10 Times When Actors Were Blamed For A Movie’s Failure By the Filmmakers

The entire process that goes into making a movie can be a very complex and quite multi-faceted scenario, and therefore, the movie’s success or failure cannot really be attributed to any one particular person. However, the praise or blame is usually drawn towards the director and in a few cases the screenwriter of the movie, as these are the two people who give direction to the project, overall.

And even though most of the filmmakers try to deflect the question or go defensive about their creative choices when questioned about their failures, they at times try to shift the blame to one of the other major collaborators of the movie, such as the cast.

This is definitely the case with the movies we will be discussing today, where the directors and writers very conveniently threw their cast members under the bus, citing reasons such as them delivering an underwhelming performance, failing to be a part of the promotions or even quitting the movie at the eleventh hour.

However, one of the skills a successful director should have is the ability to manage a dozen of egos of varying degree that are on the set, and manage the working methods of their cast to make sure they fall in line, so it is quite bizarre that the guy with the camera shouldn’t be the one actually responsible for the failure (or success).

Either way, the filmmakers that we’re about to discuss in this article weren’t exactly happy with their cast members and decided it was best to deflect a majority of the blame in their direction. Without further ado, let’s check out the list now.

Kevin Smith Blames Bruce Willis’s Grumpy Attitude – Cop Out

Kevin Smith is one of those directors who love to write their own movies, so that they can have complete creative control over the movie. This buddy cop flick, Cop Out is the only movie that he hasn’t written, and that shows.

As soon as people started panning his flick, Kevin went ahead and compared the response of the critics to “bullying a retarded kid.”

After a while, Smith tried to explain what really led to the movie performing so poorly on the box office, and he shifted most of the blame at Bruce Willis’s feet, saying that he felt his “soul-crushing” after working alongside the actor.

He further added, “It was difficult. I’ve never been involved in a situation like that where one component is not in the box at all…I mean, a lot of people are gonna be like, ‘Oh, you’re just trying to blame the movie on him.’ No, but I had no f**king help from this dude whatsoever.”

Some insider reports also pointed out that at the wrap party of Cop Out, Smith said: “I want to thank everyone who worked on the film, except for Bruce Willis, who is a f**king dick.”

Smith also pointed out that Willis did almost everything in his hand to make matters worse for the movie, as he refused to be a part of the press tours or sit for the promotional photos.

The only good thing about the movie was that it ended up as Smith’s all-time highest grosser, however, given that it couldn’t even double the $30 million budget, it is hardly anything worth cheering.

A recent report says that Smith has sorted out the differences with Willis now, so that is a good thing.

Roland Emmerich Blaming Will Smith for Picking Suicide Squad – Independence Day: Resurgence

The expectations were not really sky high when the announcement for Independence Day: Resurgence was made – it was already way too old for a sequel, and it was being made without the leading star of the first one, Will Smith. So, how awesome would it really be?

And in no time, everyone right from movie critics to fans started bashing Independence Day: Resurgence, which in all honesty, was nothing good at all except a few destruction moments and Jeff Goldblum quipping a few times. The movie came to the screens and went without a bang, earning somewhere close to only $400 million worldwide.

So, while Emmerich was on a press tour for his upcoming (and even worse movie) Midway, he was asked what went wrong with Resurgence, and he very conveniently shifted the entire blame to Will Smith, revealing that the star left the movie to work on Suicide Squad instead.

The director said, “I just wanted to make a movie exactly like the first, but then in the middle of production Will opted out because he wanted to do Suicide Squad. I should have stopped making the movie because we had a much better script. After I had to, really fast, cobble another script together. And I should have just said ‘no,’ because all of a sudden, I was making something I criticized myself, a sequel.”

Well, while we get it why Emmerich is so frustrated as his original script that involved Will Smith had to be thrown away, it is not a very good excuse why the alternate script turned out so poor as it could have been so much better.

Granted, the star presence of Will Smith would have made everything go up a notch, but a good script would have anyway made sure the movie does well, whether or not Will Smith decides to be a part of it.

Kevin Reynolds Blames Kevin Costner’s Inflated Ego – Waterworld

Waterworld, a $175 million blockbuster set in a post-apocalyptic world, is probably one of the biggest flops of all time. It isn’t honestly that terrible except that it was hugely over-budgeted and even though the makers were riding on a wave of hype created around the movie, it didn’t exactly break the box office and earned just shy of a $260 million mark, worldwide.

Kevin Costner did give his regular partner Kevin Reynolds a proper directing credit, but it is not exactly a secret that it was Costner who took over the production after Reynolds decided to leave, after he was fed up of Costner trying to force his ideas on almost every single scene in the movie.

And given that pretty much the same thing happened during the shooting of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves just a few years prior, it was honestly quite a surprise to see the two of them actually agreeing to work on this one together. It didn’t make sense at all!

Funnily enough, Reynolds later shared in an interview about his experience during the shooting of Waterworld, and he said, “In the future, Costner should only appear in pictures he directs himself. That way he can always be working with his favorite actor and his favorite director.” Ouch.

Clearly, Kevin Costner didn’t really take it personally, though, as the duo did team up again in the year 2012 for Hatfields & McCoys, a TV mini-series that won Costner an Emmy award for the lead actor while Reynolds ended up being nominated for best director.