Lights, Camera… Regret?
For some, acting is a passion and a true creative outlet that fills their soul and brings them joy. For others, it's a job—and one they don't really even enjoy. They’ve won Oscars, headlined blockbusters, and become household names—but deep down, some of Hollywood’s finest don’t even like the very thing that made them famous. For these actors, the craft is more a burden than a calling.
Robert De Niro
De Niro has always treated acting as work, not art. “The work is fine,” he told Esquire, “but I don’t love it.” He’s admitted that he rarely watches his own movies and sees acting as “a job you show up and do, like anything else.”
Gorup de Besanez, Wikimedia Commons
Marlon Brando
Brando famously called acting “an empty and meaningless profession.” Despite redefining film performance in The Godfather and On the Waterfront, he saw little value in pretending to be other people. “The only reason I’m in this business,” he once said, “is because I can make more money here than anywhere else.”
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
Charlize Theron
Theron once said she feels “indifferent” about acting. “It’s a job,” she told W Magazine. “Some days I love it, some days I hate it.” She’s also admitted that producing brings her more satisfaction—suggesting her creative drive lies elsewhere.
Gage Skidmore, Wikimedia Commons
Katharine Hepburn
Hepburn’s wit spared no one—including her own profession. “Acting is the perfect idiot’s profession,” she once said. She was fiercely dedicated but rarely sentimental, admitting that she loved performing only because it gave her something to do—not because she loved the act itself.
RKO Radio Pictures (work for hire), Wikimedia Commons
Sean Connery
Connery may have defined James Bond, but he openly hated the work. He called acting “utterly boring” and despised being typecast. In interviews, he admitted he did it mainly for the paycheck. After The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, he walked away and never looked back.
Rob Mieremet, Wikimedia Commons
Gene Hackman
Hackman retired in 2004 and never looked back. “I don’t miss acting at all,” he told Reuters. The two-time Oscar winner admitted he never felt sentimental about it, saying, “I felt I’d done enough.” For someone so commanding on screen, he’s refreshingly indifferent to the art itself.
Robert Pattinson
Pattinson once admitted he “didn’t really like acting” and got into it only because he “wasn’t good at anything else.” Though he’s grown more experimental in films like The Lighthouse, his discomfort with the process—and his own performances—has never really gone away.
Elena Ternovaja, Wikimedia Commons
Adam Driver
Driver has called acting “agonizing” and says he “hates watching” himself. “You’re just constantly failing,” he told The New Yorker. Though critics hail him as one of the best of his generation, he describes acting as “a weird, humiliating thing” rather than a joy.
Christian Bale
Bale’s reputation for intensity masks his disdain for the work itself. He’s called acting “a strange way to make a living” and admitted he finds it “embarrassing.” “I don’t actually enjoy the process,” he told GQ. “I just like disappearing into someone else so I don’t have to be me.”
John Bauld from Toronto, Canada, Wikimedia Commons
Joaquin Phoenix
Phoenix often seems pained by the very idea of acting. “I never really liked being watched,” he told The Telegraph. Though he throws himself into roles like Joker, he’s said he finds acting “uncomfortable” and fame “a side effect I wish didn’t exist.”
Harald Krichel, Wikimedia Commons
Bruce Willis
Before his retirement, Willis repeatedly called acting “boring.” He told GQ that after years of doing the same thing, “you just stop caring.” Despite headlining action classics like Die Hard, he made it clear that the job had long since lost its spark.
Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, Wikimedia Commons
Bill Pullman
Pullman has described acting as “a strange experiment” rather than a passion. He’s admitted he doesn’t get much joy from it, saying he often feels detached while filming. He prefers teaching and theater, calling screen acting “a puzzle I never cared to solve.”
Eye Steel Film from Canada, Wikimedia Commons
Colin Firth
Firth told The Guardian that acting can feel “humiliating” and “undignified,” especially during auditions and early takes. “You’re an adult playing dress-up,” he said. Though he’s found pride in some roles, he’s also admitted he sometimes “detests” the process itself.
Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, Wikimedia Commons
Daniel Day-Lewis
When he retired in 2017, Day-Lewis said acting “no longer felt vital.” He described the decision as “an impulse to stop.” The three-time Oscar winner confessed that performing had become painful—and that he couldn’t find joy in it anymore.
Jürgen Fauth (flickr user muckster), Wikimedia Commons
Shia LaBeouf
LaBeouf told Variety that acting “doesn’t feel creative” to him anymore, calling it “a form of servitude.” He’s said he only finds value when he’s in control of the project. For someone who started as a child star, his exhaustion with the craft feels earned.
Kristen Stewart
Stewart told Elle that acting can feel “empty” and “weirdly performative.” After Twilight, she said she “stopped liking it for a while.” Though she’s returned to smaller, more personal films, she admits the joy comes only in flashes, not as a constant passion.
Georges Biard, Wikimedia Commons
Laurence Olivier
Even Olivier, one of the most acclaimed actors of all time, once confessed he didn’t truly enjoy it. “I’m not happy unless I’m acting—but I don’t enjoy acting,” he said. For him, performance was compulsion, not pleasure—a contradiction that defined his genius.
Allan warren, Wikimedia Commons
Montgomery Clift
Clift, known for From Here to Eternity and A Place in the Sun, grew to resent acting deeply. He once called it “a kind of sickness.” Friends said he viewed it as punishment, not pleasure, and would often describe film sets as “hell.”
Studio Publicity, Wikimedia Commons
Shelley Duvall
After The Shining, Duvall told People that acting had left her “shattered.” She said she “didn’t enjoy” performing under constant pressure and walked away from Hollywood soon after. Her later interviews make clear—she loved storytelling, but hated acting itself.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
Peter Sellers
Sellers, the comic genius behind Dr. Strangelove, loathed acting despite excelling at it. “There is no me,” he said. “I am only the characters I play.” He reportedly found the process joyless and exhausting—another performer driven by compulsion, not love.
Allan Warren, Wikimedia Commons
Gene Wilder
Though beloved for Willy Wonka and Young Frankenstein, Wilder called acting “too stressful.” He told NPR he quit because he “didn’t like it anymore.” After retiring, he said he was happier painting and writing—proof that joy sometimes begins when performance ends.
John Cusack
Cusack has admitted to The Guardian that acting “can be soul-crushing” and that he often finds it “a grind.” He’s said the industry’s nature “kills creativity,” and though he still works occasionally, his tone makes it clear: he doesn’t love the craft itself.
Mika Stetsovski, Wikimedia Commons
Daniel Craig
Craig admitted to Time Out London that the demands of Bond had left him drained. “It’s just work,” he said. “You get paid, you do your job.” For all the tuxedos and Aston Martins, it’s clear the thrill was long gone—although he did come back for No Time to Die.
Zach Catanzareti Photo, Wikimedia Commons
Alec Guinness
To fans, he’s Obi-Wan Kenobi. To himself, Star Wars was agony. In letters, Guinness said he “shrivelled inside” every time he had to say “May the Force be with you.” He loathed acting in science fiction and once said he found the entire profession “silly” and “embarrassing.”
Allan warren, Wikimedia Commons
Gene Hackman (Again)
Hackman’s retirement quote sums up this entire list: “I don’t miss it one bit.” These are the actors who mastered pretending—yet would gladly stop pretending forever. For them, the camera may have loved them, but the feeling was rarely mutual.
Bruce H. Cox, Los Angeles Times, Wikimedia Commons
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