The 8 Worst Actors of All Time

Keanu Reeves in 47 Ronin | Source: H2F Entertainment

Success and talent aren’t always related, especially when it comes to Hollywood. There are plenty of talented actors who achieved fame on the basis of their skills and hardworking demeanor, but there may be just as many who accelerated to fame via some combination of good connections, appearance, and plain dumb luck. Let’s take a look at the eight worst actors you’ll ever see in a major motion picture.

1. Tommy Wiseau

The Room is one of the worst films of all time, and most of the credit for its ineptitude belongs to Tommy Wiseau, the film’s star, writer, director, and primary investor.

His otherworldly accent makes his lines unintelligible even when they aren’t overdubbed or nonsensical, and his fatigued face, which recalls a partially melted mannequin, doesn’t make his emotions any easier to read. It’s no wonder The Room is Wiseau’s only feature-length role… Who would cast him except for himself?

2. Keanu Reeves

Keanu Reeves in The Matrix | Source: Warner Bros.

Keanu Reeves is, by all accounts, a nice guy, so it’s hard to be too incensed by his enduring success as an actor — at least, until you see one of his performances. His immovable stone face singlehandedly sucks the life out of so many movie scenes, from Point Break to Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

He always seems to be focusing on remembering his next line rather than conveying any sort of human emotion. His lack of expression and stiff line readings worked well enough when he was playing a San Dimas slacker like Theodore Logan for the Bill & Ted films, but they’ve only hurt his films since.

3. Rob Schneider

Rob Schneider | Kristian Dowling/Getty Images

Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison production company has allowed the actor — who is actually talented when he occasionally tries — to keep his group of friends employed for a couple decades now.

Thus, Rob Schneider is still in the public eye (barely), pretending he has comedic value besides dressing up like various minorities and adopting offensive accents in Sandler’s films. His starring vehicles like Deuce Bigalow and The Hot Chick have somehow been even more dire and aggressively unfunny than his offensive supporting roles.

4. Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage in Ghost Rider | Source: Sony Pictures

Many might insist that Nicolas Cage is, in fact, a good actor who throws himself wholeheartedly, almost foolishly, into even the worst roles. We take the opposite stance, insisting that Cage is an over-the-top madman whose successful performances in films like Leaving Las Vegas or Adaptation are simply flukes, allowing him the freedom to overact — as a trainwreck alcoholic in the former and a panic-ridden screenwriter in the latter — in situations where it actually works.

Great as those films may be, the bad of Cage’s career far outweighs the good, littered as it is with performances both half-assed (Left Behind) and laughably unhinged (Face Off, Wicker Man).

5. Taylor Lautner

The Twilight movies drew a lot of deserved flak for pandering to teenage fans while investing minimal effort into the films themselves. Even the leads Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart sleepwalked through the ordeal before receiving varying amounts of critical acclaim in other projects, but the third person in the Twilight love triangle, shirtless werewolf Taylor Lautner, has found little success since.

It only takes one viewing of his starring vehicle Abduction to understand why (though good luck making it all the way through the film), as Lautner can barely manage a convincing line reading or a lick of chemistry with his costar throughout.

6. Kevin Costner

Kevin Costner in JFK | Source: Warner Bros.

Kevin Costner was once one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, because apparently audiences at that time were especially infatuated with white-bread blandness. It isn’t so much that Kevin Costner is irritating, it’s just that there’s virtually nothing compelling about him or any of his performances.

Now that he’s faded into moderate obscurity, it only feels appropriate that he’s resigned to playing cookie-cutter father figure roles, as in Man of Steel. Pa Kent doesn’t need to be interesting; he just needs to die.

7. Owen Wilson

Owen Wilson | Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

Owen Wilson is severely handicapped by his inability to play anyone who isn’t Owen Wilson. His collaborations with director Wes Anderson as a performer and screenwriter have yielded some fine results in weirdo roles, such as Eli Cash in The Royal Tenenbaums.

However, the remainder of Wilson’s career has been little more than mediocre roles played by a mediocre actor whose behaviors and mannerisms make it impossible to see him as anyone else. But hey — at least he’s not as boring as his brother.

8. Mark Wahlberg

Mark Wahlberg | Source: Warner Bros.

You might think you like Mark Wahlberg’s performances, but check his filmography again and you’ll realize how few actually impressive performances he’s managed in his illustrious Hollywood career. Boogie Nights? All he had to do was look pretty and then act coked-up. The Departed? Be surly and curse a lot. The Perfect Storm? Look scared and scream over the sounds of roaring waves.

Wahlberg’s career is defined by bland leading male roles wherein he’s rarely funny and rarely has much chemistry with his costars. Look no further than M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening for a peek at what happens when Wahlberg tries playing someone more sensitive.