Name a role that your least favorite actor played well

Leonardo DiCaprio - What's Eating Gilbert Grape

Jim Carrey-the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Nicolas Cage -Adaptation

Jessica Lange -- King Kong -- not so bad at that point of her career before she became self-consciously actor-y and solely focused on obnoxiously awards-baiting performances.

Robert Taylor - Undercurrent (1946) - his only convincing performance, playing a villain.

Matt Damon - I didn't hate him in Ford v Ferrari

Madonna - Desperately Seeking Susan

Glenn Close - Alfred's Knot or whatever it was called

She was really convincing in that one, for once. Are we sure she's not trans?

Ben Affleck did not make me want to leave the theatre in Good Will Hunting.

Adam Sandler - Uncut Gems

Kevin Costner - Mr. Brooks. A very underrated film. Love it!

Helen Lawson - When Will Love Find Missy Houston? (1965)

Rooney Mara - Side Effects. She was good as the emotionless, cold sociopath.

She's been awful in everything else I've seen her in.

You should have loved her in Girl With The Dragon Tattoo r12

Her character in that movie is supposed to be the same.

Darryl Hannah - Blade Runner

Susan Sarandon. Thelma and Louise.

OP, you cannot have multiple "least favorite" actors.

Kristen Stewart - Clouds of Sils Maria

Goop - View From the Top

M - Silkwood

Dustin Hoffman - Tootsie

Robert Downey, Jr. ZODIAC and AVENGERS.

R10 Mr. Brooks was an excellent film.

Jake Gyllenhall - Brokeback Mountain, only good performance he ever gave

Does it count if it's a voice performance? Because I can't stand Hugh Grant but he was hilarious as the Pirate Captain in Band of Misfits.

I guess if you had a gun and made me choose:

Shelley Duvall in The Shinning

i think that was Marge Simpson, [R22].

Ben Stiller in Flirting With Disaster.

Alan Alda in Flirting with Disaster

R23, yeah, you're right! Sorry about that!

Keanu Reeves - Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

Hilary Swank - Boys Don't Cry

She still didn't deserve the Oscar that year - it should've gone to Julianne Moore, seriously, in The End of the Affair. But even in my laser-hot hate for Swank, I'll acknowledge that she was competent in Boys Don't Cry.

Annette Bening as dumb bimbo actress ("endolphins") in "Postcards from the Edge."

Keanu Reeves as Cate Blanchett's abusive husband in The Gift.

Another for Hilary Swank - Boys Don't Cry. Horrible in everything else and ugly as sin. Horse face.

Gwynnie- Sylvia

(tie)

Lana Turner - Ziegfeld Girl

Betty Hutton - The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

Hugh Grant - A Very English Scandal (I hated his bashful and stammering act, which he finally dropped)

Ben Affleck - Hollywoodland

Susan Sarandon - Rocky Horror

Bonnie Franklin was phenomenal as Stacy, Captain Merrill Stubing's ex-wife, in the emotional "The Captain and the Lady" episode of "The Love Boat".

Johnny Depp - Ed Wood

Tom Cruise - Magnolia

Will Ferrell — Elf.

My intense dislike of Will Ferrell began with his association with that dreadful Oteri woman on SNL. I REALLY hate her, and even though I know it's unfair, I always think of them as a team. However, Ferrell is hysterical in Elf.

^I agree!

Linda Lavin - the episode of "The Sopranos" where she's Meadow's bored therapist at college

I hate Tom Cruise, but enjoyed him as Lestat.

Goldie Hawn on Shampoo

Goop-Talented Mr Ripley

Actually the whole cast of the Talented Mr. Ripley did an excellent job and I can't stand any of them.

In the book of "talented Mr. Ripley," the part of Marge is nothing like Gwyneth Paltrow. She's not wealthy and she and Dickie are pointedly not having sex: she's in love with him (his sexuality remains ambiguous to the end), and she's from a town in Ohio. And she's not skinny: Ripley muses that her body is gourd-shaped.

The changes were more the screenwriter's fault than Paltrow's (so as to make everything more obvious), but I would say the Marge Sherwood in the book is much more interesting than the character Paltrow played. Plus she never figures out (as she does in the movie) that Tom killed Dickie--although again this is the screenwriter's fault, not Paltrow's.

I didn't know that, [R46]. But for how the character was portrayed I think Paltrow did an excellent job.

I know I saw this movie, but I don't remember a thing about it except part of it took place on a boat, and Jude Law was in it. He's not my least favorite actor, but I never understood how he got hired to act in anything, ever.

R48 The talented Mr Ripley

I don’t watch actors I don’t like.

Goop in "Se7en" and "Contagion" because she dies horribly in both.

Blake Lively in "A Simple Favor". She was great! I was very surprised.

AnnE Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married because I hated every other character in the movie so much more than her. Don't even remember her character's name but I felt sympathy for AnnE. I thought she was good. But, damn I loathe that movie.

Yes, Linda Lavin was awful on Alice, where she pretty much ruled the roost and could demand she got to play her landlady and have musical numbers written in, but she proven herself elsewhere.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Bonnie Franklin be less than unbearable.

Darryl Hannah in Kill Bill. Never thought much of her before.

Meryl - She Devil or any comedy or movie in which she plays an insufferable cunt because she is an insufferable cunt.

Alan Alda as Senator Owen Brewster in The Aviator. He made a better villain than good guy — too twinkly and crinkly. Just ... ugh.

Dustin Hoffman - Rain Man

Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air/The Last Five Years (tie).

Melania Trump - Vairst Letty

Natalie Portman in The Professional. Great movie and performances.

[quote] Jude Law was in it. He's not my least favorite actor, but I never understood how he got hired to act in anything, ever.

When he was younger, he was not that much of an actor (even though Dataloungers made such a big fuss over him). He was great at being pretty and at sneering, and he did it well in both "Wilde" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley." Again, in the actual Patricia Highsmith book, Dickie is not written so much as a sneerer: it's much subtler than that. When Tom Ripley kills him on the rowboat, it's not because Dickie sneers at him (as in the movie): in the book, he's premeditated that he has to kill Dickie to get the things he wants, and because he worries Dickie is going away with Marge.

I think as he got older Jude Law actually became a much better actor, and was very fine as Karenin recently in "Anna Karenina." He's mostly moved away from roles where he is only pretty and sneering, which may be a good thing because he's balding and refuses to wear a rug. But he got to show off his great body in the season 2 previews for "The New Pope," and he did get to do some sneering for that role.

[quote] I don’t watch actors I don’t like.

Do you cover your eyes when they appear onscreen?

R30 Keanu played Hillary Swank's abusive husband.

Blake Lively - The Town

Adam Sandler is my least favorite actor without ever having seen a film he’s in.

Alan Alda -- Can't stand him but he did a good job in Crimes and Misdemeanors, probably because he played a self-absorbed narcissist. Perfect casting.

R67 is probably more of a narcissist than Alda

Mark Wahlberg in The Departed

John Wayne as Ethan Edwards in THE SEARCHERS.

Totally believable as a psychotically racist avenger of the rape of a white teenage "squaw."

The reason my least favorites are my least favorites is because they are people I can't stand in anything. I reserve my disdain for the absolute worst of the worst.

Alan Alda's been mentioned 3 times, I'm a Brit and assumed he was beloved in the US

Kevin Costner in The Big Chill

Tom Hanks = Kip on "Bosom Buddies"

R72 In all fairness to Alan Alda, the rest of the country might love the guy but there are at least 3 of us who didn't. For me, it was his using MASH as his own bully pulpit to proselytize about the evils of Vietnam. As if we needed him to educate us. What an ego.

I’m with r75.

And while he’s not my least favorite actor (that’s Dustin Hoffman), I agree Alda is a douche.

Mira Sorvino -Mighty Aphrodite. Once again Woody proving he can make the competent, better.

Shirley MacLaine - Terms of Endearment - 1983

R75, how dare he express liberal views! How dare he! Btw, they did an episode about gays in the military that was decades ahead of its time.

R79 Calm down. You need to read R75 again. It had nothing to do with Alda expressing his views as Alda. The poster was disapproving of his using a TV show/book based on a specific time and place to espouse his opinions about a different time and place. AND the poster obviously agreed with the liberal view of the VietNam war! It was Alda's hijacking of the original material that was the point of that post.

He was also very sanctimonious, r79. Granted his character was written that way, but once he got a little more directing opportunities and writing, it became all about him. There’s a few episodes that, in context of the Korean War, were obviously just vehicles for him to espouse his views.

There’s one I have in mind where for some reason I can’t recall, he’s in a shack with a couple who don’t speak English. Therefore they don’t speak throughout the whole episode and it’s basically one long monologue of his.

Please, he didn't "hijack" anything

Ben Affleck in The Rope. Extreme left on the picture. Who knew he had it in him ?

I wish he worked more with Hitchcock instead of taking the Batman gig.

Brilliant, r83. Really.

Before the pic I was like “what the hell is he.... Oh!”

😊

You can't unsee it, can you, R84 ?

No, you really can’t.

R83 Wow. You got me.

I probably agree with most of Alda's political views, particularly his support of the Equal Rights Amendment. I just happen to think he's a horrible actor, yapping out his one-note sit-com performance exactly like Bonnie Franklin or Linda Lavin.

Jennifer Anniston in "Cake".

Tom Cruise in "Collateral Damage".

It’s just called “Collateral” “collateral Damage” is Schwarzenegger.

Jennifer Tilly in Bullets Over Broadway. She's shrill, and perfect for the part.

She sucked in that, too, R89. There really is no justice in this world when an untalented, uninteresting woman such as her is constantly shoved in our faces at every turn without consent.

I don't like Steve Buscemi, but he was funny on 30 Rock.

Heather Graham in Boogie Nights

You are right, thanks for the correction! I had planned on looking up the movie to watch again, and would have been very frustrated to only get the AS movie.

Natalie Portman in The Professional. Her best performance, I think

Bruce Williis--just about everything he's ever done.

You liked everything Bruce has ever done?

Really?

So I suppose Bruce Willis is NOT your least favorite actor, then...

Anyway, I would suggest Gwyneth Paltrow in Emma (1996). She is perfect as the mincing, airhead, rich girl, who should abstain from telling other people what to do.

Did you see the new "Emma." with that Anya Taylor girl? The ads made it look quirky in the extreme, all pastel coloured and saccharine - like Austen adapted by Wes Anderson.

Natalie Portman - Jackie.

It’s the first time I’ve ever found her convincing. The coldness and bitterness and vanity is something she portrayed really well.

I've never ever been a fan otherwise of Judi Dench, but she is phenomenal in "Notes on a Scandal."

I'm not a Dench fan either, but unexpectedly loved her as herself in "Tea with the Dames". Ditto for Plowright.

George Clooney - The Descendants

Nicole Kidman - The Others, Portrait of a Lady & Birth

As for Clooney, Yes The Descendants. But add O’ Brother, Up in the Air, Michael Clayton, Three Kings, Intolerable Cruelty and Ocean’s 11. I’m even partial to Hail Caesar. He had quite a run until Tomorrowland - after which most of his performances pretty much went to shit. But he was a fine actor once.

I think if you list multiple films in which they were good you have no business calling them "your least favorite actor."

Nicolas Cage: Leaving Las Vegas

Mathew Ma-con-i-hay -- can't be bothered to look up the spelling, but he was very good in "Dallas Buyer's Club"

R100, yes I saw it. Not the best adaptation but it is ok.

The orphan girls had red cape like in the Handmaid Tale. Considereing they are just good to be maried, it is an interesting little nod. Also, you get to see Knitghley naked, but only from behind, as he changes clothes.

Other than that, it is you turn of the mill period piece, made for pbs. Nothing subversive. As for the pastel colors, in the end, I didn't think it evoked Wes Anderson. Just there to please the old ladies. Yes, pastel colors ans English landscape pleases them more than a naked Johnny Flynn.

Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress. Thank you, William Wyler.

Tom Cruise in Collateral.

Eddie Murphy in Mr. Church

Al Pacino in You Don't Know Jack

Another vote for Costner in Mr. Brooks

Andy Lau in Saving Mr. Wu

Nick Nolte in The Good Thief

Joan Fontaine in REBECCA.

Holly Hunter in ‘The Firm’

[quote] Helen Lawson - When Will Love Find Missy Houston? (1965)

Check Helen out in All The Lady's Lovers from 1961. Helen is superb playing against type as a mousy housewife. Even people who found her too much in other roles loved her in that.

She really should've won her Oscar for that instead of 1958's I Can't Die Today!

William Frawley "I Love Lucy"

Johnny Depp as Whitey Bulger in Black Mass.