Stars Who've Talked About Hating Their Most Famous Roles

The star opened up about how his role as Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off got to be a "pain in my ass" on Marc Maron's WTF podcast.

"In those years where I couldn't seem to scare up any work, I was like, 'Oh, well. I guess [Ferris] was my shot,' " Ruck told Maron in October.

"Things weren't going great," he continued. "So, the Bueller thing got to be a pain in my ass when people would bring it up during that period and I would go, 'I'm done.' "

Ruck had worked on two failed pilots before he called a temp agency to find work to help make his car payment. He worked at Sears for a few months, where he tried "to make myself invisible" so that no one would notice him from the movies. He eventually landed a role in the 1994 action flick Speed before becoming a series regular on Spin City, which ran for six seasons.

The star currently plays Connor Roy on the Emmy-winning HBO Max series Succession.

Being the star of a hugely successful vampire franchise isn't what it's cracked up to be — at least according to Pattinson. After playing Edward Cullen in five Twilight movies, Pattinson told NME that he "had people sitting outside my house every single day, and it drove me crazy."

"I didn't go into a supermarket for about six years. But now I can go in and chat to the guy who's working there about his kids, or where he's going on holiday, and not be thinking, 'Is he gonna sell me out?' I just don't have to think about that stuff anymore," Pattinson continued.

Marshall from How I Met Your Mother may be loved by many, but Segel opened up about feeling lost once the show he had been on for nine seasons was over and he was set to play novelist David Foster Wallace in 2015's The End of the Tour.

He revealed on the Armchair Expert Podcast in June 2021 that the end of HIMYM made him question, "So what do I do now? Who am I without this stuff?" He also worried that he would not be able to live up to playing Wallace, saying, "I was very scared to do it because I did not know if I was good enough for the role."

Fortunately, he didn't let doubt weigh him down because the film earned him a best male lead nomination at the Film Independent Spirit Awards in 2016.

The British star had the immense responsibility of bringing to life one of the most iconic characters in literary history: Harry Potter. However, there's one out of the seven Harry Potter films that he'd rather leave in the past. Radcliffe revealed to Playboy in 2015 that his performance in The Half-Blood Prince (the sixth installment of the series) felt subpar compared to the others.

"In every movie up to the sixth one, you can see a big step forward in my acting. And then it stopped, or went backward maybe, in the sixth film," he told the outlet. "I really enjoyed my performance in the fifth — part of it was how much I worked with people like Gary Oldman and David Thewlis. On the sixth, I remember watching it and thinking, Wow, there's been no growth."

He added: "You're watching a mistake you made every day for 11 months—that's the way I saw it. I had the idea that Harry was like a soldier traumatized by war, and as a result of that, he shuts down emotionally. That's not a bad idea, but it's not the most interesting thing to watch for two-and-a-half hours."

Catwoman is one character that has haunted the Oscar winner — up until now. The 2004 film was pretty much tanked by critics and viewers at the time and currently holds a 9 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. It also earned four Razzies (the only awards that reward the worst cinematic underachievements), including one for worst actress, which went to Berry. The actress was a good sport and picked up her trophy at the 25th annual Razzie Awards, and delievered a simple yet effective speech upon winning.

"I want to thank Warner Bros. for casting me in this piece-of-sh--, god-awful movie," she said, MTV reported at the time.

Years later, fans are rediscovering the flick and giving Berry props for carrying the film. One fan tweeted, "I'm sorry but Halle Berry ate her Catwoman role up, idk why ppl hate that movies, it's camp. I love it," to which Berry retweeted and responded, "I'm seeing all the Catwoman love, everybody. Where were you guys 17 years ago," adding a laughing emoji.

Patel's experience working on 2010's Avatar: The Last Airbender served as a tough lesson that would eventually teach him the value in saying no. The actor alluded to his time on the film during The Hollywood Reporter Actor Roundtable in 2016, revealing that he "felt overwhelmed by the experience."

"I felt like I wasn't being heard," Patel said during the discussion. "That was really scary for me, and that's really when I learned the power of no, the idea of saying no. Listen to that instinct you get when you read those words for the first time."

Winslet would like a do-over when it comes to her role as Rose in Titanic. She was only 21 when she landed a part in the timeless film, but didn't hold back while critiquing her acting and accent during an interview with the Telegraph in 2012.

"Every single scene, I'm like 'Really, really? You did it like that?' " she told the outlet. "Oh my God ... Even my American accent, I can't listen to it. It's awful."

"Hopefully it's so much better now," she continued. "It sounds terribly self indulgent, but actors do tend to be very self-critical. I have a hard time watching any of my performances, but watching Titanic I was just like, 'Oh God, I want to do that again.' "

Playing Mikaela Banes in the first two Transformers films may have made Fox a star, but it's the fallout with director Michael Bay that led to the "absolutely low point" of her career. In 2009, the actress gave her most unfiltered take on working with Bay during an interview with Wonderland.

"He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is," she told the outlet. "So he's a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he's not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he's so awkward, so hopelessly awkward. He has no social skills at all. And it's endearing to watch him."

Her "Hitler" comment got her fired from the franchise and replaced by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. She reflected on the rocky time period in her cover story for Cosmopolitan in 2017, saying that she learned from the experience.

"That was absolutely the low point of my career," Fox said. "But without – 'that thing,' I wouldn't have learned as quickly as I did. All I had to do was apologise — and I refused. I was so self-righteous at 23, I couldn't see [that] it was for the greater good. I really thought I was Joan of Arc."

The idea of being a teen heartthrob forever was not something Efron had in mind when the success of playing Troy Bolton in High School Musical opened many doors for the star to continue playing the same type of character.

Efron told Men's Journal in 2016 that "the second we finished the first one," he started telling people that this wasn't the type of life he wanted. "I was, like, 17. And I said, 'Guys, you know this is not at all what I want to do?' And they were like, 'Really?' "

He explained how his early years and struggles were tough to go through, but that he's working toward building the career he's always envisioned for himself.

"I step back and look at myself and I still want to kick that guy's ass sometimes," Efron told the outlet of his former self. "Like, f--- that guy. He's done some kind of cool things with some cool people — he did that one thing [Neighbors] that was funny — but, I mean, he's still just that f---ing kid from [High School Musical]."

He added: "I ultimately want that person to want to see me in another interesting role. And that can only come with time, respect, and making decisions that are hard."

The singer's loyal fanbase — the Lambily — were the force behind #JusticeForGlitter, which got the Glitter soundtrack to resurface at the top of the iTunes Top 10 albums chart in 2018. The stunning feat shocked Carey, who said the film "almost ruined my life." She dished about the good news on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at the time, saying, "The fact that Glitter even came back is a thing. Whoever thought it was going to get to No. 1, all these years later?"

"But it is a good album and the fans made it happen," Carey told Fallon. "I had nothing to do with it. The Lambily got behind it. … it's a movement, it's bigger than me."

The comeback meant even more for the star, whose film was released on Sept. 21, 2001 — 10 days after the terrorist attacks on New York City's World Trade Center, Washington, D.C.'s Pentagon and Pennsylvania's Somerset County. Sept. 11, 2001 was also the day the Glitter soundtrack came out.

The star said, "It was a tough time when it came out. It was a whole thing, it was a drama."