Big Roles That Actors Actually Hated

A career-defining role can be a double-edged sword. A lot of actors find themselves stuck following weird rules in the production that made them famous, stifling their future creativity by shackling them to something they did in the past. This could be even worse when that actor hates that role, although few if no actors get through a varied career without stumbling into a few characters they don't enjoy. Maybe they hate the character on a personal level, perhaps the on-set experience was a nightmare, and sometimes an actor will simply get sick of doing the same thing over and over again. Whatever the reason, a ton of actors grow to hate the roles that many fans know and love them for. 

It seems like no performer is safe from being dragged back into a familiar role. Modern Hollywood demands constant sequels, remakes, and reboots that frequently call in the icons who originated a famous character to reprise their role. Few have the clout to simply stop their franchises, and studios rarely want to recast. Big stars tend to be the selling point for movies and shows that can't promise quality without giving away the game. In the era of performances that can consume an actor's career, it's worth knowing the big roles that actors famously hated. 

Mandy Patinkin is by no means a star defined by a single performance. A celebrated talent on screens big and small, Patinkin has led a stunning career spanning almost 50 years with dozens of memorable appearances across genres, tones, and budget levels. In 1987, Patinkin portrayed Inigo Montoya in Rob Reiner's legendary fantasy film "The Princess Bride," delivering at least one line that lives on in never-ending impressions to this day. More recently, he had a central role in Hulu's "Death and Other Details." Even beyond the screen, Patinkin is a gifted musician with several studio albums and one of the most notable faces on the Broadway stage.

The role Patinkin couldn't stand was his star turn in "Criminal Minds," which he starred in for first two seasons. Patinkin portrayed Jason Gideon, the de facto main character of the ensemble and the best criminal profiler in the show's Behavioral Analysis Unit. In 2012, five years after he quit "Criminal Minds," he spoke to New York Magazine about his career and characterized his time on the show as the "biggest public mistake I ever made." His primary concern appears to be the show's approach to violence, which he noted as a destructive force on his own life and society in general. 

"Criminal Minds" has carried on without Patinkin. The show's 17th season concluded in July 2024, featuring very few members of the original cast. 

Robert Pattinson locked into big roles early. His first film was 2004's "Vanity Fair," but his scenes were deleted and only viewable on the DVD release. The very next year, he played the role of Cedric Diggory in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," the fourth movie in the franchise and which put him squarely in the public eye. However, it was in 2008 that he would find the film that would define his career: "Twilight," in which Pattinson played Edward Cullen. He would go on to star in all four "Twilight" films, immediately becoming one of the most notable performers of the era. Unfortunately, he seems to publicly despise the character in many ways.

Much has been made about Pattinson's frequent jokes at the expense of the "Twilight" franchise and his place in it. A 2022 piece in The Guardian recounts a contemporary interview in which Pattinson stated, "The more I read the script, the more I hated this guy." Beyond his distaste for the character, Pattinson has spoken about his experience on the set. He told British GQ that his attempt to add a lot of art to his performance angered the studio, which, in turn, left him infuriated. Looking back, he suggests that the performance he would have provided would look "even more like a psychopath." 

Sir Alec Guinness was one of the most respected actors of his era. Born in 1914, Guinness had an astonishing screen career that spanned over 60 years and included over 60 credits. Guinness performed in some of the legendary classics of the medium, including "Lawrence of Arabia," "Doctor Zhivago,' and "The Bridge on the River Kwai," the latter winning him the 1957 Academy Award for Best Actor. Despite that long legacy, countless film fans know him exclusively for his work as Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi in George Lucas' 1977 classic blockbuster, "Star Wars." 

"Star Wars" followed Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" in cementing the model for the summer blockbuster. Guinness immediately became better known to the world for a role he couldn't stand, rather than the many roles for which he'd previously earned praise. He despised the role during and after the production, but he held more ire for the fans than anyone else. Guinness famously told the tale of an interaction with a young fan in one of his autobiographies. The boy claimed to have seen "Star Wars" over 100 times, prompting Guinness to ask him to promise he'd never watch the film again. He maintains that shattering the boy's dreams was worth it to save him from still enjoying the film by the time he's an adult.

Harrison Ford remains one of the most recognizable talents in Hollywood. By the age of 82, Harrison had accumulated no less than 83 distinct acting credits across a wide variety of projects. Ford is a legendary leading man, iconic scar and all, and has starred in several classics, including "Air Force One," "The Fugitive," "Witness," and "Blade Runner." As of late 2024, Ford is still active and involved in new productions, but he's best known for his work with George Lucas, much to his chagrin.

Ford played Han Solo four times, with a 32-year gap in the middle, and played Indiana Jones five times, and there's nothing funnier about Ford's public persona than the differences when talking about those two characters. Ford's relationship to "Star Wars" is clearly complicated. In 2015, while promoting his return for "The Force Awakens" on "Conan," he explained his desire to see Solo die in "Return of the Jedi." Two years later, standing alongside George Lucas on the hype train for "Solo," he told The Star Wars Show he wasn't interested in seeing the new take on his character. On the other hand, in 2022 Ford told Jake's Takes that his proudest decision was pushing to bring Indiana Jones for a fifth entry.

Actor Angus T. Jones is known almost exclusively for one role. From 2003 to 2013, Jones portrayed Jake Harper in 225 episodes of the hit sitcom "Two and a Half Men," and he has very few other acting credits. Jones appeared alongside Jon Cryer and Charlie Sheen until the latter lost his job to Ashton Kutcher for the show's final three seasons. Towards the end of his tenure with "Two and a Half Men," Jones' public opinions on the show took a couple of wild swings. At a 2012 panel, he described the awkwardness he felt doing "the adult thing" on set at 18. Only a few months later, he would publicly denounce the show as filth while speaking to religious YouTube influencer The Forerunner Chronicles.

Jones implored the religious audience to stop watching the show, citing it as a potential weapon of an unnamed enemy. The Seventh-day Adventist Church, of which Jones had recently become a member, distanced themselves from Jones' statements about the TV series while welcoming him with open arms. In turn, Jones issued a statement to multiple outlets in which he voiced his respect for the show's cast and crew. Jones skipped the 11th and 12th seasons of the show, only appearing in a brief cameo during the bizarre finale episode. Whatever bad blood may have existed between Jones and showrunner Chuck Lorre evidently dried by the time Jones made a cameo in Lorre's 2023 show "Bookie." That brief appearance saw him recreate a scene from the 2003 pilot of "Two and a Half Men" as a charming in-joke.

Christopher Lee was a stellar actor who often found himself in genre material. He played iconic villains in two massive blockbuster franchises: Count Dooku in the "Star Wars" prequels and Saruman in "The Lord of the Rings." Quoting from fellow frequent antagonist Anthony Hopkins, he once told Total Film, "I don't play villains; I play people." With nearly 300 acting credits to his name, including video game voiceovers, Lee's work stands the test of time, although he was not always fond of one character in his early era.

Lee portrayed Count Dracula seven times for Hammer Horror. This was, in many ways, the role in Lee's amazing life story that made him a horror icon, but he's regularly recounted the tale of how he got roped into the project. He signed on for two "Dracula" films, but Hammer consistently dragged him back. As Lee once recounted, Hammer repeatedly told Lee that the studio sold the project with Lee in the title role. Without him, Hammer insisted, the film would shut down and everyone involved would lose their job, which Lee described as "sheer blackmail" and bemoaned the studio's behavior. All Lee wanted was to portray a book-accurate take on the character. Nonetheless, Lee portrayed Count Dracula a total of 10 times, including three outside of Hammer Horror.

Sean Connery rose to prominence playing James Bond in the first six cinematic takes on the character. He had a lot of notable performances after Bond, including his first Academy Award win for his stellar performance in "The Untouchables," but it always came back to the spy he originated in 1962. He was 32 the first time he played 007 and 53 on his final turn, and in a 1983 interview with Johnny Carson, he briefly mentioned some production troubles that plagued his return in "Never Say Never Again." He also reportedly gave his salary from "Diamonds Are Forever" to charity, and while some chalked that up to philanthropy, it may have been an act of protest.

According to The Guardian, Connery once said, "I have always hated that damned James Bond. I'd like to kill him." That extreme statement suggests a strong antipathy toward Bond, but on some level, Connery also expresses ownership over Bond. In a 2002 interview with Indiewire, Connery claimed he didn't think Bond would survive his absence and stated, "Anyone who says he did is a liar."

Bob Hoskins had a refreshingly straightforward perspective on his acting career, telling The Guardian in 2007, "There's two things I love about this business. One's acting, and the other one's getting paid for it. The rest of it is a mystery to me." That's a fair take from a man who was most famous for portraying a dangerously unhinged London gangster in "The Long Good Friday" or a traumatized private investigator in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." Despite their grim lives, the role that seemed to bother Hoskins the most was unquestionably in "Super Mario Bros."

Hoskins characterized "Super Mario Bros." as his worst project, and it's certainly among Mario's weirdest moments. He called the production a nightmare and denigrated the directors as a duo "whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent." The film was famously troubled before, during, and after release. This was far from the only time he mentioned his displeasure with the project, though it was the most vicious. In a 1993 interview, he highlighted the massive decline in his artistic career between his time as a video game character and his work as King Lear. 

It's hard to define George Clooney's career by a single role. If there's one performance that placed Clooney in his current position atop the classical Hollywood view of masculine success and taste, it's probably Danny Ocean in Steven Soderbergh's "Ocean's Eleven" and its two sequels. Only four years before Clooney defined the heist genre, he donned a more iconic suit to play Bruce Wayne in "Batman & Robin." He's spent a lot of the intervening years apologizing. In his "Inside the Actor's Studio" interview, Clooney noted the discomfort and restriction of the iconic suit, claiming that Batman couldn't save the city in that state. Later, at New York Comic Con in 2014, Clooney stated, "I just met Adam West, and I apologized to him." 

Clooney briefly reprised his role as Bruce Wayne in 2023's "The Flash." He joked about the cameo with The Hollywood Reporter, stating, "Somehow there were not a lot of requests for me to reprise my role as Batman, I don't know why." Around the same time, he talked to Entertainment Tonight, quipping that there wouldn't be enough drugs in the world to bring him back again.

Channing Tatum's career includes a lot of interesting ups and downs. He spent most of the 2000s in music videos as a dancer, a set of talents that eventually got him into the celebrated "Step Up" franchise. He really popped off in the 2010s, when Tatum's unique position as one of Hollywood's more versatile talents came through in starring roles for projects such as "21 Jump Street" and "Magic Mike," both of which dropped in 2012. Many of those opportunities arose after his first blockbuster starring role in 2009's "G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra," which Tatum famously despised.

In 2015, Tatum told Howard Stern that he hated the "G.I. Joe" movies, saying that he was roped into the project against his will as part of a three-picture deal with the studio. Though he was initially excited, he stated, "The script wasn't any good." He acknowledged the positive aspects of the role and the help it provided his overall career, but he also characterized his involvement as his only option under threat of legal action. 

Tatum later spoke to Vanity Fair while hooked up to a polygraph test. He confirmed that he passed on the film no less than seven times and that he asked to be killed off early into the 2013 sequel, "G.I. Joe: Retaliation." He also truthfully stated that he doesn't regret that decision.

Marlon Brando needs no introduction. He was one of the most consequential actors of the 20th century, delivering several performances that people still remember as the finest of all time. Though his onscreen career spanned more than 60 years, Brando cut his teeth on the Broadway stage. In 1947, Brando portrayed Stanley Kowalski in Elia Kazan's celebrated staging of Tennessee Williams' classic "A Streetcar Named Desire," reprising his role in Kazan's cinematic adaptation of the work. However, Brando voiced his hatred for one of his most iconic early characters years later. 

Brando once said (via Legacy) that Kowalski "never wondered, and he never doubted. His ego was very secure. And he had the kind of brutal aggressiveness that I hate. I'm afraid of it. I detest the character." His reaction was reasonable considering Kowalski is one of the most unlikeable characters of the era. Though Brando publicly disliked Kowalski, his work on the stage led others to feel similarly about him. His co-star, Jessica Tandy, once called him "an impossible, psychopathic b****rd." All the same, Brando's penchant for method acting seemingly caused him to embody a character he hated, both on and off the stage. 

Jeffrey DeMunn often works with director Frank Darabont. He's in all four of Darabont's feature films: "The Green Mile," "The Majestic," "The Mist," and "The Shawshank Redemption" in roles of varying sizes. He also followed Darabont to TV, whose most notable work on the small screen was unquestionably developing and creating the first season of AMC's "The Walking Dead," which went on to become one of the biggest shows ever made. DeMunn was part of the ensemble cast in the first two seasons, but he left the show abruptly in 2012.

DeMunn demanded death for his "Walking Dead" character, Dale. He told Cleveland.com that he was furious after AMC publicly fired Darabont from the show, carrying on without him for every season after the first. DeMunn stated, "I called them and said, 'It's a zombie show ... I don't want to do this anymore." He characterized that decision as a relief and expressed no regret.

Mark Wahlberg has done a lot of things onscreen he wouldn't do in real life. He's starred in a selection of action films that would see him rack up a considerable body count and a few comedies that feature a less-than-tasteful sense of humor. Off-screen, Wahlberg became a devout Catholic after a stint in prison, once telling Piers Morgan that he attends church every single day. That clash between his faith and his performances has caused Wahlberg to repeatedly ask God for forgiveness in public. 

In 2015, Wahlberg took the stage at Philadelphia's World Meeting of Families event, which also featured the Pope. He mentioned an encounter with one of the young choir singers, who evidently told him that he was a big fan of Wahlberg's R-rated comedy "Ted." He asked the Pope to forgive him, adding, "I've always hoped that the good Lord has a sense of humor, when it comes and pertains to many of the movies that I've made." He issued a very similar request for forgiveness for "Boogie Nights." The Chicago Tribune reported him telling a Catholic bishop, "I just always hope that God is a movie fan and also forgiving, because I've made some poor choices in my past."