Actors Talk About The Roles They Hated Playing

Even though Twilight boosted Robert Pattinson into the Hollywood spotlight, he never understood why fans were so bananas about the film's storyline. During an interview for the Breaking Dawn installment, Pattinson revealed: 

I would love to say that I am [a fan] because all the people who… don't like it are generally the people who haven't seen it. And they're like all judgmental and stuff and cynical people. But I think I am a judgmental and cynical person who would just mindlessly hate it without ever having seen anything… I just think I'm a bad person. 

He elaborated on his stance during a separate interview, where he questioned if the initial book should have even made it onto the shelves of bookstores: 

When I read it I was convinced [author] Stephenie [Meyer] was convinced she was Bella and it was like it was a book that wasn’t supposed to be published. It was like reading her sexual fantasy, especially when she said it was based on a dream and it was like, “Oh, I’ve had this dream about this really sexy guy,” and she just writes this book about it. Like some things about Edward are so specific, I was just convinced, like, “This woman is mad. She’s completely mad and she’s in love with her own fictional creation.” And sometimes you would feel uncomfortable reading this thing.

In yet another interview, Pattinson even theorized that it was his hatred for the character that landed him the role:

When you read the book, it's like, “Edward Cullen was so beautiful I creamed myself.” I mean, every line is like that. He's the most ridiculous person who's so amazing at everything. I think a lot of actors tried to play that aspect. I just couldn't do that. And the more I read the script, the more I hated this guy, so that's how I played him, as a manic-depressive who hates himself. Plus, he's a 108-year-old virgin so he's obviously got some issues there.

Although many fans of Love Actually might agree that Andrew Lincoln's character was a “lovestruck sap,” Lincoln views his role in the romantic comedy much differently. The Walking Dead star later revealed:

In one of the most romantic movies of all time, I got to play the only guy who doesn't get the girl… The story is set up like a prism looking at all the different qualities of love. Mine was unrequited. So I got to be this weird stalker guy…

My big scene in the doorway felt so easy. I just had to hold cards and be in love with Keira Knightley. And that was my own handwriting on the cards, thank you for noticing. But I kept saying to Richard [Curtis, the film's writer-director], “Are you sure I'm not going to come off as a creepy stalker?”

As the hat-donning stalker Joe Goldberg, Penn Badgley's performance in You landed the series multiple seasons on Netflix. Despite the part bringing him leading-man stardom, Badgley doesn't enjoy portraying the bad guy: 

He’s a pretty reprehensible guy. You start to discover his true motives pretty early on - eight minutes into the show. And he’s a guy who’s capable of stalking, he’s a guy who’s capable of murder, he’s a guy who’s capable of a lot of manipulation and abuse.

The actor elaborated in an interview with Vanity Fair covering the second season of the series: 

He's always saying, “If only I could show you who I really am.” Up until that point, he's never been able to do that…Then he gets it, and he's a total d*ck about it. That was when I was like, “Joe, I've never liked you less! I've never liked you less.”

Viewers of Season 4 may have also noticed a marked decrease in the number of love scenes involving Joe. Badgley revealed this was also a problem he'd had with playing the character, and a change he'd specifically requested:

That aspect of Hollywood has always been very disturbing to me - and that aspect of the job, that mercurial boundary - has always been something that I actually don’t want to play with at all…

It’s important to me in my real life to not have [those scenes]… My fidelity in my relationship. It’s important to me. And actually, it was one of the reasons that I initially wanted to turn the role down. I didn’t tell anybody that. But that is why.

Marlon Brando's portrayal of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire helped reframe the way actors chose to hone their craft on the set and is often considered his “breakout” role. 

Although his performance was nominated for an Oscar that year, Brando later relayed how much he hated the part: 

Kowalski was always right, and never afraid… He never wondered, and he never doubted. His ego was very secure. And he had the kind of brutal aggressiveness that I hate. I’m afraid of it. I detest the character.

While her co-stars found working with her on the set of The Devil Wears Prada an honor, Meryl Streep apparently didn't enjoy playing the elitist magazine editor Miranda Priestly. According to Emily Blunt, Streep was “slightly terrifying on that film,” as it was one of the first times she'd tried Method acting.

To channel the ice queen, Streep kept the camaraderie between herself and her castmates to a minimum on set. As she told Entertainment Weekly:

It was horrible! I was [miserable] in my trailer. I could hear them all rocking and laughing. I was so depressed! I said, "Well, it's the price you pay for being boss!" That's the last time I ever attempted a Method thing!

Blake Lively rose to fame for her role as Serena van der Woodsen in Gossip Girl. While she was praised for her characterization of the privileged, troubled teen in the series, Lively said the public often confused her acting for her real personality: 

People loved it, but it always felt a little personally compromising - you want to be putting a better message out there… But it's a weird thing when people feel like they know you really well, and they don't. I would not be proud to be the person who gave someone the cocaine that made them overdose and then shot someone and slept with someone else's boyfriend.