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Do actors/actresses like to watch their movies?

post #1 of 26
5/20/05 at 9:47am
Thread Starter 
I found it interesting that some actors/actresses don't even watch the finished product. I recall one actress (can't remember who) that was interviewed for her role in a movie and said that she hadn't watched it - this was after the movie was already in theaters.

So, do you think that actors/actresses enjoy watching the movies that they star in - or is it not as enjoyable to them since they were "behind-the-scenes"?

- Colton
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post #2 of 26
5/20/05 at 10:01am
I would think it depends on how proud they are of their performance. Sometimes actors/actresses take a part just to get paid and it is probably uncomfortable to watch something that you don't really respect. But if it is something that you feel like you did well at, I would think you'd want to see it. The other factor is probably how the experience of filming the movie was...if you had an affair with the lead actor that ended badly, you may have seen enough of him and want to avoid watching him on film...
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post #3 of 26
5/20/05 at 10:12am
This is from an interview with Samuel L. Jackson in the March 2005 issue of Premiere magazine:

Quote:
Is it true that you'll only do movies you'd pay to see?

Definitely. And I always do--I love me onscreen!

Funny, most actors say they hate themselves onscreen.

They lie.

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post #4 of 26
5/20/05 at 10:17am
Depends on the person I guess. Ive read interviews with some who've said they havent seen such and such a movie since it was made.

Prob,to some its just a job.

Anna Paquin doesnt even know where her Oscar is.
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post #5 of 26
5/20/05 at 10:47am
Pretty sure i read an interview in EW where johnny depp said he didn't watch many of his movies either.
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post #6 of 26
5/20/05 at 11:21am
Lots of DVD commentaries feature actors and directors saying something like "Oh wow, I haven't seen this since we finished shooting. This is cool."

Very weird.
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post #7 of 26
5/20/05 at 12:08pm
Many actors seem to hate watching themselves in films. I like to think it has something to do with not revisiting it either out of embarassment or because you know you could have done it better.
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post #8 of 26
5/20/05 at 1:33pm
I think a lot of times it's simply uncomfortable to see yourself that big and close-up.
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post #9 of 26
5/20/05 at 3:04pm
Also a lot of actors aren't really movie buffs. Some pursue the career because of the glamorous behind the scenes lifestyle that usually only major celebrities end up with. A lot of the time they have a passion for the acting, but not so much for the films themselves. For many actors I'm sure they don't watch their own movies very often, or spend their time seeing as much movies as film buffs do.
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post #10 of 26
5/20/05 at 6:42pm
John malkovich said he never watched the compltetd products. he said he got really sick of it after doing the same parts umpteen times a day and watching hundreds of screen playbacks.
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post #11 of 26
5/21/05 at 8:20am
Maybe they can't get over the thought "Do I really sound like that!?"

I heard an interview with Tom Cruise at a career retrospective where he mentioned that he has prints of all his films, but he never watches them.

I had a friend who worked at the Universal City theaters, and he mentioned a few times having actors or directors show up on opening night to sneak in the back and gauge the reaction of the crowd. They didn't pay to get in though, and they usually left before the end.

Also, Harrison Ford once talked about how he hadn't seen the Star Wars films until his kids were old enough to put them on (without his expecting it), and he sat down to watch them.

And there was an interview with Sean Connery in the defunct "Video Review" magazine where he mentioned he hadn't seen one of his James Bond films until a nephew was watching them on video.
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post #12 of 26
5/21/05 at 8:36am
Perhaps it's almost impossible to see it as a movie when you were on the set and took part in all those tiny pieces of takes. Let alone: enjoy it.


Cees
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post #13 of 26
5/21/05 at 12:45pm
Quote:
Definitely. And I always do--I love me onscreen!


Well, I'm glad someone enjoys XXX: State of the Union, Coach Carter, Twisted, S.W.A.T., Basic, The Caveman's Valentine, Rules of Engagement & Sphere.
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post #14 of 26
5/21/05 at 3:49pm
Perhaps it's almost impossible to see it as a movie when you were on the set and took part in all those tiny pieces of takes. Let alone: enjoy it.


Yeah, I imagine its hard for them not to see the sets and the props, all the behind the scenes politics, etc.
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post #15 of 26
5/21/05 at 7:45pm
I really wonder what it would be like during nude scenes. I mean, I'd feel strange if I were a female movie star and was sitting in a theater seeing this huge crowd stare at my breasts. Doubly so if they turned to look at me at that point. Kinda awkward. I also wonder how strange it would be to watch your own nude scenes.
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post #16 of 26
5/21/05 at 7:57pm
I liked Caveman's Valentine. Even if there were no chocolates in the movie.

"Get away from her squash-face!" A classic
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post #17 of 26
5/21/05 at 10:29pm
I think Samuel Jackson was being honest. I believe actors' egos would require that they watch their own performances...over and over again. I have never believed actors when they insist in interviews that they don't watch their own films. I say it's all false modesty. And why shouldn't they watch them? I would watch my performances over and over if I were in movies, to get a sense of whether I had done what I'd hoped to do, and simply to absorb the strokes my ego would demand, knowing millions of people were going to see me on a screen somewhere.
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post #18 of 26
5/21/05 at 11:17pm
Quote:
Maybe they can't get over the thought "Do I really sound like that!?"


I could believe that one. I hate hearing myself on home videos or message recordings.
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post #19 of 26
5/22/05 at 2:53am
I'de expect that all actor's have some curiosity for how some little project that they dedicated a portion of their life to turned out. Except for some character/overacters *cough* Pacino *cough*, who might forget that they were ever in a different film from others ("was I angry? did I have gun? that narrows it down a WHOLE bunch!").
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post #20 of 26
5/22/05 at 9:49pm
It's probably like voices.

Anyone else shiver when they hear their voice on an answering machine, etc.?
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post #21 of 26
5/23/05 at 4:43am
IMO, this is somewhat analog to: Do musicians listen to their own music? I'm a musician, and I must agree with Sam L. Jackson - I make music I would like to hear myself, and thus I listen to it once in a while. Of course not all the time, and in periods even rarely. But if I wasn't proud of what I made, then I wouldn't make it.
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post #22 of 26
5/24/05 at 9:12am
A friend of mine worked on a flim with Richard Roundtree and told him that he loved him in Maniac Cop....Roundtree said he never saw the finished product, and used the word "product". To him it was just a job.


--Ian
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post #23 of 26
5/24/05 at 11:47am
I remember Princess Grace saying she was ashamed of her performance in High Noon. She said something like, "Look at Katy Jurado. You can just look at her face and see what she's thinking. My face is just a blank."

Just two years later, she picked up an Oscar.
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post #24 of 26
5/26/05 at 10:16am
I am in the midst of reading a James Cagney biography (fascinating individual) and it was made pretty clear by the author in conversation with Cagney before he died that Cagney rarely saw the finished product. When he did see them which was rare he seemed to be quite critical of himself.

Apparently he was sick and tired of seeing himself as the eternal gangster though he realized this is what the public wanted.

John
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post #25 of 26
5/26/05 at 10:50am
It could be a case of dealing with ego. Some actors or actresses did a good job with a particular film and could look at it years later and think, "Yeah, look how good I was in this film," and live off it. If they did that, then they couldn't do better work beyond it.

Some actors may not want to look at a particular film they did because it may bring back bad memories of what they were going through at the time. I talked with a buddy of mine who was a good friend of the late Christopher Reeve, and he said that Chris wanted nothing to do with revisiting "Superman IV", not even in viewing the 93-minute extended version. Once you read Chris' autobiography "Still Me", you'll see why he felt that way years after.

I guess it's all a matter of choice.
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post #26 of 26
5/26/05 at 11:08am
You know most of them just lie about it. Think about it, it makes no sense.

I say maybe a very very small numbers are sincere when they say that.
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