"I saw it in the script and I thought, ‘Well, I’ll hate doing that.’"
When actors sign on for a new project, it’s usually because they're a big fan of the script. But when it comes time to actually get to work on set, there are some scenes from the script that end up being much more difficult to film than they anticipated. A few actors have even admitted that there are movie moments that they completely hated filming. Whether it was because they were uncomfortable with their character's actions or just felt embarrassed, these stars fulfilled their commitments to their projects -- and definitely read their scripts a little more thoroughly now!
Find out why these actors hated these scenes…
1. Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant admits he really didn't want to film one of his most iconic movie moments. He says that when he first saw the "Jump" dancing scene in the "Love Actually" script, he was completely against it. Unfortunately for him, he was contractually obligated to go through with the scene, which ended up becoming many fans’ favorite part of the movie.
"I saw it in the script and I thought, 'Well, I'll hate doing that.' I didn't fancy doing the dance at all, let alone rehearsing it…To this day, there's many people -- and I agree with them -- who think it’s the most excruciating scene ever committed to celluloid. But then some people like it," Hugh said during ABC’s "The Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later" special.
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View StoryKit Harington admits he really disliked any "Game of Thrones" scenes in which he had to film with Daenerys' dragons, which were digitally added in during post-production. He originally thought it would be an easy task but quickly learned how tough it was to ride the CGI dragons.
"I was on the back of that buck [the rig used for filming the dragon-riding scenes] for longer than we filmed the entire 'Battle of the Bastards.' Emilia [Clarke] had been moaning about it for seasons, and I was like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. You have not been through the mud in Northern Ireland. A buck in a nice warm room? Boo hoo.' But she was absolutely right. It was horrific. It's not acting at all. It is not acting, it never will be acting, and it is not what I'd signed up for. But it looked great, right? It just felt horrible! It is very uncomfortable as a man," Kit told The Hollywood Reporter.
3. Penn Badgley
There's a lot Penn Badgley doesn't like about his character on "You" but he says one of the scenes he hated the most happened during the season one finale. Although he admits he disliked most of the episode, he says the worst part was the masturbation scene outside of Beck's home.
"It’s funny, I don't even wanna repeat what it is that I had to do -- masturbating outside of her place. But that's what I was doing. That's what Joe was doing. Tha'’s what I had to enact. I found myself surprisingly disgusted, like I did not want to do it. It’s funny, they wanted me to close my eyes and I remember being like, 'No! Why?' and they were like, 'Cause it’s too creepy when you have your eyes open,' and I was like, 'What do you mean? What are we doing?'" Penn shared.
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View StoryLili Reinhart disliked filming "Dark Betty" scenes for "Riverdale" so much that she eventually had to ask the show's team if they could cut out Betty’s alter ego from the script. Thankfully, the writers agreed.
"I think it kind of became a mockery of itself. It was supposed to be this dark side of her that she wasn't able to express otherwise, and it just became this weird sexual thing that people didn't really understand," Lili told Teen Vogue.
5. Jessica Alba
Jessica Alba says one of her least favorite moments to film was her death scene in "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer." She explained that the director’s critique of her acting made her question her abilities and even made her want to quit acting.
"I remember when I was dying in 'Silver Surfer.' The director was like, 'It looks too real. It looks too painful. Can you be prettier when you cry?…Don't do that thing with your face. Just make it flat. We can CGI the tears in.' It all got me thinking, 'Am I not good enough? Are my instincts and my emotions not good enough? Do people hate them so much that they don’t want me to be a real person?' … And so I just said, 'F--- it. I don't care about this business anymore,'" Jessica told Elle in 2010.
Courteney Cox filmed over 200 episodes of "Friends" but her least favorite scene actually came from the opening credits. The actress says the iconic clips in the fountain featured in the intro were actually a "nightmare" to film.
"We were in that fountain for a long time. I don’t know who, somebody thought that would just be really fun. It’s not fun to be dancing in a fountain for hours and hours," Courteney said on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."
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View StoryWhen it came to filming "Friends" scenes for David Schwimmer, he admits he hated anything that had to do with Marcel the monkey. The primate appeared in about eight episodes of the show and David says she was pretty difficult to work with. Although the monkey was trained, David explained that a lot of the time the monkey didn't do its job right and they ended up having to work on scenes numerous times. On top of that, David revealed that between takes, the trainers would feed the animal live bugs which ended up getting all over him.
"Here is my problem: The monkey, obviously, was trained. It had to hit its mark and do its thing right at the perfect time. What inevitably began to happen was we would all have choreographed bits kind of timed out, and it would get messed up, because the monkey didn’t do its job right. So we would have to reset, we'd have to go again, because the monkey didn't get it right," David said during the HBO Max "Friends" reunion special.
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" star James Marsters says he absolutely hated filming the scene in Season 5 during which his character Spike attempted to sexually assault Buffy. He says it was "the hardest day of [his] professional life" and he can’t bring himself to watch it.
"I was curled up in a fetal position in between takes. I can't watch scenes like that. I choose not to. I won't go to a movie that has something like that. It’s a specific hot button for me. It just really makes me crazy. It was really hard. It was just unbelievably hard. But again I’m glad we did it. Spike was evil, and I think a lot of people forgot about that," James told AV Club.
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View StoryDaniel Radcliffe’s least favorite part of filming the "Harry Potter" movies was anything that involved playing quidditch. The actor says riding around on the broomstick in front of a green screen was not a pleasant experience.
"Quidditch is right up there with the least fun things I've done on ‘Harry Potter’...It's not a pleasant experience, it does hurt quite a lot, and it's not something I would rush back to," he told IndieLondon.