Will Smith felt that the film was an even bigger embarrassment than Wild Wild West because he got his son involved in it, even leading him to take a year and a half without working. That being said, he did say that the film taught him to not worry if your films don't always succeed.
Director M. Night Shyamalan lumped it along with The Last Airbender (which itself inspired other cases of this, as seen below) as "huge, big-budget CGI movies” that did not work and where he felt lost "and rightfully got crushed, because they rightfully said, ‘You don’t believe in yourself, you don’t believe in your own voice, and in you don’t believe in your values.’".
Alien³, to the point that after so many years, almost everyone involved is still ashamed when it's mentioned.
It was the first feature film directed by David Fincher, whose experience was so horrible that he refuses to talk about it to this day, and has rejected several attempts to speak on-record for documentaries. His only comment since then has been, "No one hated (the film) more than me. To this day, no one hates it more than me."
Producer David Giler had harsh words for the film in the DVD documentary "Wreckage and Rage", claiming that it wasn't that scary at all and that he regrets his participation. Notably, he attempted to leave the production at one point, but was forced back by a clause in Sigourney Weaver's contract. He and co-producer Walter Hill later abandoned Fincher midway through production and forced him to rewrite the script on the fly.
Lance Henriksen has gone on record as saying, "FUCKAlien³!!!" He didn't shy away from this view on the commentary and documentary "Wreckage and Rage" for the DVD and Blu-Ray, both featuring him declaring the film to be nihilistic, and the latter seeing him agree with fans that by the nature of the convicts being self-admitted murderers and rapists, it's hard to root for them, and finding Ripley sleeping with Clemens to be out-of-character for her.
Elliot Goldenthal admitted that the score wasn't his best work, stating that he only had a week-and-a-half to compose it due to the Troubled Production and had to rush through it without thinking of the quality.
On the flip side, Michael Biehn does regret how he handled what happened with Hicks and the use of a photo, saying had he known Fincher would become who he is, he'd have been more accommodating in the hopes of working with Fincher on a future film.
David Cross, who plays main antagonist Ian Hawke in the films, openly regrets his work on the third film Chipwrecked, recalling it to have been a terribly "unpleasant experience" and one of the worst outings of his career. This is the reason why he declined to reprise his role in The Road Chip (which introduced Tony Hale's James Suggs as a replacement as main villain). In general David Cross has always been open about the fact he accepted the roles in the movie as Money, Dear Boy and has never denied his opinion of the actual quality of the movies.
Cameron Richardson, who played the love interest Claire in the first film, refused to do the sequels because she disliked the first movie.
Andrew Garfield revealed that he's not proud of his title role, explaining in an interview with Amy Adams that he had been a fan of Spidey's since he was a toddler, but learned in production that story and character development are not always the studio's top priorities, with the whole experience leaving him heartbroken in the end.
Sally Field also had some choice words for the films when she appeared on The Howard Stern Show. She stated that she only did the first film as a favor to her friend, Laura Ziskin (who produced the film as her final project), and regretted the experience. She later said that it was "really hard to find a three-dimensional character" while playing Aunt May, and summarized her experience as trying to put "ten pounds of shit in a five-pound bag".
Clooney even said in interviews that if anyone approaches him and says they saw the movie at a cinema, he will refund their ticket price from his own pocket. He's also said that he keeps a giant framed portrait of himself in the Batsuit in his house as a constant reminder not to let hubris and ego get the better of him.
Joel Schumacher provided the DVD Commentary for the film. There's an awful lot of pauses and he ends the commentary 5 minutes before the credits roll. He sounds really embarrassed by this film.
Producer Peter MacGregor-Scott resented the Merchandise-Driven emphasis, saying "I feel if you let a filmmaker just make a good movie, you'd sell toys anyway."
I don’t regret it at all. I felt that the character was interesting and twomovies before that one Joel Schumacher was at his height. So the decision-making process was not off. At the same time I was doing Eraser over there and Warner Bros. begged me to do the movie. In most cases I don’t regret the movies that failed or were not as good. It’s always easy to be smug in hindsight, right?
Forest Whitaker has publicly apologized for starring in the film. Then again, John Travolta was probably the only one who didn't regret starring in it.
Barry Pepper, who played Johnny, said that if he knew he'd win a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor, he would've accepted it in person.
One of the two credited screenwriters has among other things, written an apology letter that ends with this:
Now, looking back at the movie with fresh eyes, I can’t help but be strangely proud of it. Because out of all the sucky movies, mine is the suckiest. In the end, did Scientology get me laid? What do you think? No way do you get any action by boldly going up to a woman and proclaiming, "I wrote Battlefield Earth!” If anything, I’m trying to figure out a way to bottle it and use it as birth control. I’ll make a mint!
Gad: We didn't go far enough to warrant accolades. We didn’t go far enough to say, "Look how brave we are." My regret in what happened is that it became 'Disney’s first explicitly gay moment' and it was never intended to be that. It was never intended to be a moment that we should laud ourselves for, because frankly, I don’t think we did justice to what a real gay character in a Disney film should be. That was not LeFou. If we’re going to pat ourselves on the back, then damn it we should have gone further with that. Everybody deserves an opportunity to see themselves on screen, and I don’t think we’ve done enough — and I certainly haven’t done enough to do that.
Blues Brothers 2000: John Landis and Dan Aykroyd were unhappy with the changes Universal forced them to make on the film, and almost quit the project because of it.
Chevy Chase is ashamed of his participation, which he only took part in as Warner Bros. had pressured him and the other actors of the first movie into making a sequel. None of the others bowed to the pressure though, and Warner Brothers attempted to sueRodney Dangerfield for refusing to participate after citing a lack of confidence in the script. When asked about it in a interview with David Letterman, his response was an apathetic "Yeah, Yeah I think I'm in that." Even looking at his role in the film, he seems disinterested in being there.
Harold Ramis (who wrote and produced the original film) also hated the sequel; once again, he only participated after Warner Brothers continued to put pressure on him.
Both director Tinto Brass and writer turned politician Gore Vidal would like to forget about the horror that was Caligula and almost was Gore Vidal's Caligula. In fact, pretty much anyone who was involved with that production (except Helen Mirren, John Gielgud and Penthouse publisher and Caligula producer Bob Guccione) would like to forget all about it.
Norman Hudis wasn't a fan of the drunken operation scene, calling it "an absurd scene that didn't work".
Wilfrid Hyde-White wasn't told his character would have a daffodil placed in his bottom and threatened to sue when he believed that a stand-in was used to show this. Hudis has also since expressed regret for the gag, claiming the Colonel didn't deserve such an appalling indignity and thought it made the nurses look too malicious.
Kenneth Williams wasn't impressed with the script, and wrote so in his diaries:
Came back to flat, and read script of Carry On Cruising, the usual crap.
Norman Hudis liked Dilys Laye and Lance Percival, but would've much preferred to have Joan Sims (who he felt could play drunk better) and Charles Hawtrey in the film. Hudis also didn't think that he had a lot of material to work with other than Slapstick.
Joan Sims revealed in her autobiography that she wasn't keen on this film.
Zig-zagged by Peter Rogers, who pointed to the Winter of Discontent later in the decade, along with the heavy curtailing of union power during Margaret Thatcher's premiership, that the film's message was right all along. However, he admitted that said message was delivered poorly, and that they had seriously miscalculated the film's tone.
Talbot Rothwell shared Rogers' sentiments, feeling that the screenplay was rushed - he was working on Carry On Henry and the film adaptation of Up Pompeii at the same time - and not one of his better efforts, and that the political message was far too heavy-handed.
Richard O'Callaghan saw the film a few years after it was released and was embarrassed by it.
I saw the film about three or four years after we made it, and I personally was very embarrassed by what I was doing. It was all so right-wing and presenting the unionists as complete asses. I crept out of the cinema hoping nobody recognised me - fortunately, they didn't.
Read the Carry On Behind script. It is the worst I've ever read. The part for me, Roland Crump, is small, it is unfunny, and is mostly concerned with heavily contrived slapstick. Don't know why on earth they offer it to me.
Liz Fraser wouldn't count Behind as one of the Carry On films she had been in because she didn't like how small her role was.
Sims also admitted to feeling out of place in this film:
There was certainly a decline in yours truly. That face, which was coming out of that uniform, I mean it was horrific. I thought "Go home and put your feet up, love".
Patrick Mower thought the scene that introduces Sergeant Major Bloomer dragged on too long.
Patricia Franklin wasn't fond of the film as she found it far too coarse. She herself said in a 2018 interview:
I think my one line was probably the best one in the film!
Kenneth Williams was not impressed with the vulgar script and said so in his diaries:
Read the Carry On Emmannuelle script. It's all about a nymphomaniac who does it with all kinds of people in all kinds of situations & keeps taking the pill. The denouement is that her one genuine lover switches placebos for the pill & she conceives. You begin with her wanking a steward on the Concorde. I found it monotonous and unfunny. When you get to her having the PM, the Judge, the Commissioner of Police etc. etc. with no variations whatsoever, the credibility is gone and there's nothing funny to redeem it. It's so far away from the sort of story which a Carr yOn used to have. All this seems to do is attempt to shock, whereas that element (like in Nurse etc.) was incidental to the story. Sadly, I'll have to turn it down: it's a sad business 'cos Gerald & Peter have been good to me, but with a script like this, I've no option.
Joan Sims truly believed the series had run out of steam by this point and had decided that Emmannuelle would be her final Carry On. In her autobiography, she writes:
The inventiveness and cleverness of the scripts which had made films like Cleo or Up the Khyber such a joy to work on seemed to have been replaced with a more smutty line of dialogue, which was no doubt a sign of the times but was not at all to my liking.
Jack Douglas confirms on the Carry On GirlsDVD Commentary that he thought this film went too far for a Carry On and wasn't believable.
Larry Dann went to see the film in cinemas when it came out and thought it to be embarrassing and one-dimensional.
Zig-zagged with Beryl Reid; Reid complained later in her life about appearing in a "pornographic Carry On", although judging from her comments on the film, she seemed to be mistaking it for Rosie Dixon - Night Nurse, which she appeared in the same year.
Marianne Maskell was proud to have a role in the Carry On films but admits that Emmannuelle wasn't the best.
Writer Dave Freeman complained about the rushed script and that several performers were miscast. On the Carry On Behind DVD Commentary, he compares Columbus to a Laurel and Hardy film without Laurel and Hardy.
Jim Dale thought Columbus was one of the worst scripts he had ever read.
Tony Slattery admitted that nobody enjoyed making it.
John Antrobus wrote additional material, but admitted it wasn't the best film.
Jack Douglas claimed he would rather forget the film.
When Julian Clary appeared on Des O'Connor Tonight in 1998, he acknowledged that the film doing the same style of humour as the earlier entries in 1992 was a bit odd.
June Whitfield called the film a bit strange, and later joked a more appropriate title would've been Carry Off Columbus.
Daryl Hannah has said she is very glad that the low box office returns for the film meant adaptations of Jean M. Auel's other books about Ayla were out of the question.
If the box office hadn't sealed the fate of future movies, the fact that Auel (who was a consultant on the film and hated the finished result) sued the filmmakers and bought back the movie rights to the books did.
Vanilla Ice doesn't care for Cool as Ice. Pretty much everyone involved, up to and including the director, has expressed regret over this film.
Both Kevin Smith and Bruce Willis hate Cop Out. Ironically, both of them fought on the set and have hated each other ever since. What didn't help matters is that Bruce refused to promote the movie.
Neither the cast nor crew were happy with Dad's Army (1971). Jimmy Perry in particular was unhappy with the studio recasting the role of Mrs. Pike with Liz Fraser after Janet Davies had played her in the series.
Stan Lee has disowned the film, despite the fact that he only had a cameo in it, though it should be noted that his main gripe was how dark the film was, which is more akin to how Frank Miller and most others wrote the character since rather than his own tenure.
As pointed out in his own entry, Ben Affleck calls it the one movie he actually regrets (largely because he loves the original comics and is disappointed it turned out the way it did).
Pretty much all of the main cast of Deck the Halls, according to supporting actor Gillian Vigman. Kristin Chenoweth was still coping with her split from Aaron Sorkin, Danny DeVito flew in to film his scenes rather than interact with anyone, Kristin Davis was basically doing a depressing re-enactment of her character Charlotte from Sex and the City, and Matthew Broderick could be found on set shaking his head in disbelief, repeatedly stating "I've hit rock bottom."
Betty Box wasn't happy with Robert Morley's casting over James Robertson Justice, feeling the film was doomed from the start. In her autobiography, she claimed:
Situations which would have been hilarious with James were just mildly amusing with Morley, and the whole point of the piece was lost.
Ralph Thomas thought the Doctor films were getting desperate by this point.
Joan Sims thought this film lacked the comic quality of those in the series that had come before it.
Don's Plum: Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire sued to prevent the release of the film and won a partial success; the film can't be shown commercially in the United States or Canada.
Ben Ramsey apologized for writing the screenplay for this film, calling it a painful creative point in his life.
James Marsters, Piccolo's actor, said the final product wasn't very good.
Stars Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz, and director Jim Sheridan, disowned the finished product of Dream House, with none of them going out to promote the film after Sheridan clashed with the film's executive producer James G. Robinson throughout the production.
Josh Trank denounced the film before it even came out, saying his vision was ruined due to studio interference. When Fantastic Four co-creator Stan Lee died in 2018, Trank publicly apologized for failing Lee and blamed himself for not giving the legend the chance to see a good Fantastic Four movie.
Michael B. Jordan has also said that the film was not as good as he hoped it would be. During an interview for Black Panther (2018), he saw his performance in that film as a way of atoning for his involvement in Fox's movie.
Kate Mara stated that she hasn't even seen the final product, and that "nobody saw it" while doing press interviews promoting The Martian.
Toby Kebbell (Doctor Doom) stated that he understood how the fans felt, and wondered if the poor reception hurt his career.
On top of that, Marvel Comics disowned the movie, putting up Howard the Duck on its website and not this movie. They wanted nothing to do with the movie that they went so far as to cancel the comic (granted, for story reasons).
Screenwriter Jeremy Slater apologized to the fans on Twitter for his involvement in the film.
Neither Monica Keena nor Katharine Isabelle are all that fond of Freddy vs. Jason. Keena would later say that the screenplay was terrible and that she only took the role for the money and because she thought it would boost her career, while Isabelle got into a fight with director Ronny Yu on set over nudity; while Isabelle had a "no nudity" clause in her contract and signed onto the film on the expectation that they would stick to it, Yu repeatedly tried to pressure her into doing a nude shower scene. (They ultimately settled on a body double.)
Both Ginger Rogers and Carol Channing disliked The First Traveling Saleslady, saying it was "a terrible picture". They also jokingly referred to it as "death of a sales lady".
Channing Tatum: Look, I'll be honest. I fucking hate that movie. I hate that movie. I was pushed into doing that movie. From Coach Carter, they signed me to a three-picture deal […] They give you the contract and they go, ‘Three-picture deal, here you go.’ And as a young [actor], you're like, ‘Oh my god, that sounds amazing, I'm doing that!’
Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin look back at the film with a great deal of regret, with them citing that their lack of research, the short time in which the film had to be completed, and Executive Meddling (the studio's refusal to test-screen it) as factors that may have negatively affected the quality of the final product.
Neither Ryan Reynolds nor Taika Waititi have a lot of good things to say about Green Lantern (2011). Years later, they mockingly claimed that they first met while shooting Free Guy, and Reynolds even included a gag in Deadpool 2 where Deadpool kills him as he considers the script before accepting the role of Hal Jordan.
While she didn't detail about what made the experience such a bad one, Kim Basinger told Interview magazine in 2018 she had a terrible time making 2013's Grudge Match. Some leaked set photos from the time appeared to show her arguing with Sylvester Stallone as they filmed a scene in a New Orleans park. It's possible that the two were simply in character, but the way it was reported made it seem as though they were clashing for real.
Both Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte have revealed their hatred for working on I Love Trouble, calling it the worst of their careers. Roberts also said that Nolte was the worst actor she had ever worked with.
While the cast and crew of Jennifer's Body all defend how the film itself turned out, none of them have anything nice to say about how the marketing department tried to sell it as a Megan FoxFanservice vehicle. Writer Diablo Cody recalls sending an email to a studio executive after a disastrous test screening, asking for advice on how he felt the movie should be promoted, and getting back a response that was literally "Megan Fox Hot". Director Karyn Kusama refused to ask Fox to participate in what she felt was a disgusting publicity stunt where Fox would've introduced and done live chats on an amateur porn site. Fox also questioned why the studio ignored that she had a sizable female fan base and didn't bother marketing to them.
Labyrinth: David Bowie wasn't too big a fan, even getting uncomfortable when his children watched it. Co-star Jennifer Connelly, who has similar sentiments, gets embarrassed when her children are watching the film.
Ray Liotta may not want to speak about his first film role in The Lonely Lady. The main star, Pia Zadora, has lots of mean words about it too, saying she "knew it was bad all along" and given her husband financed the whole deal, she wanted him "to buy the whole thing and hide it somewhere."
Brent Spiner sarcastically called it a "classic" on Twitter.
Dino Stamtopolous, who helped produce the film, also regrets making it and blames Adam Sandler for the final product.
Natalie Wood hated Meteor, along with most of the cast involved with the film.
Yeardley Smith is still extremely embarrassed by Maximum Overdrive. So is Stephen King, who called the film a "moron movie." Thus far, it has remained his only attempt at directing.
John Cleese wasn't pleased with, stating that "I always regarded that entire film as a bit of a cockup."
The other Pythons are not too happy about it either. Terry Jones has said that the movie was one rewrite from being good, but by that point, everyone, Cleese in particular, just wanted to move on.
1999 Jackman: Is there an embarrassing movie I should avoid? 2014 Jackman: When they come to you with a movie where you have testicles around your neck, with an ensemble cast from the funniest movies around, don't believe them. You might keep the testicles — they are funny to show in parties — but pass on the movie!
Director Craig Gillespie also hated the end result, due to last-minute reshoots done with another director (said director went uncredited, leaving Gillespie to take the blame).
Alex Kurtzman has said multiple times that he regrets having directed The Mummy (2017), calling it one of the biggest failures in his career. Co-writer Christopher McQuarrie is also ashamed of it, even blatantly telling a fan of his looking for advice on how to write a horror script not to write The Mummy.
Joey Mazzarino, one of the writers, dubbed working on the film "a miserable experience" in an interview with Tough Pigs. Specifically, his draft of the script was very parody-heavy, with references to Men in Black, Contact, and Alien. Then the original director for the film, Randal Kleiser, was fired and replaced by Tim Hill - who Joey said was "a very nice guy" and "did a decent job", but he wanted to remove all of the references and change the ending. You see, in Joey's original draft, it was going to be revealed that Gonzo wasn't actually an alien, the aliens that were trying to contact him had been getting the signal of The Muppet Show and they made themselves look like Gonzo because they believed that he was the ultimate being. Joey admitted that the new ending with Gonzo actually being an alien "bugs the crap out of me."
Frank Oz said in a 2000 interview that the film was "not the movie we wanted it to be."
What do Harlan Ellison and Tony Bennett have in common? Well, yes, but more to the point they both despised The Oscar (the former's only movie credit, the latter's only movie as an actor).
Private Resort (1985): Rob Morrow and Johnny Depp apparently swore a pact to eradicate every copy of the film from the face of the planet. Given that it was given a DVD release, it's clear that they have not yet succeeded in their quest.
Both Chris Columbus and Daryl Hannah have less than warm feelings about 1984's Reckless (which he wrote and she starred in).
RoboCop 3: Nancy Allen and Fred Dekker aren'tfond of the film. Allen didn't want to do the movie in the first place and only did it for the fans, and even agreed with them that the move to PG-13 and going ahead without waiting for Peter Weller to come back were mistakes. While he doesn't regret the process of making it, Dekker does regret the final product, both as a Creator Killer, and because he wished he had more money and also agrees that the move to PG-13 was a mistake.
Although Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar's kids greatly enjoyed seeing their parents play Fred and Daphne, Prinze and Gellar don't think of the experience very fondly themselves. Among other things, Gellar hated wearing Daphne's trademark go-go boots. Prinze hated wearing Fred's trademark ascot and had to shave his head after filming because the blonde dye ruined his hair.
Linda Cardellini (Velma) states that she felt that the final cut of the film could've been adjusted a bit more.
Originally played straight but later averted with Matthew Lillard. Originally Lillard stated he regretted working on the live action films as it seemed to ruin his movie career, but once he became the full time voice of Shaggy in the cartoons following Casey Kasem's retirement in 2009, he's since changed his mind, and now thanks the movies for leading into a consistent role for him to play.
Shadow Conspiracy: Linda Hamilton said in an interview that she thought her work in the film was "mediocre as hell", but admits that the movie was "really bad, really bad". Charlie Sheen also hates the movie as well.
Shallow Hal is also an old shame for both Gwyneth Paltrow (who stated that she didn't care for it) and Jack Black. He said that he signed onto it because he wanted to make a film with the Farrelly Brothers but it wasn't what he expected it to be, which made him feel like he sold out.
Most of the people who worked on Skidoo hated it. Otto Preminger and his family even refused to release it after its theatrical run.
Jamie Kennedy has admitted that he was personally affected by the negative critical response to the film, lamenting an apparent lack of control in any of the aspects regarding the film or his own involvement in it.
Steven Wright also hated the film; it would be six years before he would act again.
Kal Penn called it a terrible movie while promoting The Namesake. It didn't help that they forced him to do an Indian accent.
As stated in his own entry, Tom Hardy has repeatedly said that the film (and more specifically, the fact that it was a critical and commercial flop) was the worst thing that ever happened to him, and nearly killed his career before it got off the ground. To this day, he still refuses to talk about Nemesis in any significant detail.
The entire TNG cast, especially Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, and LeVar Burton (who'd been turned down as its director), also spoken negatively about the film. Though Sirtis also said that Nemesis wasn't as bad as Star Trek: Insurrection, claiming she fell asleep during its premiere.
Despite the staggering success of A New Hope, George Lucas is very modest regarding the film. In J.W. Rinzler's "The Making of Star Wars", he admitted he's never been satisfied with the movie's script despite the numerous rewrites it went through.
Producer Gary Kurtz has expressed dissatisfaction with the changes done in the Special Edition of the film, with him singling out the restored Jabba scene as the worst change because it added absolutely nothing to the story that wasn't in the Greedo scene.
Jabba the Hutt's original sculptor, John Coppinger, likewise disliked the CGI Jabba from the 1997 Special Edition.
"Very hard to be objective here, but there's no doubt the first CGI Jabba was awful. I actually think it was a brave attempt, given the state of CGI then, but I believe they tried to do too much. The subtleties of facial expression were really beyond CGI at that point, even on face as large as Jabba's! One aspect of 'our' Jabba was how many people it took to make him live. There were always at least three people operating his face from outside, not including David Barclay and Toby Philpott who were inside as puppeteers. They were moving his arms, his head, body, jaw and tongue. But despite that I think we co-coordinated a better result than CGI. And Jabba was really there for the other actors and performers to react and relate to."
George Lucas also called The Empire Strikes Back "the worst Star Wars film". Yes, really. Though, then again, problems with filming and its original reception need to be remembered, since at the time of its release the film was considered worse than the original by critics and many moviegoers.
Empire was David Prowse's (the guy who usually played Darth Vader in the suit) personal favorite film in the series, but his one regret was the now-iconic "I am your father" twist. Rather than the actual plot point, he was upset because he wasn't let in on it — he was led to believe he was acting along to the line "Obi-Wan killed your father", and he later said he would've done it completely differently if he'd been aware of what the line really was.
As a rule of thumb, nobody who worked on the film (except George Lucas) was on board with the Ewok concept. Concept artist Ralph McQuarrie in particular despised the concept so much that he refused to do art of them, and eventually walked off the movie due to a combo of this and being burned out from almost a decade worth of working on the films.
In contrast with Empire, David Prowse didn't have many kind words for Jedi.
"This for me was the weak part of the trilogy, and unfortunately turned out to be the worst film experience I have ever had. I did not like the introduction of the Ewoks, although the kids loved it. The premise that a bunch of teddy bears with sticks and stones could defeat the might of the Stormtroopers was totally unbelievable and spoilt the film for me, even though I did not have a great involvement."
In J.W. Rinzler's Making of Return of the Jedi book, Carrie Fisher is quoted saying that she felt Jedi was the weakest film in the trilogy. Mark Hamill likewise had mixed feelings about the film, and felt that the script was a letdown compared to the first two films.
"Watching Jedi was like finding your old high-school yearbook up in the attic. I couldn't really relate to it. I really felt outside the whole thing. It was a sad feeling in a way, because it was a part of my life that's over now."
Harrison Ford didn't regret working on the film, but he was clearly burned out on playing Han Solo and wasn't satisfied with the ending or the overall script.
"I'm glad I did all three of them. I'm glad it brought itself to a natural conclusion. But three is enough for me. I was glad to see that costume for the last time. I don't think it had a very successful ending, with that teddy bear picnic."
Both George Lucas and director Richard Marquand hated the results of the "Lapti Nek" number in the film for its dated Disco atmosphere and stiff puppetry, hence why Lucas replaced it with a new song and CGI in the Special Editions of the movie.
Sir Alec Guinness grew to hate the series over time and regretted having played Obi-Wan Kenobi, because of how audiences came to only remember him for the role despite his illustrious career. He once famously told a fan who claimed he had seen the movie a hundred times that he could have an autograph if he never watched the film again. Ironically, Star Wars made him rich, as he was the only actor able to get a cut of the gross (2%). In his autobiography, Blessings in Disguise, he acknowledges this irony, and admits that the film gave him the financial freedom to do whatever he wanted with his career for the rest of his life. The other cast members knew how much he disliked the series while filming, and commented that he still remained professional despite his own feelings towards the film, and that despite his misgivings about the first film, he agreed to reprise his role in the two films that followed, even after George Lucas cautioned him that by doing so, nobody would ever again be able to look at the actor without seeing Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Neither Harrison Ford or Carrie Fisher were particularly fond of their characters by the time the original trilogy ended. Ford felt that Han Solo hadn't developed the way he should have, in a way that he felt had Redemption Equals Death as a logical outcome, and he only ever returned to the role in The Force Awakens because he finally got his wish. Fisher, meanwhile, felt that Leia was a dull Flat Character and resented that getting more interesting roles became hindered due to people only ever seeing her as Leia. Though Carrie Fisher came to embrace the role, and was much much more on board to reprise her role in the sequels than Harrison was.
Everybody who worked on The Star Wars Holiday Special either denies its existence or wishes to hunt down and destroy every copy. Yes, that includes George Lucas (even though he wasn't directly involved in it). When Conan O'Brien brought up the subject of the Holiday Special with Harrison Ford during an interview, Ford first tried to deny it ever happened. Then O'Brien announced they had a clip. The look on Ford's face was one of whether he should flee the scene or terminate O'Brien with extreme prejudice. Carrie Fisher had similar feelings about the special; she wrote in her autobiography Wishful Drinking that both the special and her association with Star Wars as a whole led her to start taking drugs (her role as Princess Leia in the special has her noticeably intoxicated in each scene she's in).
Jake Lloyd isn't fond of his role as 9-year old Anakin Skywalker in Episode I: The Phantom Menace, in no small part due to the backlash to his performance, which resulted in him getting harassed by some fanswho blamed him for "ruining"Star Wars and Darth Vader. He also had to do over 60 interviews, which was very exhausting for him to do. After all that, he quit acting after voicing Anakin in five video games and couldn’t watch the movie anymore. His opinions of Star Wars have since gotten better though.
In an interview, Natalie Portman said she has no intention of ever showing her children the prequels (because of her death scene), and that acting in the first prequel hurt her career, but she doesn't regret doing the franchise and still enjoyed doing the trilogy.
Zigzagged with Mark Hamill when it came to The Last Jedi. In interviews prior to the film's release, Hamill stated that he had disagreed with Rian Johnson's take on Luke Skywalker. He later came around to appreciate the changes and the way they pushed him out of his comfort zone, even if he wasn’t completely happy about them, and publicly regretted voicing these opinions due to how they were taken out of context. (The full quote is 'I at one point had to say to Rian, "I pretty much fundamentally disagree with every choice you’ve made for this character. Now, having said that, I have gotten it off my chest, and my job now is to take what you've created and do my best to realize your vision.'") After its release, some people speculated that Hamill's disagreements with how the character was handled might have stemmed from the little detail that Luke Skywalker ends up dying in the film. However, the one thing Hamill disliked about the movie was the decision to remove a scene of Luke mourning Han's death.
John Boyega (Finn) expressed displeasure with being relegated to a B-plot and comic relief in The Last Jedi, something not rectified in the next film which treated him less comically but also barely gave him any sort of plot at all, especially after he was set up to be a major character and possibly even a Jedi in The Force Awakens. Boyega also made his disdain for the Rey/Ben ship crystal clear. Boyega also felt that he, Oscar Isaac (Poe) and Kelly Marie Tran (Rose Tico) were given bad roles if not straight-up sidelined in the last two movies, even suggesting that Disney probably intended the characters to be Token Minorities. While Boyega initially swore off working with Disney or Lucasfilm again, he later opened up to reprising his role provided that his concerns were met the next time around.
Oscar Isaac likewise vocally expressed dissatisfaction for his role in the series after the release of The Rise of Skywalker, bemoaning the direction Poe's character went since he had a vastly different personality and character arc in every movie, and he mocked his own lines in interviews. He went as far as to say he'd have preferred if Poe had died in previous films as was originally planned. Like Boyega, Isaac expressed aversion at working with Star Wars or Disney again, but he did sign up to play Moon Knightin theMarvel Cinematic Universe as he was given far more creative freedom with Marc Spector than he was with Poe. His good experience on that show appears to have helped him change his mind about returning as Poe in the future.
Boyega and Isaac were also well aware of the Finn/Poe shipping and were 100% onboard with playing a same-sex couple. They both thought Disney/Lucasfilm were cowards for not making it canon, since Finn and Poe's chemistry was one of the few things the two actors liked about their roles.
Freddie Prinze Jr. didn't enjoy his voice-only cameos as Kanan Jarrus in The Rise of Skywalker and Star Wars: The Bad Batch, feeling that any reprisals would only dilute the conclusion of the Kanan's storyline in Rebels. He only did the cameos as a favor, and has further clarified that he won't be returning to the role again in the future including the Ahsoka series.
J. J. Abrams eventually came to agree with the criticism that the Sequel Trilogy would have benefitted from a more carefully thought out plan for the story, characters, and direction. While he does clarify that spontaneous story telling can also work, citing how Jesse Pinkman was originally supposed to die in Season 1 of Breaking Bad before being allowed to live, for certain stories, "There is nothing more important than knowing where you're going."
Christopher Reeve was deeply ashamed of his last outing as the Man of Steel. He declared the film to be "terrible" on the eve of its release, citing a haphazard scriptwriting process and the poor quality of the film's special effects.
Co-star Jon Cryer also hated the film, going so far as to deem the film unfinished as a result of its ultra-low budget.
Whenever anyone asked Bob Hoskins what his biggest regret about his film career was, he replied "Super Mario Bros. (1993)" without hesitation. Hoskins stated he only took the role of Mario for the sake of one of his sons who was a huge Mario fan; unfortunately, the film ended up being an extremely unpleasant experience for Hoskins. He was quoted as saying the production "was a fuckin' nightmare" and the Control Freak directors were "fuckin' idiots".
John Leguizamo wasn't fond of the movie either. He also wasn't fond of The Pest. In fact, if you read his book, Pimps, Ho's, Playa Hatas, and the Rest of my Hollywood Friends, there's a lot of movies he's not proud of!
Leguizamo however also said that while he knows the movie is terrible, the fact that years later people still remember it means that it at least meant something to a lot of people, regardless of quality. He also has fond memories of making it and working with Hopper and Hoskins despite the production issues.
Dennis Hopper: "I made a picture called Super Mario Bros., and my six-year-old son at the time — he's now 18 — he said, 'Dad, I think you're probably a pretty good actor, but why did you play that terrible guy King Koopa in Super Mario Bros.?' and I said, 'Well Henry, I did that so you could have shoes,' and he said, 'Dad, I don't need shoes that badly.'"
And on top of that, Nintendo was upset by the final version of the film, which was one of the biggest bombs of 1993, and instituted a policy that barred any more theatrical adaptations of their properties outside of Pokemon, which they supervised; this actually stomped a move from the film's distributor to introduce Nintendo into their world. In fact, it did a lot of damage to relations between Disney and Nintendo (to the point where Nintendo's theme park contract went to Disney's chief rival Universal 22 years later—think about that), though that appears to have mellowed a bit in recent years, with Bowser appearing in Disney's Wreck-It Ralph as a minor character.
This is reportedly the case for Matthew McConaughey and Renée Zellweger in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. They were both struggling actors at the time and needed the cash, but McConaughey was reportedly so embarrassed at having appeared in the film he attempted to block its release. Both actors are so embarrassed by the film that years later, Scream Factory had to delay the film's Blu-Ray release and alter the cover artwork when both actors denied permission to include their likenesses on the cover.
Elliot Page admitted on his Facebook that the movie was "the biggest mistake of my career" due to knowing about the sexual assault allegations against Woody Allen and taking the role anyway.
In a Op-Ed with Aaron Sorkin for the New York Times in January 2018 , Greta Gerwig also regretted being in the movie saying that had she known about the allegations back then compared to now, she would've never done the movie. Greta concluded she'll never work with Woody Allen ever again.
Black Widow (2021): Both Kevin Feige and Scarlett Johansson were not happy that the film was released simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+. Johansson ended up filing a lawsuit against Disney claiming her contract stipulated a theater-exclusive release, with much of her salary tied directly to the movie's theatrical performance— which ended up being sub-par for a Marvel film. The dispute between Disney and Johansson was quietly settled out of court within a matter of months.
After the overwhelmingly negative reception of the film, director Michael Bay himself publicly apologized for it, admitting it was not his best work and even calling it "crap". He has expressed disappointment that he didn't have more time to put together a better movie in the aftermath of the Writers' Guild Strike of 2007-2008.
Writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci also expressed regret in making the film as well as in the creation of the universally hated Autobot duo Skids and Mudflap.
Shia LaBeouf also has gone on to state that he was "unimpressed" with the movie.
Megan Fox also didn't like the movie. Not to mention her feud with Michael Bay during filming.
Hugo Weaving admits that he doesn't care for the whole franchise and pretty much phones in his performance whenever he does any of the movies.
Pretty much most of the actors who did Troll 2 said that they were embarrassed by the movie when they first saw it, yet have gotten over it as the years have gone by due to the cult following it's amassed. The only people who seem to be proud of the movie are director Claudio Fragasso, his wife (who co-wrote the movie), and Margo Prey, who played the mom. Also Robert Ormsby, who played the Grandpa, said he likes bad movies so he was proud to see it turned out so bad.
Understandably, nobody who was involved with Twilight Zone: The Movie wants to remember they had any part of it, especially the "Time Out" segment, due to the onset accident that killedVic Morrow and two (illegally hired) child actors. John Landis, who directed the segment, claimed in a 1996 interview that the accident haunted him, and that he thought about it every single day. Steven Spielberg, who was still riding high off the simultaneous success of E.T. tried as best he could to get out of directing his segment, but when he couldn't, did the bare minimum work and then distanced himself from the project altogether. He also cut ties with John Landis following the completion of the movie, and has not spoken to him since. Producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall did the best they could to distance themselves and shield Spielberg from the ensuing fall-out. One crew member, Andy House, demanded that his name be taken off the project and replaced with the industry pseudonym Alan Smithee.
Barry Sonnenfeld, Kevin Kline, Salma Hayek, and even the majority of people at Warner Bros. regret doing the film as well. Hayek, in particular, felt she was being underused and Kline felt he was too good of an actor to make the movie.
Ryan Reynolds has stated that he's not a fan of the film, despite probably being the best thing about it. While doing early promotion for Deadpool (2016), he made sure to distance it from the Wolverine prequel and reiterate that the new film is a complete Continuity Reboot. In the sequel's coda, Deadpool goes back in time and kills the other Wade Wilson.
Hugh Jackman isn't proud of the film either, as he felt it did little justice to his character despite the high praise he received for his performance in an otherwise underwhelming movie; he helped make up for it with The Wolverine.
, while the Directors Guild of America gave an official rebuke to Warner Bros. and HBO Max
getting harassed by some fans who blamed him for "ruining" Star Wars and Darth Vader. He also had to do over 60 interviews, which was very exhausting for him to do. After all that, he quit acting after voicing Anakin in five video games and couldn’t watch the movie anymore. His opinions of Star Wars have since gotten better though.