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These 35 Actors Are Literally Embarrassed By The Roles That Made Them Famous
Even Pierce Brosnan himself admitted, "Singing is not necessarily my forte," after appearing in <i>Mamma Mia.</i>

These 35 Actors Are Literally Embarrassed By The Roles That Made Them Famous

In an actor’s career, they’re bound to have good and bad performances. However, with the bad performances, it’s rare that an actor themselves actually admits to faults in their own acting.

Paramount Pictures

Here are 35 times actors have been critical of their past performances, cringed watching them, or were straight-up embarrassed by them.

1. Elizabeth Olsen was not a fan of her performance in the pilot of WandaVision. “We did a live audience for the first episode, and that was the first thing we shot,” Olsen said. “It was very confusing how to play to the camera.”

Francis Specker / CBS via Getty Images

She was nominated for an Emmy for her work on the series.

You can watch her work in the first episode here:


United Artists / Courtesy Everett Collection

Watch a bit of her performance here:


United Artists / Courtesy Everett Collection

Watch a bit of her performance here:


United Artists / courtesy Everett Collection

“I felt like I was in a period-piece sometimes,” Brosnan continued. “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.”

Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

However, he did say he wouldn’t change anything about the performances, mostly because he doesn’t allow himself to “go over that terrain.” He also said he thinks the first film stands up.

Watch a bit of his performance here:


Universal / courtesy Everett Collection

However, speaking about the film’s sequel, for which he reprised his role, he said, “I’m excited. I don’t know if the people will be excited, but one way or the other I shall sing again, whether they like it or not. I don’t care what they say! I love my voice! I think that it will grow on people. They will always just want to hear a little singing from me.”

Check out his singing here:


Universal Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

“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.” She went on to say, “I would do another singing (film) role if someone else was foolish enough to employ me but I wouldn’t do a stage musical. I don’t have a strong enough voice. Maybe for one night but with singing it’s like any muscle, it doesn’t last.”

Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images

Listen to her singing here:


Universal Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection / Via youtube.com

Listen to her singing here:


Peter Mountain/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection

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

Listen to her sing here:


CBS Films

Watch the scene here:


20th Century Fox / Courtesy Everett Collection

Nicole said of the film, “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.”

James Devaney / WireImage via Getty Images

You can watch some of her performance here (there is an animal death in this clip, so be warned!):


NBC

When 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.”

Derek Storm/Everett Collection

Watch a clip of her performance here:


Adam Orchon/Everett Collection

Check out Efron’s dancing in “The Boys Are Back” here:


Paramount/ Courtesy: Everett Collection

Watch a clip of his performance here:


Miramax / Courtesy Everett Collection

Watch a clip of his performance here:


BBC One

You can watch Hunnam reacting to the clip here:


ABC

Check out his performance here:


20th Century Fox / Courtesy Everett Collection

Watch a piece of her performance here:


John Bramley / Summit Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection

Watch a piece of Watson’s performance here:


Murray Close / Warner Bros. Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

Eddie said, “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.”

Dee Cercone/Everett Collection

If you’re wondering what we mean about the accent, check out this video of his performance:


Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

Watch a clip of his performance here:


Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

Ledger won a posthumous Oscar for his work on The Dark Knight.

Check out Bale’s performance here:


Danny Feld / ABC Family / Courtesy: Everett Collection

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Prefacing showing the video by saying she was “a little baby” and that she was a little embarrassed, she went on to say, “You hope that as the years go on, as with any job, that you get better at your craft, so looking back on this as the years go by, I get more mortified and more mortified when I watch it because I just see little me extremely nervous, this being the first big audition I’d ever done.”

Shay Mitchell / YouTube / Via youtube.com

You can watch the whole video here:


Kevin Winter / Getty Images

Watch the opening of the ceremony here:


Wilson Webb / Columbia Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

Watch a scene from the second film here:


Paramount / Courtesy Everett Collection

Watch scenes with Megan here:


Buena Vista / Courtesy Everett Collection

Watch her in the film here:


Scott Garfield / ABC / Courtesy Everett Collection

However, she later said, “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.

Jon Kopaloff / FilmMagic via Getty Images

Watch some of her Season 4 scenes here:


Trimark Pictures

Watch some of her performance here:


Warner Bros. / courtesy Everett Collection

He stated that he was particularly unhappy with his acting in the sixth film: “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.”

Kristin Callahan/Everett Collection

Watch a scene from the film here:


Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

He promised to be better in the sequel, Wrath of the Titans — however, it was also panned and currently has a 26% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

Watch a scene from the film here:


Phillip Caruso / Universal / Courtesy Everett Collection

“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.” He ended up winning a Golden Globe for his performance.

Bob Grant/Fotos International / Getty Images

Watch some of his performance here:


Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

Watch some of his scenes here:


Universal / Courtesy Everett Collection

Watch some of his performance here:


A24 / Courtesy Everett Collection

Watch her in the film here:


20th Century Fox / Courtesy Everett Collection

Watch his scenes here:


View this video on YouTube

20th Century Fox / Via youtube.com

Which one surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments below!