Scenes From The Past Decade That Were Acted So Badly We Can't Forget Them

The past decade was chock full of amazing movies and the stellar performances that made them particularly memorable, like Brie Larson in Room, Lupita N'yongo's powerhouse dual role of Red/Adelaide in Us, Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant, and so many more. But with the great acting of the past decade also comes a handful of scenes that we can't forget specifically because of how badly they were performed. Sadly, some of these worst offenders are incredibly talented performers, many of whom have a laundry list of accolades for their immense talents. 

But everyone has bad days at work, and unfortunately for this crew, their bad days have been immortalized on film for the entire world to see and relive whenever they want to. From hokey death scenes to badly written monologues, and characters appearing that make no sense in the context of the movie, the 2010s had many cringeworthy acting moments that will go down in cinema infamy. So what were the worst acted scenes of the past decade? Let's see. 

We don't see a lot of Shakespearean villain-style monologues these days, and it's for good reason. They don't tend to sound authentic outside Shakespeare's context, even for a megalomaniacal character, and instead come across as painful exposition that ends up being funny rather than menacing. For example, look at Eddie Redmayne's portrayal of Balem Abrasax in the Wachowskis' space opera Jupiter Ascending, which follows a young Earth woman named Jupiter (Mila Kunis) who learns that she's actually interstellar royalty — a revelation that puts Balem's control of the universe in jeopardy. 

Jupiter Ascending is filled with cringeworthy moments, from Channing Tatum's eyeliner to Kunis' overly earnest performance, but Redmayne wins for one of the worst acted scenes of the past decade. "I CREATE LIFE," he screams before whispering, "and I destroy it." In the years since, Redmayne himself has admitted his work in Jupiter Ascending left a lot to be desired. In an interview with GQ (via CinemaBlend), he said, "I won a prize for it for the worst performance of the year. So, yeah, it was a pretty bad performance by all accounts."

Hailed as one of 2013's most powerful films with a sizable collection of awards to go along with it, 12 Years a Slave recounts the real-life story of free man Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who gets kidnapped and enslaved again until he finally manages to escape, reuniting with his family. The film portrays the brutality of slavery with an unflinching gaze from director Steve McQueen, as well as the added injustice that Northup begins the story as a man who already "earned" his freedom. Needless to say, the white folks in this movie are varying degrees of evil as they rape, torture, and exploit their slaves — except for Brad Pitt's character Samuel Bass, basically the one benevolent white person in the film. It's with Bass' help that Northup is finally reunited with his wife and children. 

Unfortunately, Pitt's performance leaves a lot to be desired. His accent is as stilted as his line delivery, reminding viewers of his role in Interview with the Vampire — and not in a good way. It makes one wonder why he's in this movie at all. As it turns out, Pitt was one of 12 Years a Slave's producers, which is probably what we have to thank for this out-of-place acting in an otherwise powerful movie.

Sometimes there's just nothing even the best actors can do when the script veers into overwrought territory, which is unfortunately the case with Interstellar, Christopher Nolan's story about the intersection of science, technology, and family — as well as wormholes and event horizons, since Nolan can't make a movie without a mind-bending twist or two. 

Sadly, the audience is well yanked out of the complicated but well-crafted story when Anne Hathaway's character Amelia Brand prattles off a Hallmark greeting card of a monologue that even includes the phrase "love transcends dimensions of time and space" as she makes her case that love is a quantifiable force in the universe that can actually be used as a tool of measurement. Even Hathaway's extreme talent can't make the monologue sound anything but forced. Thankfully the scene is only two minutes of pure cheddar in an otherwise compelling sci-fi drama, but it's also enough to stick out as one of the worst acted scenes of the past decade.

With accomplished performances like a drug-addicted teacher in Half Nelson, a husband who has given up on himself in Blue Valentine, and the wealthy businessman who murdered his girlfriend in All Good Things — among so many other meaningful performances — it may seem strange that Ryan Gosling would ever end up on any worst-of list for bad acting. However, his strange creative choices in Gangster Squad, coupled with a number of other issues with that film's production, make Gosling's performance in the movie particularly glaring. 

But the worst part might be the squeaky wannabe 1940s gumshoe accent that sounds like Gosling has been micro-dosing helium. This is particularly off-putting when he tries to be sexy, culminating in this super awkward moment with co-star Emma Stone. Spoiler alert: the scene is such a dud it might affect how you see Gosling in any subsequent roles, too.

It was a real-life event that made news around the globe: Three American men traveling from Amsterdam to Paris thwarted a would-be terrorist mass shooter through their own quick thinking and selfless bravery. Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler, and Alek Skarlatos wrestled the weapon from the gunman and saved the life of one of his victims, American Mark Moogalian, who was the first to identify the terrorist. Later, French authorities found the shooter had been armed with 300 rounds of bullets, more than enough to have killed most of the people on the train had he not been stopped. 

Clint Eastwood directed The 5:17 to Paris and, in a surprising move, decided to cast the four American survivors, including the gunshot victim Moogalian, as themselves. Unfortunately, the experiment didn't exactly pay off in this big-budget Hollywood recreation of real events. These men are heroes, and did an incredible service for their fellow passengers, but they're not professional actors, and it's very clear to audiences.