6. Sean Connery for all his James Bond roles
The role that made Sean Connery famous is evidently the role he also dislikes a lot saying “I have always hated that damned James Bond. I’d like to kill him.”
After appearing several times as Bond, Connery quickly became tired of the character and wanted to play other roles. The only way he kept getting talked in to reprising his role was lots of cash which he mostly donated to charity. He thought the films were becoming formula and parodies of themselves and ultimately decided to quit.
Fortunately for the audience, his trepidation never comes across on screen as Bond is the signature role of his career of many iconic roles.
7. Woody Allen for Manhattan
Despite being nominated for two Academy Awards in 1979 including Best Original Screenplay, writer and director Woody Allen still says he dislikes his film calling it “too preachy and too self-righteous”. He said if he had it to do over, he would change the script.
Allen actually implored distributor United Artists not to release the film saying “I didn’t like the film at all … I spoke to United Artists at the time and offered to make a film for them for nothing if they would not put it out.”
The Big Apple also looked amazing since photographed by the master cinematographer Gordon Willis who had also shot “Annie Hall” for Allen and remains a Woody Allen classic.
8. Burt Reynolds for Boogie Nights
This one was a case of actor/director clash.
Reynolds has said repeatedly over the years that he dislikes the film and he has never actually watched it completely all the way through.
It goes back to his experience working on the film. He thought director Paul Thomas Anderson was very “full of himself” while on set directing his 2nd feature film and thought every shot was “amazing”.
Reynolds also complained about costar Mark Walberg saying he walked around the set wearing a fake erection.
Reynolds ended up firing his agent after seeing the film. Anderson had actually offered Reynolds a role in “Magnolia”, to which Reynolds declined saying “I’d done my picture with Paul Thomas Anderson, that was enough for me.”
9. Alec Guinness for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
There were a lot of stories about the legendary actor hating his role in the 1970s space opera, most of which are true.
The actor was 62 when he made the film and severely disliked the popularity that came with it when the film became a cultural phenomenon. He says it was his idea to kill off his character so he would have limited or no screen time in subsequent films.
He reportedly never read or even opened any fan mail he received for Star Wars.
His main issue was no so much with the film itself was the rabid fans who did not acknowledge the rest of his volume of work and remembered him only as “Obi-Wan Kenobi”.
One story says a child approached the actor for an autograph saying he had seen the film more than 100 times. Guinness told the child “Promise me you’ll never watch it again”.
“Apart from the money, I regret having embarked on the film. I like them well enough, but it’s not an acting job, the dialogue – which is lamentable – keeps being changed and only slightly improved, and I find myself old and out of touch with the young.”
10. Katherine Heigl for Knocked Up
Heigl has never been afraid of expressing her opinion even refusing to submit herself for an Emmy Award for her hit television show “Grey’s Anatomy” saying “she didn’t think any of her character’s episodes were worthy of the award”.
After the film release of “Knocked Up”, the actress did not say much during its theatrical run. When the film hit DVD shelves, she told Vanity Fair she had problems with her character and the film saying it was “…A little sexist. It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys.”
Like some others on this list, she acquired a reputation of being difficult to work with. Hollywood has not been kind to her in subsequent years, having most of her recent projects being lost from memory before they ever found their way there in the first place.