Oh No Girl - WTF Were You Thinking? Scenes That Make You Cringe In Embarrassment For Actor(s)

Yikes! Who is that actor, OP?

R1 - Brian Kerwin

Him today:

Younger

What kind of routine was Julie expecting?

R5 ballet?

regerre

Oh my, if you watch closely, Captain Stubing catches the strippers pants when they're tossed his way and he puts the sweaty things up to his nose, at about 2:21. Then about 20 seconds later into the stripper's super embarrassing dance, the camera pans to Stubing AND HE'S STILL SNIFFING THEM. Check out his swooning after taking a big whiff.

R8 truth! Great catch.

I can't believe I missed this when I was a young gayling. It looks ridiculous now but that would have been definite jerk-off material back then.

The "I know that babies taste best" monologue from Snowpiercer. Chris Evans is a shit actor, but not even Laurence Olivier would've been able to pull off those lines.

The scene would've been much more powerful if his character didn't flat out admit to cannibalism, but instead just strongly hinted to it.

R11 nice.

R10 it was amazing back in the day. Not so much now.

Cringe-camp.

I still wonder what the atmosphere was like in the room when they saw the dailies.

A lot of the things Thandie Newton did in ‘Beloved’. One of the worst performances by a professional actress I’ve ever seen.

R14 yes!

That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.

And they said Aaron Spelling was straight! Mawaaaawah!

Best of Nicolas Cage Compilation: The Wicker Man

Favorite episode of Chips. The "punk" episode.. The eight is enough chick is in it too..

R19 oh my God! That is so bad.

Johnny Bravo

Demi Moore. So very full of herself, and yet not a sexy molecule in her being. Cringe-inducing.

This. Eek!

When Rick had to fight a zombie in some junkyard version of Thunderdome.

Attack of the killer eagles scene from Birdemic comes to mind:

Miss de Havilland and those bees.

Too soon to close the thread?

The entirety of Motherhood with Uma Thurman

Eric Estrada had to be one of the worse disco singer ever, omg!

R26 OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lynda Day George in Pieces. Not sure what she was thinking with her acting choices in this especially. Although, I think it would be hard for even a good actor to pull something like this off convincingly.

Still Reigning Champion???

Every single line of dialogue Kyle Maclachlan says in Showgirls makes me feel bad for him.

R31, was that joke? That can’t be a real scene in a movie.

I love how the crew is so scandalized and shocked by the stripper but no one wants to stop the show.

“Oh, I hope I don’t get a good look at his penis!”

Is it a coincidence that Two Elizabeth Berkeley vehicles have been mentioned here?

Gene Kelly in Xanadu

Sir John Gielgud in Lost Horizon

Charlie Sheen in Wall Street looking into mirror and saying, "Who am I?"

I know there are fans of Terms of Endearment, but I'm not one of them. The most cringe worthy scene for me was Shirley MacLaine's famous the "GIVE MY DAUGHTER THE SHOT! " moment.

Another: Cybil Shepherd singing & dancing in At Long Last Love

Pierce Brosnan in Mama Mia

I don't know about this one. I smiled, I cringed. You decide.

This whole movie. Rosie did all her own "stunt eating"...

MAKE ME FEEL GOOD!!!

Wow, Erik Estrada doesn't have a musical bone in his body!

Kool and the Gang should have that cop arrested.

OP would like the entire career of Jon Mikl Thor.

I always cringe when I see Barbara Eden playing Jeannie's evil sister in IDOJ. It's so embarrassing compared to Elizabeth Montgomery's performance as Serena.

I also cringe whenever characters are forced to act against character to show off the actor's versatility. For example, Spock crying or laughing in Star Trek. Or being mind-controlled somehow to act like an idiot. I felt so embarrassed for Leonard Nimoy when he had to do those types of scenes.

Speaking of Star Trek, Kirk's love scenes made me cringe every time, R45 #basta!

G puts the G in CRINGGGGGGGE!

Witch seduces and kills a teenager with popcorn in TROLL 2.

Sally Field's hammiest scene-chewing scene ever....

"Oh lord, I wish I could understand..NO! NO!...."

It almost feels like a snippet of the scene was lost and they had to piece together her dialogue but could never recover those three seconds of transition. The way she suddenly goes from sobbing to anger is stunningly abrupt and ridiculously unnatural. How this didn't get edited or reshot is a mystery.

Cary Elwes’ entire performance in “Saw.” It’s so absurdly over-the-top it could pass for camp. I could never look at him the same way as an actor following that role. I know that it is an abysmal script/premise, but he takes it to another level.

What about Chris Klein's wacktastic audition for Mama Mia, r39?

Surely it trumps Pierce Brosnan's off-key howling.

Poor Madeline and Eileen, r38. You go back every so many years and watch those scenes hoping against hope they weren't THAT bad......

My ears are bleeding from r51's clip!

[quote]I know there are fans of Terms of Endearment, but I'm not one of them. The most cringe worthy scene for me was Shirley MacLaine's famous the "GIVE MY DAUGHTER THE SHOT! " moment.

Did you see it in a theater? It's supposed to be cringe worthy and over the top. She had to go there because the nurses wouldn't help. That's why when they relent and she says "Thank you" the audiences applauded.

It was an excellent scene.

Holy fuck, I had never seen (or heard!) that Chris Klein audition.

Pierce Brosnan is stellar in comparison.

I guess it either takes a lot of balls or a sociopathical level of hubris to go in and do that.

I think the Shirley MacLaine scene manages to make comedy out of the desperation and craziness that comes with having a loved one in terrible pain and dying.

That is not an easy task.

MacLaine goes full blown “Trog” in that scene.

Hank’s jazz hands needs work.

R51 I can't stop laughing ...thanks for posting! Chris is a hottie and has been good in some stuff, but this was the funniest shit I've seen in awhile.

I only watched a few seconds of the clip @ R51. I'm too second hand embarrassed to watch the rest.

[quote]Oh my, if you watch closely, Captain Stubing catches the strippers pants when they're tossed his way and he puts the sweaty things up to his nose, at about 2:21. Then about 20 seconds later into the stripper's super embarrassing dance, the camera pans to Stubing AND HE'S STILL SNIFFING THEM.

Murray Slaughter always was a big ol' bitchy queen! He was the true MARY! at WJM-TV!

Really, r51 is the most cringe-inducing. It’s such a dismal failure that I feel a little bad that it ever saw the light of day.

Are there ever any stipulations about what happens to audition recordings? Can an agent negotiate their annihilation?

Cloris Leachman owns this thread for her iconic TV movie "Someone I Touched."

Glynis Johns from the same movie gave Cloris a run for her money in the Cringe Olympics.

I don't think Cloris' performance in that clip is funny, but the clip itself is. The overdramatic music...poor Cloris is actually underplaying it, bless her.

Ok, that second clip WAS fucking hysterical. She was beating the shit out of that poor girl.

R40 I couldn't watch that whole clip it is so awful. Her implants were god-awful too. Did that movie blow up in her face or what?

Did I somehow miss that At r65 slapfest in one of DL’s classic slapping threads?

That bitch, who most assuredly is NOT Glynis Johns, makes Joan Crawford’s staircase thwack look pacific.

There's a movie called The Runner, starring Ron Eldard as a gambler, Courtney Cox as his girlfriend, and John Goodman as Ron's boss, who threatens to kill Ron, in turn causing him to shit his pants while he's driving home with Courtney. She's holding her nose telling him something smells like a dirty diaper.

If that's not cringey enough, in interviews RE said people told him he would get nominated for an Oscar for that role.

Wasn’t every episode of the Loveboat cringeworthy?

Glynnis Johns, recipient of both syphilis and the barrage of maternal slaps at r65.

Yeah, the jazz hands are unbelievable. It's like witnessing a miracle you would never dream in a million years would happen.

That is Glynnis O'Connor, R73.

R65 and R72 That is Glynnis O'CONNOR, she of the many TV movies of the week with Robbie Benson as her co-star love interest. She and he were everywhere and in everything for a time in the '70s. They played the star crossed love lovers in a tv movie called "Ode to Billie Joe," based on the Bobbie Gentry song!

Anyway, that was some real bitch slappin she was administered in that syphilis movie, but that little spirochete deserved it.

Ode to Billie Joe confused the fuck out of me as a child R75. So Billie Joe "accidentally" has drunken sex with a transvestite at the county fair and then kills himself?

Oh man! oh God! Terrible acting.

R77 see R31.

Oops!

Robbie Benson still looks good after all these years. Wasn't her married to Linda Ronstadt during the 80s?

What???!!?? No!

I felt so bad for Betty Buckley in The Happening. She was giving a balls out, batshit crazy performance for the ages and everyone else around her was just awful.

R83 I know. I completely agree.

It’s Turkey time.

Every single scene with Nicole Kidman and John Cusack in The Paperboy.

^ YES.

The Paperboy’s awfulness seemed to have no limit, especially the erotic (?) jailhouse meeting.

But it was indeed memorable.

Glyninis O’Connor was so moving in The Boy in the Plastic Bubble opposite a dewy John Travolta.

Lol R89. She was awesome as Kevin Spacey's cunty mom in The Ref. I watch it every Christmas. (Oh fuck I forgot about Creepy-Kevin! It might be ruined now.)

R90 we love the ref too. We watch it every Christmas. Such a fun movie. Actually quite entertaining.

chicapaayyyy

For R33

{ The Paperboy’s awfulness seemed to have no limit, especially the erotic (?) jailhouse meeting.

The only reason "The Paperboy" exists was so Lee Daniels could hang out with Zac Efron in Tighty Whities for a few weeks.

That Jon Thor is hot, but his performance looks like it came from The Village People’s “Can’t Stop The Music”.

R92 for the win! I couldn't even watch the whole clip. It was so cringey it made my teeth hurt.

Yep, everybody knows you never go full retard, r96.

Someone I Touched is on youtube?!!!! Yes!!!!!!

R98 what?

"A lot of the things Thandie Newton did in ‘Beloved’. One of the worst performances by a professional actress I’ve ever seen."

Well, it was a thankless role. Wasn't she playing the ghost or reincarnation of Oprah Winfrey's dead baby daughter, who she had killed by slitting her throat? If I recall it correctly, she was like an infant in a woman's body. Although possessing the mind of an infant she has sexual desires and at one point moans over and over to Danny Glover in a mentally challenged voice "touch me on the inside part." Yech! It kind of put me in mind of Halle Berry's turn as a hard luck black woman who for some reason lusts after the repulsive Billy Bob Thornton, crawling over his body and groaning "make me feeeel ghoooud! Make me feeel ghooouud!" Totally cringeworthy scene.

Glynis Johns in Mary Poppins So cringeworthy.

All of you guys mentioning Nicolas Cage are reminding me of two of his cringiest performances outside of Wicker Man: the Yuppie Scum in Vampire's Kiss and the dorky love interest in Peggy Sue Got Married. He is so cringey in Peggy Sue Got Married because he puts on the most obnoxious voice you ever imagined. It was so bad that Kathleen Turner complained about it:

[quote]In the book Turner also wrote the general unpleasantness of working with Cage. He insisted on using a strange voice for his character and wearing fake teeth. “Oh, that stupid voice of his and the fake teeth! Honestly, I cringe to think about it.” She added, “Nicolas didn’t manage to kill the film, but he didn’t add a lot to it, either.”

BTW, in the scene below of Vampire's Kiss, he's supposed to be playing a high level executive who eventually has a psychotic breakdown and winds up homeless. So this is not supposed to be a funny scene. It's supposed to be tragic. The worst part of Cage's performance (besides being so tonally off) is that he appears so pleased with himself, like he thinks he's so brilliant. He looks like an idiot.

It’s a testament to Turner’s acting abilities that she could turn in such a fine performance opposite Cage.

Poor Charles Dance.

I've liked Cage in some things but I agree that he was awful in Peggy Sue Got Married and The Wicker Man. He's either great or terrible.

Has anyone mentioned Rod Steiger? The guy put the C in Cringe in almost everything he did but I think his cringiest performance ever was in The Big Knife. He is so awful that I get secondhand embarrassment watching him.

The scene in The Wiz where Diana Ross says "I'm only 24!" (or whatever). She did NOT look 24.

Stephen Boyd in The Oscar. Ay yi yi! *facepalm*

Any actor who didn't even come close to getting a foreign accent, like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. There are many actors who botched accents, but I think Dyke's performance is legendary.

I remember Brian Kerwin from Murphy's Romance and thought he was WAY too good looking to have been married to Sally Field.

You guys are either slipping or way too young to remember this amazing, Oscar winning performance!

Berry in ‘Monster’s Ball’ sex scene and Field in ‘Steel Magnolias’ cemetery scene are both transcendent in my book.

Arnold Schwarzenegger in Jingle All the Way. There is a reaction shot of him making this goofy face in every other scene. It's so embarrassing. I haven't seen this movie in over 20 years and didn't last halfway through it but it was the one thing I remembered about the movie, that he makes this stupid face.

The very nebbish, dorky Kevin Pollack in the Usual Suspect acting all "tough" like a hardened criminal.

R100 The book character of Beloved was thought at times to be a reincarnation of the dead baby daughter, but also possibly a young woman who had been kept as a sex slave by a white man in a backwoods cabin, and/or a flesh and blood manifestation of African slave anguish and trauma, itself. I don’t think there’s an explanation for Newton’s choices, especially since Kimberly Elise was just stunning in the other major supporting part. Even Oprah held her own. They must have thought Newton’s interpretation would be powerful but it SO bad. Did no one shit their pants in the editing room?

Al Pacino in Cruising. Oy

Nuts. And not Barbra. Poor Leslie Nielsen. When he strips down to his bikini briefs. . Maybe ten years earlier he would have been hot but between his age at the time and his really being known for comedy, his chasing Streisand around in briefs AND her throwing baby powder in his face. . .it all came across as unintentionally hysterical. I felt so bad for him.

R18 is spot on! “Not the bees!” Nicolas Cage went from “Leaving Las Vegas” to just whatever straight to video release for a paycheck. A whole entire thread should be dedicated to Nic Cage and embarrassment by default. I am sure there is one, DL, but too caught up looking at the old “Nic Cage as Everyone” site with Nic Cage’s picture photoshopped onto literally everyone.

In all fairness to Chris, that melody isn't an easy one to sing. That doesn't excuse his facial expressions however.

Bump

Look up cage rage on YouTube if you wanna see a hilarious montage of nic cages performances over the years.

This is the link sorry it wasn't called cage rage

Re: OP’s post

“....something for everyone...”

This thread has given me so many completely unexpected laughs tonight! Thank you guys, honestly.

I dare you to watch the entire thing with a straight face

[quote]Brian Kerwin

He was the blond guy in Torch Song Trilogy who improbably falls in love with Harvey Fierstein twicew.

The infamous "very special episode" of Mr Belvedere

R111, nope. Rooney wasn't nominated for that.

The scene R70 was talking about-

OK, beat this unintentional hate crime:

R22 I agree, casting Demi as a stripper just emphasised she has no grace or flexibility, it was like watching a body builder prance around. She had zero sex appeal. Mortifying to watch.

Speaking of.....

Whoopi telling Neil Patrick Harris “my son raped me.....then he threw himself off a cliff” in Clara’s Heart was cringe worthy and funny at the same time.

R114, do you have a clip of that? That’s something I would LOVE to see. I could use a good laugh.

Wonder who the casting director was on that flick.

Here you go, R133. It's only a small clip, but it should give you an idea.

OMG. Thanks, R134.

Talk about cringe-worthy!! Who the fuck cast him as a tough guy?! Seriously funny shit.

To clarify, this wasn’t supposed to be a comedy, right?

[quote]The scene in The Wiz where Diana Ross says "I'm only 24!" (or whatever). She did NOT look 24.

No, but they were trying to give the illusion that she was 24, by Miss Ross wearing no makeup and short hair.

This scene of Isaac and the Pointer Sisters singing "He's So Shy" is worse.

R48 She is giving off major Amy Acker (from Angel, The Gifted) vibes in that scene.

I feel bad for both actresses in this scene from Mortal Kombat Annihilation. I think Talisa just gave up on acting after this movie due to embarrassment. Musetta, who was playing mother to an actress four years younger than her, continues to act.

R130 You aren't kidding! She couldn't dance her way out of a paper bag. Remember the pic of her spaz-dancing in a romper next to Lenny Kravitz? (He can't even be bothered to look up at her, you can FEEL Lenny's second-hand embarrassment), or the clip of her onstage with Ashton and Snoop? OOOOOOOF.

^ On the other hand, while the post upthread leaves no doubt to Erik Estrada’s lack of singing talent, another scene from CHIPs shows Ponch to be hot as fuck on the dance floor.

Hugh Grant in Music and Lyrics...

R107 Raquel Welch also claimed to be 24 in a screen in Mother, Jugs and Speed She was probably 35 at the time.

Norman Mailer was actually responsible for Ryan O'Neal's performance at r31, and he takes full blame for it. He insisted that Ryan perform it the way he did, despite everyone begging him to tune it down.

God, I loved the 70s. I'm still laughing at OP's clip.

R144, that clip is corny as fuck. The music alone? "Oh God, oh man, oh God." If you had to go back and live in that time you'd want to kill yourself.

Watch R141 the whole way through... ‘Hugh says tell me girls are these pants too tight?’

I was shocked to learn that Ryan O'Neal was only nominated for a Razzie for Tough Guys Don't Dance but did not win. Who the fuck beat him for that dubious honor? Then I learned that it was Bill Cosby For Leonard Part 6.

Let’s be careful out there. Singing cops.

Just die already...

R149 wins. LOL

[quote]R149 wins. LOL

Oh, without a fuckin doubt. Someone please tell me that was for a high school class project and that this film wasn’t actually released to an audience!

Demi’s no Erik Estrada r139

Jimmy Stewart shrieking about his small town when he realizes he has indeed been born and lived, in "It a Wonderful Life". Yells like a girly girl, and ruins an otherwise good movie.

correction "It's A Wonderful Life".

R154 Bless your heart for that.

Angelina Jolie's performance in "Alexander" takes the notion of embarrassing to a whole new level.

I actually liked Angelina's performance in Alexander. It was campy as hell. I especially love that weird accent she uses whenever she plays an exotic character.

The mouth breathing, piece of wood Sofia Coppola’s death scene on the steps of the opera in GodfatherIII. Daddy? And then she collapses. She single-handedly destroyed the trilogy with her excruciatingly amateur performance. Audiences have still not recovered from it.

The love scene in "Mitchell"

Me Wrong - just plain awkward on so many levels.

Buddy Hackett’s death scene as Lou Costello.

It doesn’t make me cringe so much as piss my pants with laughter.

r149's clip does not make me cringe. It's phenomenal and amazing and I love watching it. No 2nd hand embarrassment like. "Nell".

^ I don’t cringe for several of these. I just delight in them.

Mark Wahlberg’s reading of that line in The Happening at r153 is more along the lines of Schadenfreude for me.

I guess it just depends on the individual whether or not it’s cringeworthy.

Crispin Glover in Every. Single. Movie.

Bump

[quote]I actually liked Angelina's performance in Alexander. It was campy as hell. I especially love that weird accent she uses whenever she plays an exotic character.

Zhe iss rull mottel.

This whole episode of Facts of Life

R159, Jolie just sounds like a bad imitation of DLs very own "rich Russian lady" in Alexander. Nothing "exotic" about it.

I tried to find the most cringe-inducing scene of Keira Knightley in [italic]A Dangerous Method[/italic] but there were just too many. When the character is "sick," it's an embarrassing, awful performance; when the character is "well," it's an awful, embarrassing performance.

Oh Strip. Oh nooooooo.

Cackle, cackle....

Moment By Moment might have been worthwhile if young, hot Travolta had actually shown his dick or ass, but noooooo....

Johnny Depp in Willy Wonka. I love him as an actor but I felt so embarrassed for him. Just awful.

Sofia Coppola's turn as Mary Corleone was beyond the pale nepotism. Her darling Daddy Frances Coppola chose her to play the role after Winona Ryder dropped out due to "exhaustion." He would go on to say that he wanted someone who looked like she was the daughter of Al Pacino and Diane Keaton which only proves how much out of touch with reality he was since Sofia Coppola in no way whatsoever resembled Al Pacino or Diane Keaton. The role of Mary Corleone was originally envisioned as a very frisky, Americanized, hot to trot young girl in passionate love with her cousin Vincent. But the character was watered down and made more passive and conventional, no doubt because Sofia Coppola would have been unable to play sexy and hot blooded. Sofia Coppola is as sexy as a fish. The relationship between Vincent and Mary became tame and boring. A person who worked on the film said "they fucked the love story." So there it was, the daughter of the director, a not very attractive girl who had never acted in her life and had a teeny little girl's voice, playing a major role in a major movie. Of course she was going to fall flat on her face and was roundly ridiculed for her terrible performance, especially her laughable death scene. Later the motion picture academy took pity on her, awarding her an undeserved Oscar for "Lost In Translation." She's gone on to make stylish but empty movies. But if her last name wasn't Coppola nobody would have ever heard of her, much less cast her in a movie.

r127 reminds me of Tiny Tim's VERY TONE DEAF satire? in the early days of AIDS.

I disagree, r172. There really are people with that condition who act that way. I thought Knightley did an excellent job and it's an important story that should be told.

R177 - for you!

R177 - another one for you.

Someone's opinion on poorly acted scenes.

Thank you, R180/181, but I've seen the movie. And I never want to see it again. Poor Andy Garcia. He must have had a hard time doing those love scenes with such an unattractive, untalented co-star.

In the movie Queen of the Desert (terrible film, btw) James Franco plays an Edwardian era English gent.....and is every bit as miscast as you'd think he would be based on that description. It's a performance on the high school play level, and he has NO chemistry with his "love interest" Nicole Kidman

I love Ida Lupino but her famous mad acting scene from They Drive By Night is borderline awful. I think it's the laugh that tips it over the edge.

What was that horrible movie Billy Baldwin did with the painfully amateur Cindy Crawford? Even she admitted she couldn't act.

The Twilight movies are on Amazon Prime this month. I keep fast forwarding to see if there is any point to any of them. The best I can say is some of the cinematography is beautiful.

The trees are doing the only acting.

Agree, r187...beautiful cinematography.

Someone just posted this on facebook

Cameron Diaz in My Best Friend's Wedding, in a karaoke bar singing the Dusty Springfield song, I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself. I know she's supposed to sing bad, but it didn't make it any less cringey.

Can't believe I'm the first one to post this:

"Abu Dhabi-doo!" Jesus...I'd forgotten about that. So awful.

r22, I thought it was kind of hot.

Keanu Reeves in Point Break "I...am an F.B.I.....agent!!"

Horrible.

I love Mae West to death, but OMG.

Omg, that was horrible.

Why don’t you come up and see me sometime.

When Jacob falls in love with Bella's new born!!! daughter in the last Twilight movie and asks his future father-in-law/past romantic rival Edward if he should start calling him Dad now. CRINGE!!!!

Damn, Timothy Dalton was gorgeous. Matt Bomer sorta looks like him a bit, doesn't he? I have to say - as bad as that clip is, at least Dalton has a more pleasant singing voice than that other Bond, Pierce Brosnan.

So, this Mark Sam queen has a new web series that qualifies.

Is there a moment in TWILIGHT that's NOT cringey, r198?

It's funny/sad that I know so many cringey moments in show business that I can elaborate on everybody else's picks.

Here's Jacob at his most cringey:

No such word as “cringey.”

When otherwise sexy Chris Pratt tried to shit on his GF in Movie 43. Eww gross

Don't forget about this classic. Watch until the end.

There is now.

CRINGEY

R202 has been triggered! Sound the alarm!

"When otherwise sexy Chris Pratt tried to shit on his GF in Movie 43"

I nominate EVERYONE who appeared in Movie 43

That Mr. Belvedere clip always blows my mind.

Clueless, straight oafs making that show!

The scene in one of the 50 shades of grey movies where Christian admits that he likes to beat women because he imagines beating up his dead mother while doing so.

Oldish thread, but just a footnote on the Belvedere "AIDS" boy actor Ian Fried: He's now a woman named Ina Fried and a tech correspondent for AXIOS

Ronstadt has never married, R81. Robby Benson is/was married to Karla DiVito, the pride of Mokena, Ill, and a onetime backup singer for Meat Loaf.

The hopping scene at the end of Truly, Madly, Deeply, cruelly deleted from Youtube. Or maybe kindly so. It epitomised what the Germans call FREMDSCHÄMEN.

Ryan Reynolds, both embarrassing and enticing

Love that Poncherollo disco dancing