The Worst Acting Performances Of 2023

This year has seen no shortage of remarkable film performances, from towering mainstream turns like Lily Gladstone in "Killers of the Flower Moon" to unforgettable indie performances like Greta Lee in "Past Lives." Impressive work like this reminds us how remarkable actors can be, turning characters on the big screen into instantly captivating flesh-and-blood people. Of course, not every performance in 2023 has been something to write home about, and every year's movie landscape will inevitably feature some duds as well. The worst acting performances of 2023 are incredibly miscalculated efforts — for a variety of reasons — but they're also not emblematic of the actors' incompetence.

Instead, they're reflective of an assortment of flaws that don't just belong to the actors. This includes misdirection from filmmakers, conceptually egregious miscasting, scripts that never let performers engage in their best traits and so much more. These less-than-stellar performances of 2023 appear in a range of movies, from quiet sci-fi dramas to grand superhero films to faith-based features and everything in between. Across the eclectic range of cinema, though, these performances all share a similar level of subpar quality, making moviegoers appreciate the magnificent work found in better 2023 performances. Here are some of the worst acting performances of 2023. 

Something went horribly wrong with Zachary Levi's interpretation of Billy Batson (aka Shazam) between the first two "Shazam!" movies. In "Shazam! Fury of the Gods," Levi constantly spews out modern slang words like "lit" and tosses out far too many clumsy one-liners, making his performance insufferable. It's also perplexing why the character is so much more aggressive this time, compared to his wacky — but certainly not abrasive — personality in the first "Shazam!" Worst of all, he doesn't seem capable of handling the heavier moments in the third act of "Fury of the Gods," where audiences have to be emotionally invested in his character's well-being. It's hard to worry about the safety of a man you've spent most of the film wishing would just shut up.

Levi's work as Shazam in this particular sequel is so obnoxiously loud that people can't ignore it. Major outlets like the Los Angeles Times highlighted Levi's performance as a critical weak link in a largely underwhelming sequel while fan reaction to the performance was so negative that Levi would address all the social media hate in interviews conducted months after the film's debut. Zachary Levi has been an entertaining performer elsewhere, but he's unbearable in "Shazam! Fury of the Gods."

In his extensive acting career, Ken Jeong has always been a scene-stealing supporting presence — "The Hangover" being just one example of many. However, his forays into leading man status have rarely gone very well. Some actors are just better in smaller doses rather than being the centerpiece of an entire TV show or movie. Case in point: Jeong's work as the scheming publicist Lenny in Charlie Day's feature-length directorial debut "Fool's Paradise." Nearly everything in "Fool's Paradise" goes completely off the rails (and not in a humorous way either), but Jeong's performance is an especially miscalculated creation. This actor is just the wrong kind of grating in his performance as a Hollywood hustler, especially since all of his annoying characteristics fail to be either funny or say something profound about the entertainment industry.

It's also bizarre that "Fool's Paradise" hinges key emotional moments around Jeong, such as a scene where Lenny bellows "But I'm a somebody!" while being thrown out of a party, a moment Day lingers on in a wide shot that keeps panning out as he keeps screaming the same phrase. There's no sense of palpable tragedy in this moment, just the sense that Jeong goes big to compensate for his inexperience with dramatic acting. Though Jeong proclaimed the film contains his best work as an actor, in the end, Jeong's performance was widely criticized alongside everything else in this comedic misfire.

Halle Bailey's work as Ariel in "The Little Mermaid" may be the single best thing to emerge from the cursed trend of Disney live-action remakes. Bailey's fantastic performance — full of endearing dialogue-free acting and passionate song deliveries — is full of the kind of life that these perplexingly grounded remakes often lack. The only problem with Bailey's turn as Ariel is that her scenes opposite Javier Bardem's King Triton just reinforce the shortcomings of the latter. Bardem, an actor who was so compelling in films like "No Country for Old Men," is devoid of any energy in his portrayal of the king of the sea.

Part of the issue may be misdirection from director Rob Marshall, who may have told Bardem to play Triton as buttoned-up to represent a contrast between the man and his curious daughter. Whatever the reason, though, Bardem barely has a pulse throughout "The Little Mermaid" and his line deliveries are especially stilted. Coming hot off the heels of his over-the-top work in films like "Being the Ricardos" and "Lyle Lyle Crocodile," Bardem's lifeless King Triton is inexplicable. Bardem's rigidness as Triton is so glaringly obvious that it has been routinely pointed out in major reviews of "The Little Mermaid." Too bad that a film that delivered an enchanting lead turn from Halle Bailey couldn't also house a memorable Javier Bardem performance.

Absurd comedy movies tend to be better when the actors in them play it straight. There's something so innately amusing about watching performers navigating the most ludicrous material while delivering a performance that would be right at home in a typical drama. In the case of the movie "Strays," one might imagine there'd be lots of comedic possibilities in having Doug, the abusive human owner of cute doggie Reggie (Will Ferrell), be played by an experienced dramatic actor. Such a performer playing off of raunchy canines would be hysterical, but instead, "Strays" opted to cast "Saturday Night Live" and "MacGruber" veteran Will Forte in the role.

While Forte is hysterical in other projects, in "Strays" he's too aggravatingly broad and never quite clicks as someone who can be genuinely intimidating to Reggie. The script for "Strays" puzzlingly plays out the idea of Reggie and Doug having an "abusive relationship" quite seriously, but Forte's performance undercuts these attempts at pathos. It doesn't help that Forte gets some of the most obvious dialogue in the entire feature, like his gratingly meta observation "It's like a talking dog movie in here!" upon being confronted by a group of canines. Forte's track record of scoring big laughs elsewhere wasn't enough to make him impervious to criticism in the negative reviews of "Strays," and it makes you wonder if they made the right choice in casting him for Doug.

Chances are, you've never heard of "She Came to Me." Dumped into theaters at the end of September 2023, this film features a series of divergent plotlines involving creatively stuck composer Steven Lauddem (Peter Dinklage) and lovestruck teenager Teresa Szyskowski (Harlow Jane), who end up converging thanks to a technically illegal relationship between Steven's teenage son and Teresa. Much of the conflict emerges from court stenographer Trey Ruffa (Brian d'Arcy James), Teresa's extremely law-abiding father.

There are a lot of baffling choices in "She Came to Me," but the performance of Brian d'Arcy James is an especially miscalculated detail. The actor plays this man with all the ferocity of a Marvel movie supervillain, while Rebecca Miller's writing keeps emphasizing the character's eccentric quirks (like an obsession with Civil War reenactments) as though he's a character from a 2006 indie movie. This results in a disjointed performance that always feels like it wandered in from another movie — especially in the awkward moments between Trey and his wife Magdalena (Joanna Kulig) — while the one-note execution of Trey betrays the aims of "She Came to Me" to be a nuanced character study of ordinary flawed souls. Few have seen or really talked about "She Came to Me," but those who've witnessed the film have loudly proclaimed that the lackluster work Brian d'Arcy James is emblematic of the entire movie's flaws.