Actors have to constantly ponder their next moves. What if a role turns out to be nothing like they thought? Can they speak openly about regret? If they do, will they ever work again? The following TV actors regretted some aspect of their work – a poorly shot scene, a show they wish had gone differently, a job they wouldn't take if they had to do it over again – and admitted their disappointment later on.
In the “Weeds” Mary-Louise Parker has filmed a number of steamy scenes in her long career, and more than one in her role as Nancy Botwin on Showtime's “Weeds”. Worked for me so far. But for one 2008 episode, Parker shot a revealing bathtub scene we can't show here, that she later wished she could take back.
She told More magazine: “I fought with the director about it, and now I'm bitter. I wish I hadn't done that. I was goaded into it”.
She later clarified that the “fight” was really just a creative discussion, and that she's totally comfortable being in a birthday suit on camera and off, saying, “I was talking about that scene as an example of something I didn't love as much when I saw it”.
Dark turn. Devon Gummersall is best known for playing Brian Krakow, the big-haired, Angela Chase-obsessed nerd on the short-lived 90s drama My So-Called Life. “Finally: Ane rection from actual physical contact”. Gummersall would go on to portray Stevie Wolcott on Mad Men, but before he was Peggy Olson's blind date, he played a very bad dude named Zach on the Keri Russell-led WB serial Felicity. At the time, Gummersall was into the role because it was such a departure from previous characters. In retrospect, he later told Cosmopolitan he sees it as a mistake.
“I loved being on the show, but in the end, I realized that it was sort of a mistake to do that kind of storyline. I would have much rather been on the show more long-term and done something that didn't have to end in such a bad way”.
Unhealthy Minds. Mandy Patinkin, who played Agent Jason Gideon on CBS's Criminal Minds for two seasons, quit the procedural in 2007 after not attending a table read. Patinkin later said he regretted making the decision to do the show in the first place, due to its graphic and violent nature. Patinkin told New York Magazine in 2012: “It was very destructive to my soul and my personality”.
Patinkin, who now plays Saul on Showtime's Homeland, explained what he sees as the difference between the two shows. Of Homeland, which itself isn't without violence, Patinkin said, “It asks why there's a need for violence in the first place”.
Friends like these. For five episodes in 1999, Friends saw the addition of Janine, played by model Elle Macpherson, who moved into Joey's apartment and briefly became his love interest after Chandler moved across the hall to live with Monica. Most actors would have killed to extend their arc on the wildly popular show, but Macpherson turned down the opportunity, saying that had she known the show would have had such staying power, she wouldn't have taken the job in the first place.
“If I'd known how important it was in the U.S. or how long it would be on TV, I may not have chosen to do it”.
While the show proved career-making for Macpherson's castmates, she’s spent the last 20 years reminding people she had a career before – and after – Janine.
O.C. Overkill. Mischa Barton played Marissa Cooper on Fox's The O.C., a drama about beautiful, wealthy teens that ran for four seasons – although Cooper was written off in a car accident in the show at the end of season 3. Since leaving the show, Barton has been open about her regrets, telling the UK's Metro in 2014: “It's something I came so close to not doing. It had a really great thing with film. People say be grateful for what you have but it's certainly not the kind of thing I was expecting it to be”.
The O.C. plunged all of its young stars into the spotlight, which Barton particularly resented. “I just like to be seen for the hard-working actress that I am enough for a bunch of extraneous press”.
Community Feud. After being out of the entertainment spotlight for years, Chevy Chase returned to television in 2009 as part of NBC's Community. In 2013, during the critically lauded but perennially ratings-starved show’s fourth season, Chase left, calling his decision to join the cast “a big mistake”, citing the exhaustion of doing long television hours and calling sitcoms, quote, “the lowest form of television”. Chase and the show's creator, Dan Harmon, were also engaged in a well-documented feud.
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