An actor scraping by in a one-bedroom studio apartment.”

In an interview with Men's Journal, Efron reflected on his positive memories from filming, but also said of the self he's grown from:

“I step back and look at myself and I still want to kick that guy’s ass sometimes. Like, fuck that guy. He’s done some kind of cool things with some cool people — he did that one thing [Neighbors] that was funny — but, I mean, he’s still just that fucking kid from [High School Musical].”

You can watch Efron's dance moves below:

13. Amanda Seyfried

Seyfried wasn't a fan of her work on 'Les Misérables'

She has said that she wished she could redo the film.

"I still have nightmares about it. ... I was very weak. ... From a very technical standpoint, I was very unhappy with my singing.”

You can watch her singing below:

14. Katherine Heigl

Heigl famously withdrew herself from Emmy consideration for 'Grey's Anatomy' in 2008

Initially she had said:

"I did not feel I was given the material this season to warrant a nomination," which sparked a lot of drama and rumors of her being ungrateful for her role on the show.

But later in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she clarified:

 "I was a little defensive about my season because I thought I hadn’t had a great one. And a lot of that had to do with me and my performances," suggesting that she wasn't happy with her own performance that season.

Watch some of her scenes from season 4:

15. Sarah Silverman

Sarah Silverman was fired after only one season on 'Saturday Night Live'

She assured HuffPost that she didn't do anything wrong, but suggested part of it was that she wasn't funny.

"It wasn't like I did something wrong... I was that last year of the old guard and they started anew. And by the way, I wrote not a single funny sketch, so that might have something to do with it too."

In a different interview, when she was asked if she'd do things differently if she could go back, Silverman said:

"Yeah! I'm funnier. I'm so much funnier. The fact that Lorne Michaels saw anything in me at that age and at that time for me where I don't think I was close to where I would become is impressive for him."

Check out her SNL skit:

16. Helena Bonham Carter

Helena Bonham Carter was another 'Les Misérables' actor disappointed in their singing

She told the Daily Mail:

"I had lots of vocal training for Les Mis, but I didn't improve as much as I thought I would...I watched it and thought... I was going to be so much better, I thought my voice was going to be so much bigger."

"I practiced and practiced and practiced but the thing with Les Mis is that it was real so that's what we sounded like. In Sweeney, I had people making me sound better than I am but not for this."

You can listen to her singing here:

17. Anne Hathaway

While Hathaway hasn't specified an embarrassing acting role, she was embarrassed co-hosting the Oscars in 2011

Hathaway joked on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon:

"The thing about me and embarrassment is you have to remember that it all happens on a scale. If you think about embarrassment on scale of 1 to 10, 1 being a person walking down the street and 10 is, for me, co-hosting the Oscars with James Franco."

Watch the opening of the ceremony below:

18. Charlie Hunnam

Hunnam visibly cringed on 'The Graham Norton Show' when they played a clip of his first acting role

Charlie Hunnam was a guest on The Graham Norton Show to talk about his film, King Arthur: The Legend of the Sword, never expecting that Norton would have such a surprise lined up. Norton shared a clip from Hunnam's first acting role on a show called Byker Grove, and Hunnam seemed to squirm the entire time.

You can watch him react in the clip below:

19. Brad Pitt

Pitt felt that he "nailed" the first half of '12 Monkeys,' but got the second half wrong

Pitt told The New York Times:

“I nailed the first half of 12 Monkeys,” he says. “I got the second half all wrong. That performance bothered me because there was a trap in the writing. It’s not the writing’s fault, but it was something that I couldn’t figure out. I knew in the second half of the film I was playing the gimmick of what was real in the first half — until the last scene — and it bugged the [expletive] out of me.”

No matter how poorly he felt he did, Pitt ended up winning a Golden Globe for his performance.

You can watch a bit of his performance in the film here:

In the same interview, Pitt explained that he was contractually obligated to make the film 'Troy'

“I was disappointed in it. [Troy] really made me think, I’m following my gut from here on out. I had to do Troy because — I guess I can say all this now — I pulled out of another movie and then had to do something for the studio. So I was put in Troy. It wasn’t painful, but I realized that the way that movie was being told was not how I wanted it to be. I made my own mistakes in it."

Check out this compilation of his scenes from 'Troy'

20. Jennifer Aniston

Aniston recounted that while dating Justin Theroux, he made her re-watch her first credited film 'Leprechaun'

Aniston said:

 "It was one of those things when I tried to get that remote out of his hand, and there was just no having it. He was like, ‘No, no, no, no, this is happening.’ I just kept walking in and out, cringing.”

You can check out some of her performance below:

21. Daniel Radcliffe

While the 'Harry Potter' films are Radcliffe's most famous role, he wasn't fond of everything he did

Apparently, he was particularly unhappy with his acting in the sixth film.

"And that’s why it’s hard to watch a film like Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, because I’m just not very good in it. I hate it. My acting is very one-note, and I can see I got complacent and what I was trying to do just didn’t come across."

You can watch a scene from the film here:

22. Eddie Murphy

Murphy admits to cringing at his 1987 stand up routine 'Raw'

In an interview with The New York Times, Murphy admitted that his old jokes made him cringe.

“I was a young guy processing a broken heart, you know, kind of an asshole."

In 1996 Murphy also apologized for the homophobic material in his standup routine Delirious, explaining how he was "misinformed."

You can watch a clip from his standup routine:

23. Anya Taylor-Joy

'The Witch' was Taylor-Joy's first big role, but she was "devastated" by her performance

"I thought I'd never work again; I still get shivers thinking about it. It was just the worst feeling of, 'I have let down the people I love most in the world. I didn't do it right.'"

Check out a clip from the film:

24. Eddie Redmayne

Redmayne won a prize for "Worst Performance of the Year" for his role in 'Jupiter Ascending'

The actor played his role with a peculiar accent/tone of voice.

“My character had had his larynx ripped out by this wolf man, and so I made the slightly bold choice — which I thought was right. I won a prize for it for the Worst Performance of the Year. So, yeah, it was a pretty bad performance on my account.”

Watch this clip to better understand what we mean about his peculiar accent:

25. Nicole Kidman

Kidman hated her performance in 'Australia' that she immediately left her home country afterward

Kidman recalled squirming in her seat at the screening of the film Australia, and said that she immediately left Australia the country) afterward.

"I can't look at this movie and be proud of what I've done. I sat there and I looked at Keith [Urban] and went, 'Am I any good in this movie?' ... It's just impossible for me to connect to it emotionally at all."

You can watch a clip from the film below, CW: Animal death

26. Josh Brolin

Brolin was disappointed in his role in 'Deadpool 2'

"I do like the way it turned out. But I thought I could have been better. I literally want to redeem myself to myself. I want to do a better version of what I do."

Check out his scenes from 'Deadpool' below:

27. Jake Gyllenhaal

Gyllenhall covered his face watching a clip from his old role in 'City Slickers' while on 'Good Morning America'

Check out his performance here:

28. Elizabeth Olsen

Olsen was frustrated with her performance on the first episode of 'WandaVision'

“We did a live audience for the first episode, and that was the first thing we shot. It was very confusing how to play to the camera."

"Like, I was like projecting, because I’m used to stage. When I watched the first episode, I’m like, ‘Oh, goddamn it.’ I was so frustrated, because I can see my 10-year-old theater-kid self playing out to the audience instead of the camera.”

Pilot episode kinks aside, she was nominated for an Emmy for her work on the series.

Check out her scenes from the first episode:

29. Will Smith

Smith wasn't happy with his work on the 'Men In Black' sequels

Talking with Jimmy Fallon, Smith said:

"I had fumbled a couple of my last sequels, you know? I wasn't happy with the Men In Black sequel."

You can check out a scene from 'Men in Black II' below:

30. Pierce Brosnan

Brosnan agreed with fans and disliked his performance as James Bond

In an interview with GQ, Brosnan said:

"...I was kind of caught somewhere in between the Roger Moore and the Sean Connery of it all. And both men, I adored as James Bond. But it never felt—I don't know—real. I felt like I was in a period-piece sometimes."

"Because I could hear echoes or sensations of Connery or of Roger, which I didn't try to censor; I'd just allow them to come in."

He also told the Telegraph:

"I have no desire to watch myself as James Bond. 'Cause it's just never good enough. It's a horrible feeling."

Watch him as Bond here:

Bond wasn't Brosnan's only cringe-inducing performance, he recounts cringing when he heard his singing in 'Mamma Mia'

"There is certainly a sense of cringe-making when it comes to singing. You're very vulnerable. ... Singing is not necessarily my forte — I enjoy singing, I'm not quite sure other people enjoy my singing, but they have good entertainment value out of my singing."

Check out his singing:

Did any of the actors on this list surprise you? Watching the related clips, do you agree with the actors who felt their performances were cringe-worthy, or do you think they’re being too hard on themselves?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below, the whys and whys not, too! And be sure to share this with your fellow movie-loving friends.

Kylin