Actors Who Knew Their Movies Were Flops While Filming Them

Have you ever watched a film that was so disappointing it left you wondering if even the cast and crew were underwhelmed by the final product? Sure, sometimes a narrative that sounds good on paper just doesn't translate well to the screen. Plenty of actors have probably signed on to projects that seemed promising, only to be surprised by the eventual negative reception. But every once in a while, a film comes along in which the general storyline and dialogue are so laughably bad that it's hard to imagine anyone on set was taking it seriously.

Some actors will confess that they realized their films were going to get panned by critics well before they hit theaters. Knowing that you're about to be treated to a barrage of negative reviews isn't exactly a great feeling, but some films are just destined to be box office bombs, even with star-studded casts. These actors have admitted that they knew their films were flops before they made it to the big screen.

Whether he's making us swoon in movies like Magic Mike or making us laugh in the Jump Street films, Channing Tatum has come a long way since his career beginnings as a model and backup dancer. Of course, that doesn't mean he hasn't stumbled a few times on the path to success.

In 2009, Tatum starred as Duke in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Unfortunately, the film based on the popular action figure line proved to be a miss rather than a hit, and Tatum himself wasn't too happy with it from the get-go. In fact, he didn't even want to take on the role in the first place. "I was pushed into doing that movie," Tatum revealed on an episode of The Howard Stern Show. "The script wasn't any good... I just didn't know if I wanted to be G.I. Joe." Tatum did appear in the 2013 sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation, but he reportedly won't be a part of the franchise's third installment, G.I. Joe: Ever Vigilant.

Charlize Theron didn't agree to appear in the film Reindeer Games because she was genuinely excited about the script. In fact, she only signed on because she was a huge fan of director John Frankenheimer. Unfortunately, Reindeer Games is typically regarded as one of his worst films, but Theron has no regrets about taking on the role. She didn't want to miss out on the opportunity, even if the film itself wasn't one of his best.

"I got to work with John Frankenheimer," she told Esquire. "I wasn't lying to myself — that's why I did it." She called the 2000 crime thriller a "bad, bad, bad movie." Although the experience wasn't as creatively fulfilling as it could have been, Theron knew exactly what she was getting herself into when she read the script. And the gamble paid off: she got to work with the director she admired, and it's not like the film's chilly reception held back her career.

If you ask fans of the popular animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender about the live-action film adaptation, they will probably deny its existence. The Last Airbender is one of those films that was so universally disliked that audiences who were initially excited about the idea now would prefer to pretend it just never happened.

Dav Patel, who appeared in the film as the fire-bending villain Prince Zuko, had a bad feeling about the movie during production. He suspected that people wouldn't be happy with the final result. "It's hard promoting a film you didn't enjoy and don't fully believe in, and I felt bad," Patel told The Guardian. "I felt sorry that I'd let these fans down, because I was a big fan of the cartoons growing up." Thankfully for Patel, critics already respected his talent because of his performance in Slumdog Millionaire, with one reviewer nothing that the "bright young player... deserves better than this."

Emilia Clarke is riding a career high right now. Although the Game of Thrones series finale has proven to be divisive among passionate fans, there was no doubt that Clarke's portrayal of Daenerys Targaryen's descent into madness was masterful. Clarke can convey a whole range of emotions with a slight shift in her facial expression, and there's no question that she'll have plenty of roles to choose from now that Game of Thrones is over.

Unfortunately, Clarke didn't have such a positive experience when she played Sarah Connor in the film Terminator Genisys, where she worked with regular Thrones director Alan Taylor. "He was not the director I remembered," Clarke told Vanity Fair. "He didn't have a good time. No one had a good time." Some actors would be disappointed if a film they expected to get a sequel didn't earn it, but Clarke said she was relieved that she wouldn't have to reprise her role.

Movies based on video games rarely debut to glowing reviews, and the 2016 film Assassin's Creed was no exception to this rule. It wasn't popular among audiences or critics, and it performed poorly at the box office.

There's no doubt that Michael Fassbender, who produced and starred in the film, initially had higher expectations, but he's confessed that he views the movie as "a missed opportunity," and he knew there was plenty of room for improvement. "I would make it more interesting, that's really the main note," Fassbender has said. "The feeling of the film, I think it took itself too seriously, and I would get to the action a lot quicker."

There was one bright spot in the midst of all the negativity surrounding Assassin's Creed: it was regarded as one of the better video game movies ever made. Sure, it's not the highest form of praise, but it's better than being written off completely.

Garfield: The Movie had few redeeming qualities, and why an actor as talented and funny as Bill Murray had agreed to work on it was a mystery. As it turns out, Murray claims whole thing was a mistake on his part, explaining that didn't realize where he had gone wrong until it was time for him to record his lines. The Garfield script was written by Joel Cohen, but Murray thought it was by Joel Coen, one-half of the renowned auteur duo the Coen brothers.

When Murray began reading his lines, he got confused, wondering why the script was so shoddy. He didn't realize it wasn't actually a Coen brothers project until someone explained it to him while he was watching the final cut. "I worked all day and kept going, 'That's the line? Well, I can't say that,'" Murray told GQ. "And then they explained it to me: it wasn't written by that Joel Coen."