12 Great Actors Who Seem Like They Might Be Terrible People

March 1, 2013 Darren Ruecker 82 Comments

Tom Cruise1 12 Great Actors Who Seem Like They Might Be Terrible People

So I have this theory. One way to be a great actor, even a brilliant one, is to be so insane and deluded that you actually believe yourself as a completely different person. When you believe yourself to be something, that’s how you present yourself to other people. And when actors believe themselves, that’s when they can make the part they’re playing truly real. Naturally, this is hugely advantageous for people who are actually crazy.

It’s not unusual to hear a story about some celebrity who is rude to their fans, or to their crew or director. A star with an ego is like foul-smelling gym clothes: it comes with the territory. And there’s something about pretending to be another person or many other people over the course of many years that has to have an effect on people. I can’t imagine anyone being perfectly adjusted as themselves very easily when they’ve lived that sort of life.

There are plenty of cases of great actors being difficult to work with, or just being insufferable in general. There are plenty that seem awful to me, and it’s usually perfectly ok because I don’t care for their work or find them particularly talented. I can ignore them in place of hating them. But what happens when you respect the hell out of someone’s work but still find them awful? It’s a conundrum. All we can do is shake our heads and try to forget who they are and what they’re like in real life as we consume their work like the selfish hypocrites we all are.

Here are 12 individuals who fit this mold: they are either nuts, insufferable, repugnant, or some glorious mix of many kinds of dreadful qualities—at least as far as one is able to know about public figures. The thing is, they’re also great actors, almost uniformly fabulous in virtually every film they make. Damn them all.

Continue reading on the next page…

Alex Lowe

I’ve actually heard Crowe isn’t all that bad of a guy. Man of Steel was partially filmed about 20 miles from the town I grew up in, and on a day off Crowe biked into town and sat down outside the public library with a book. From what I’ve heard he was very willing to speak to fans who recognized him and was a nice guy.

Of course that’s just one example to contrast the ones you’ve listed. Maybe he was just in a great mood that day.
- Lev186211
  
  My aunty told me about my married-in uncle’s actor brother (not a star) who met Russell Crowe at a party after an awards night and wouldn’t even shake his hand after being told how much he admired Russell, saying “who the f*ck are you?”
  
  Yeah, the man has real class. What a dog. We gave him back to NZ anyway, they can keep him.
Michael Xavier

No way Eastwood was being a jerk over the Spike Lee issue. Lee attacked Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima because he said there were no African American soldiers in the films. Eastwood responded appropriately: Lee needs to shut his mouth, watch the films (which do have African American soldiers in them), and learn his history — because the military was segregated, no black soldiers fought as front-line soldiers in the major Iwo Jima battles, hence why they aren’t prominent in the movies. Eastwood just happened to punctuate it with a solid “Spike Lee should shut his face” for good measure.

In the end, it just seemed like Lee was trying to get a controversy to promote his own World War II film, Miracle at St. Anna (which was nowhere as good as either of Eastwood’s movies). I don’t blame Eastwood for responding to Lee, and if anyone Lee was being the “Terrible Person” in the situation.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Harding/100000145858394 Mark Harding
  
  Amen to that, obviously the author here is a whining programmed Obozo following libtard.
  - Eustace Cromartie
    
    Obviously you know nothing about Clint Eastwood’s politics. He supports almost everything Obama and the Democrats stand for but he still somehow claims to be a republican and supports their candidates. That is why he is a laughing stock when it comes to politics. He backed Obama on gay marriage just yesterday. http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/clint-eastwood-backs-president-obama-gay-marriage-18623667
    - glen
      
      He is a libertarian leaning republican. Kind of in the same zone as Ron Paul — he criticized Nixon, vietnam, the USA being global policeman, etc. You don’t HAVE to be either super right wing republican or super left wing democrat.
      - Eustace Cromartie
        
        He agrees with the liberal Democrats on 100% of the major issues! He is only a republican/libertarian in name. He is far left and has been since the 70′s. No he is nothing like that idiot Ron Paul. Eastwood is not for repealing the civil rights act like Paul and Eastwood is clearly not a ignorant racist like Paul. And don’t give me the Paul is not racist BS he made over $1,000,000 dollars over a 20 year period with his racist newsletter and claims to have no knowledge of the racism. Either he is a moron or a racist but I am sure he is both. He say he thinks it should be illegal to discriminate on minorities but “No one would do it in this day it age.” But yet he wants to make it legal to have that option. As I said before Eastwood is a hard left democrat in heart but call himself a republican because old habits die hard!
    - http://www.facebook.com/ken.luke.90 Ken Luke
      
      yeah a laughingstock just because he is an independent thinker who doesn’t believe he has to toe the party line on every issue. How are we ever going to get anywhere with people like that?
      - Eustace Cromartie
        
        No he is a laughing stock because he agrees with the liberal Democrats on 100% of the major issues! He is only a republican/libertarian in name. He is far left and has been since the 70′s.
      - Guest
        
        He said hes conservative on fiscal issues (that means money, liberals), and liberal on social issues. Yes, a guy who agrees with democrats 100% of the time would give a huge speech at the REPUBLICAN national convention. Get over yourselves and learn the facts. And stop screaming racism everytime you dont agree with someone. I can’t stand Joe Biden, Nanvy Pelosi, or Harry Reid either, which race are they again?
      - Eustace Cromartie
        
        Maybe you should improve your reading skills and critical thinking skills. Are you slow? I will repeat it for you. Despite what Clint says he has always agreed with the democratic platform. Why did he speak (embarrass himself ) at the Republican national convention? Because he has called himself a republican for his whole life even the last 30 year when he views became the opposite of his so called party. These my friend are the facts. Why did you bring up race, because I mention Paul? What did me mentioning Paul have to do with the rest of the discussion? I repeat are you slow? At no point did I imply anyone was racist but Ron Paul and there is plenty of proof of that. So your “Get over yourselves and learn the facts. And stop screaming racism everytime you dont agree with someone.” comments shows you can not follow a simple conversion. Maybe that is why you don’t understand.
      - alen colmes
        
        He said hes conservative on fiscal issues (that means money, liberals),
        and liberal on social issues. Yes, a guy who agrees with democrats 100%
        of the time would give a huge speech at the REPUBLICAN national
        convention. Get over yourselves and learn the facts. And stop screaming
        racism everytime you dont agree with someone. I can’t stand Joe Biden,
        Nancy Pelosi, or Harry Reid either, which race are they again? I can’t stand their policies, I could give a crap what color they are.
- Eustace Cromartie
  
  That is funny because Lee had not even made Miracle at St. Anna when he made those comments. He made that movie in response to Eastwood’s films. Lee shared his opinion the same thing Eastwood does all the time the only reason people got made is because it was about race.
  - Michael Xavier
    
    That’s incorrect — Miracle at St. Anna was definitely in production. He made those comments at Cannes 2008 (May) and Miracle at St. Anna came out in September 2008, so he was obviously well into making the film and probably figured a manufactured controversy would help promote his bad movie. Eastwood’s movie was already two years old, so why else would Lee talk about it except to get his name in the news?
    
    Lee was sharing his opinion, but he had no factual basis for the opinion, race-related or not. He’s free to criticize Eastwood (as you are), but that shouldn’t make Eastwood a “terrible” person for defending his work with facts when Spike Lee’s criticism is completely factually incorrect. It’s especially insulting when he’s essentially calling Clint Eastwood racist, something no sane person would do considering all of the great roles for African Americans Eastwood has directed in his career.
    - Eustace Cromartie
      
      Well you know what that does not change the fact that Lee’s movie (which was not terrible) was made in response to Eastwood’s film. Thanks for pointing out that it was 2 years before because that supports my point. I didn’t write the article and I never said Lee was correct or Eastwood was wrong. I think most of the list is stupid and incorrect. Lee complains about everyone movies and he does not do it to be controversial, he does it because he thinks he is right. Most people pinions have nothing to do with facts and his comments did not imply that Eastwood was racist at all! Just like a said people make a big deal because it was about race. He said Eastwood should have had blacks in the film. Yes the Army was segregated but black soldiers played a supporting role that was not shown and did not need to be shown but Lee complains about everyone’s work not matter if they are black or white. Lee complains about black filmmakers and actors daily but no one seems to care at all.
  - Tanis11
    
    You are exactly right…it had nothing to do with race….but Lee ALWAYS makes it about race. I respect the work both parties have done in the past but Lee is not a forward thinking individual in this matter and trying to make something out of nothing is where he gets annoying.
- Runn
  
  I agree. People need to get over this race issue, especially Spike Lee! This is coming from a black man that is tired of the racism, stereo types etc..
Eustace Cromartie

I see you did not read Freeman’s full quote on race. He never said talking about race perpetuates racism. Find the full quote and find some truth. Make sure you have the actual facts next time. The fact that you even mentioned the ugly rumors made me stop reading and move on.
Tykittaa

The general idea of this article seems to be that eccentric = terrible, and I can’t get behind that. I know they aren’t actors, but when you say “terrible person,” I think of Roman Polanski and Victor Salva. Rapists are terrible people. People like Cage and Cruise are kind of nutty, but they’re hardly bad people.
Ken

I don’t know, I’ve wanted to hit Madonna in the head with a baseball bat for years now, and I’ve never even been in the same room with her, so I don’t know if I can fault a man for that…
skunkybeaumont

Until today I thought I was the only one who remembered the Jolie-Thorton fiasco.
Jack

There are so many things wrong with the Angelina Jolie page. How exactly do you complain about not being able to come up with more women for the list? Is it a bad thing that you can’t think of as many terrible women? And how exactly do you turn that(without any evidence whatsoever)into somehow being a man’s fault? For someone who is “trying really hard to not be sexist”, you’re not very good at it.
Jack

Oh yeah, and YOU are the one who made this list so the fact that there are less women is COMPLETELY YOUR FAULT. Idiot….
http://www.facebook.com/constance.brat Constance T. Brat

I have read all of the posts on the 12 Actors who seem like they are terrible people. I can assure you Robert Downey, Jr. is not. My late cousin was a character actor who met Mr. Downey in person. My cousin, who could “see through” all the Hollywood bullshit, assured me that Downey was the real thing and a very good person.
- Tykittaa
  
  Exactly. While I have not met him, the fact that Downey Jr. has been able to come out of such a sordid past and not only be even more successful than he was before, but look back at it with such grace and humor, makes him a wonderful human being in my book.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Marco-Chaudry/100000989478599 Marco Chaudry
    
    Aye, it’s called “Redemption” XD
Jeff

I agree with the list especially Russell Crowe and Alec Baldwin their like pigs among men but Mel Gibson and Nicholas Cage aren’t bad people they just get portrayed bad by media
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Marco-Chaudry/100000989478599 Marco Chaudry
  
  Nah, Russell Crowe doesn’t seem like a bad guy either, I’ve seen his interviews and he speaks like you’re average down to earth human being. Alec Baldwin though I think counts, that guy tries too hard, prompting something going on in his life. Then again, just bullshit speculation XD
Michael Connolly

These are a few thoughts of the author:

-”yea Clint Eastwood is a terrible person cuz he has different political views than me!”

-”shit I only have one woman, need to add Angelina Jolie, because she was married to BBT!”

-”wow I have no black guys, and i heard Morgan Freeman f**ed his step-granddaughter or sum sh* so he is terrible to!

-”Nicholas Cage has been a terrible actor for like 3 years now so that translates to terrible person!”
Lev186211

I mightn’t necessarily agree with the article in its entirety but I have to admit it is beautifully written. Well done.
Adam Daniel

Actually, I’ve met Morgan Freeman a few times in his hometown at his juke joint. I have gotten a chance to talk to him for a while and do a couple interviews with him. He’s a terribly nice guy and pretty down-to-earth.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Marco-Chaudry/100000989478599 Marco Chaudry
  
  You don’t say…..
CageFree

Are you kidding me?! The Wicker Man with Cage was a shit movie! You’ve obviously never watched the original. The story line was gutted into a misogynist’s master piece. Oh yeah, amazing work. Barf. Cage couldn’t act himself out of a wet paper bag in the middle of monsoon season.
http://twitter.com/theresacomedy Theresa Rose

The Passion of the Christ is a snuff film starring the son of God. How anyone could describe that movie as “amazing” or “beautiful” is far beyond me.
Trey

This article is stupid. You put Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Downey Jr. on here? Fuck you.
http://www.schoolanduniversity.com/ SchoolandUniversity.com

I’m extremely pleased to uncover this site. I need to to thank you for ones time due to this wonderful read!!

thanks for post this !
mrearls7

After reading this whole article, the one person I came out of it liking the least was the writer himself. Judging people because of the humanitarian work they do? You are the douchebag, Mr. Ruecker… That is all…
One

This article reads like it was written by someone who has never once spent a single moment in the presence of any of the people depicted here. It also reads like it was written by someone who DESPERATELY wants to meet and know those people but is, however, socially inept, tragically lonely and is in dire need of friends. Just an observation.
- Jack
  
  Tom Cruise? Is that you writing this?
http://www.facebook.com/KrazyJoe Joe Fiore

Tom Cruise comes off as a nice guy. Not ‘terrible’ at all. If anything, he seems like a really GOOD person.

Weird religion, yes….
Terrible? NO.
- Al
  
  Mediocre actor.
http://www.facebook.com/KrazyJoe Joe Fiore

Clint Eastwood also doesn’t come off as ‘terrible’. He was wonderful at the RNC
modest taker

what, no Christian Bale?
Josh

this article is crap. You shun one actor because he’s too conservative and another for being too liberal? I hate to hear what you have to say about NON celebrities
- JoshIsAnIdiot
  
  The key is BALANCE, idiot.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000040867962 Jay Smith

I’m not sure if you (the author) are horribly bad at your job, or you just don’t know what constitutes a terrible person. A person who abuses their spouse is terrible. A person who makes movies you don’t think have artistic merit is not. A person who steals from an orphanage is terrible. A person who donates ‘too much’ to charity is not.

- Tom Cruise seems a bit odd, but coworkers love him, and he treats fans well. How does that equate with being terrible?

-Morgan Freeman is terrible because he thinks a world where we don’t even recognize racial differences would be better than the world we’re in now? Oh and some guy somewhere intimated he may have had a kind of creepy relationship. Yep, definitely a terrible person.

-Anne Hathaway is terrible because she annoys you. That logic appears to be sound. What are you, a high school student?

-Clint Eastwood is terrible because he’s a republican.

-Angelina Jolie is terrible because she likes helping people, and makes
you feel like you aren’t doing enough? I am actually not a fan of hers,
but your reasoning here is stupid. It’s like saying ‘I hate this lady
because she reminds me I never donate to charity’.

-Nic Cage is a terrible person because he lost most of his money in the real estate crash and now takes crappy films to pay the bills.

-Leonardo DiCaprio is terrible because he only takes leading rolls. Oh the horror.

I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt on Penn, Baldwin, Gibson, and Crowe, but even with them I think there are issues you don’t really address.
http://twitter.com/MacPluto12 Kyle McCarthy

dude RDJ was incredible in Tropic Thunder.
Kyle Pearson

Without a doubt, the most shallow, superficial, and stupid list one could have assembled on this subject.
http://twitter.com/Cinesnatch Cinesnatch

Wow. “Seems”? “Terrible”? Mel Gibson doesn’t “seem” “terrible,” HE IS TERRIBLE. (And incredibly tortured and troubled.) You have a lot of douches on the list. Hathaway is just annoying. I’m sure she’s a lovely person. The logic utilized to produce this article is beyond contradiction and suggests that writer was asked to create a piece based on the title used and this is what he came up with. Pretty transparent. But, I imagine that Darren has become numb to all of the negative comments by now.
Vincent

After reading this article one person seems to be terrible. And stupid: Darren Ruecker. How could anyone write so shitty stuffs and let people read it? It’s not interesting, it’s totally stupid, it’s not well written. Pure garbage.
Byron

The Author forgot George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Johna Hill, Johnny Depp, and Seth Rogan.
- kG
  
  And himself on the very top of the list!
kG

Why is Tom Cruise a bad person? Because of cooks beliefs ? Oh,I see I think the real reason is he spoofed the fat Hollywood producer who is clearly Jewish. Yes you can do anything remotely critical of Jews. Horrible, horrible ,don’t you know Jews are saints!
- Al
  
  Seems like a decent enough person. But still he doesn’t belong on a list of great actors by any stretch. He’s a star, not an actor.
  - kG
    
    I don’t think he is or any of them are. Not really but Cruise’s last three movies were solid. And that is why I like him. We are from the same generation and I really admire his physical fitness and determination. That is all I want from these actors anyway. If they make ” good” movies. By good I don’t mean Daniel Day Lewis good but what I like. I like Cage, no matter how bad the movie I enjoy him.
http://www.facebook.com/will.osman.3 Will Osman

You, author, are an idiot. Seriously, I mean, if RDJ, one of the most awesomest dudes around – is slated by you and apparently nobody else – for playing Tony Stark in several film, then why not just have a go at Daniel Radcliffe? He played Harry Potter in like 8 films, I mean, seriously BRANCH OUT (!) He plays Tony Stark because he basically is. Go look at his earlier rom-coms, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and even Sherlock 1 was an action mystery. Genre-wise he’s probably done all of them. Shut up, go do research.
Terence

I don’t get how you can say DiCaprio is a bad guy because he is used a lot to market movies, i’m pretty sure he doesn’t insist on it. If you’re going to take that route to diss a person then you should put Will Smith on this list, he never took the role of Django in Django Unchained because the character was not the obvious lead and **SPOLERS** he didn’t get to kill Calvin Candie.
Also, the charity work that he does is genuine, look at what the guy does (same for Sean Penn) before assuming he is making half assed efforts to appear kind for publicity.
The only person who I can assume is a terrible person after reading this article is the author – you go out of your way to write an article about people who you think might be terrible people.
- http://www.facebook.com/annig18 Anja Radie
  
  di caprio is by no means a bad person. no one can b a bad person who flys to a small town in germany a cpl a times a year to spend time with his nan who buys strangers an icecream when he mets them at the streetcafe and they recognise him. who asks the local media to keep stumm about his nans funeral out of respect but lets them write something once the funeral was over with. the town i speak off is recklinghausen and my mum lives there.
Al

One problem. Tom Cruise is by no means a great actor.
DUHHH

you forgot christian bale!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Googie-Bergdorff/1015822103 Googie Bergdorff

Good idea for a story, but it could have used a better and more insightful writer.
Beej

As an Australian I would like to happily remind people that Russell Crowe is actually a New Zealander
- http://www.facebook.com/lucinda.hammerman Miz Burger
  
  This response right here was the funniest…..Like hey just poping by to let you guys know this.. Cheers…
Tex

How can you make a list like this and not include Jamie Foxx!? To me, Foxx is the quintessential Hollywood douche.
BadCyborg

You left out a genuine a$$hole – Tommy Lee Jones. A good friend and former co-worker once noticed that Jones and some of his friends were sitting at a table my friend was also at. My friend – NOT a wealthy man by any means – who happened to be a fan of Jones’ work bought a pitcher of beer for the table as a gesture of respect and appreciation for Jones acting work. Jones took the pitcher over to where my friend was sitting (he asked the waiter who bought the beer) POURED IT OVER MY FRIEND’S HEAD and said something to the effect of “Do I look like somebody who needs the likes of YOU to buy him a beer?”.

Total a$$hole that one. Darned good actor but a complete and total a$$hole.
Q!

I agree, mostly, except for Robert Downey, Jr. Through all of his controversy in 90s and further, he seemed genuine and humbled by the experiences. I don’t think there is anything wrong with him taking roles that are similar, especially if they are working for him and keeping him out of trouble.
senor boogie woogie

Oh no, no, no, no, no did you just call Eastwood a douche. That’s just un-American and wrong on every level. The man is one of the greatest actors ever, up there with Charlton Heston, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and better than 90% of Hollywood today. Eastwood starred and/or directed in countless films over the decades which has done nothing but have provided great entertainment.

The only thing I have against this great man was breaking up with Sondra Locke.
senor boogie woogie

Alec Baldwin is basically why I avoided “30 Rock”. I did see one episode and just did not care for it. Tina Fey looks good, but the show was bad. I liked Alec less when that recording leaked of him berating his kid several years ago.

Plus, I can’t stand people with goofy names and “Alec” qualifies. Makes me wonder how many times this douche corrected people rudely for calling him “Alex”.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001866025451 Mike Hawk

Mystic River? Meh. LOOK I AM BROODING AND STUFF. Robbins performance, however.
bud

weak article
James A Dempsey

Author is a douche. Period.
X

RDJ has actually done a lot of work before the Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes productions, you know.
marine43 .

Well i guess since your a liberal…. You wouldn’t get Eastwood .Obama had a chance to actually help race relations in this country. But he has driven us way further apart. And a man who actually could DO ,what Obama claimed(Dr Ben Carson) the liberals “uncle tommed” . Morgan Freeman, who i love is way more racist than anyone i can think of. Maybe you just need to be honest about how racist the left actually is?
marine43 .

Typical liberal. Maybe when you grow up, your views may also?
marine43 .

I saw a study a couple weeks ago, that said women who take birth control, prefer men with more “feminine” characteristics. That would explain alot about liberals v.s. traditional Catholics and other Christians. wHAT? Just sayin… hahaha
crittab

Some of these make sense, and some are just bizarre. Leonardo Dicaprio and Angelina Jolie seem to be on the list solely because of their charity work. Anne Hathaway because she’s… what? Cheerful? Come on now.
GS

You call Mel Gibson racist but leave off Jamie Foxx and Samuel Jackson? Have you heard what Foxx has said just this year alone? He is the most racist man in Hollywood hands down. It seems you made this list in a hurry, had the people already picked out, then had to come of with reasons. Charity work, cheerfulness and playing a character in an incredibly successful series merits the title of a terrible person? I agree with Penn because of spousal abuse and Baldwin because of child abuse, which everyone can agree on are terrible person making qualities, but the rest are just your own personal politics and craziness. Just because someone disagrees with you doesn’t make them a terrible person. That is what is wrong with this country right now. Race is issue number one and if someone holds a different political ideology they are a bad person. That is asinine.
jayman419

The thing with Eastwood and the RNC … from what I heard he had a standard speech prepared, but he didn’t have his glasses with him. So since he couldn’t make out the teleprompter he improvised, and had them bring a chair on stage to adlib a few things he’d have liked to say to the President.

I think if Clint had been able to prepare a little better, the results would have been slightly different. Not fundamentally different re: his political views, but more polished and coherent.

Also, if you like Anne Hathaway but don’t like her sincerely insincere public persona, check out Anna Kendrick. All the talent, all the beauty, none of the “bursting at the seems with false confidence”.
Pinto

But Iron Man is Robert Downey Jr, or wait…
liberaldouchebag

Yupical Douche bag Brainless liberal…..you suck as a writer find a new job LOSER
liberaldouchebag

Yupical Douche bag Brainless liberal…..you suck as a writer find a new job LOSER
a b

you put Morgan Freeman and Clint Eastwood on this list? maybe you just didn’t care for Million Dollar Baby. which is fine. but to suggest they might be bad people in real life, and defiantly calling Eastwood a douche with only evidence of his chair schtick, really makes YOU the douche