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Landing a major role on a hit TV series seems like a dream come true, but for some actors, it turned into a nightmare. This video explores several stars, from Blake Lively on 'Gossip Girl' to Mandy Patinkin on 'Criminal Minds,' who have publicly voiced their frustrations and even hatred for the shows that made them famous.
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00:00For most actors, scoring a major role on a TV show is nothing short of a dream job.
00:05It usually ensures stable work for the foreseeable future, and if you're invited back for subsequent seasons,
00:10typically brings with it a hefty pay increase each year.
00:14But not all roles are created equal, and despite the obvious appeal of a recurring TV gig,
00:20many actors have gone on the record to express their frustration and disappointment with a show they worked on.
00:25Burning Bridges is obviously a massively unwise move unless you're an untouchable A-lister,
00:30but these actors had little patience for niceties when detailing what left them less than satisfied about working on these
00:36hit TV shows.
00:38I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com, and these are actors that now hate their own TV shows.
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01:03Now, back to the video.
01:05Naveen Andrews, Lost.
01:07Naveen Andrews played Lost's Saeed for the entirety of the show's six seasons.
01:11And though several cast members were outspoken about how disappointed they were with various creative decisions
01:16throughout the series' run, it's clear that Andrews, above all others, viewed Lost as just a job.
01:21After the show's third season end, Andrews vocally complained about the writing, noting a, quote,
01:26drop in quality, even while appreciating how incredibly well-paid the role was.
01:31Shortly before the fourth season aired, he said, quote,
01:33I'm still proud of the first season. Around the third, I thought they were winging it.
01:37The writing was poor, but I'm definitely doing two more years.
01:40Andrews has also reiterated in numerous interviews that he's only ever watched the pilot episode of the show,
01:45and had no real investment in it beyond getting the work done.
01:49Blake Lively, Gossip Girl.
01:50Hit teen drama show, Gossip Girl, propelled star Blake Lively to fame overnight.
01:55And though it's fair to say that she owes her prosperous movie career to the series,
01:59Lively held nothing back when discussing the show in the years following its conclusion.
02:03Scathingly, Lively said of the show's production process, quote,
02:06If it was about the content, they wouldn't hand us our script pages minutes before shooting.
02:10You're part of this machine, this pop culture phenomenon,
02:13but as an actor, the quality of your work is definitely compromised because of that.
02:17When I finished the last season, I didn't feel good at it anymore.
02:20I didn't feel stimulated.
02:22It had become muscle memory, but not the good muscle memory, like bad habit muscle memory, end quote.
02:27Lively also expressed relief in no longer having to play the personally compromising socialite Serena Vanda Woodson,
02:34adding, quote,
02:38Years before he became an Oscar nominated actor and producer,
02:41Bradley Cooper starred on the hit spy thriller series, Alias, as journalist Will Tippen,
02:46appearing in almost half of the show's 105 episodes.
02:50Though Cooper was initially a member of the main cast in the first two seasons,
02:53his role was gradually reduced, much to his frustration.
02:56He said in a recent interview, quote,
03:09Cooper eventually worked up the courage to ask J.J. Abrams to write him out of the show,
03:13which Abrams complied with at the end of season two.
03:16Cooper said of the decision,
03:17Abrams probably would have fired me anyway.
03:19Denise Crosby, Star Trek The Next Generation.
03:22Tasha Yar was the Enterprise's chief of security in the first season of Star Trek The Next Generation,
03:27and was generally well received by fans.
03:29Disappointed they were then when the character was suddenly killed off at the end of the season,
03:33as a result of Denise Crosby being dissatisfied with her role on the show, saying, quote,
03:38I was miserable.
03:39I couldn't wait to get off that show.
03:41I was dying.
03:41This was not an overnight decision.
03:43I was grateful to have made that many episodes, but I didn't want to spend the next six years going,
03:48aye aye, captain, and standing there, in the same uniform, in the same position, on the bridge.
03:53It just scared the hell out of me that this was what I was going to be doing for the
03:56next X amount of years.
03:58She also went out to say, quote,
04:00I think you have to take your chances.
04:01I was really young.
04:02I didn't have to make house payments or put kids through private school or support people.
04:06I was free to make those kind of decisions.
04:08I'd been in acting school really dreaming of playing all kinds of different things.
04:12And God forbid you go through your life thinking, what if?
04:15Crosby has insisted that there was no animosity between her and the show's cast of crew,
04:19but simply that she was frustrated with Tashi Yar's creative direction.
04:22Considering how rough the first season of The Next Generation was, it's actually pretty hard to blame her.
04:28Mandy Patinkin, Criminal Minds.
04:29Crime procedural show Criminal Minds was fronted by Homeland actor Mandy Patinkin for its first two seasons,
04:35after which he opted not to return, having been disturbed by the show's salacious content.
04:40He said, quote,
04:41I thought it was something very different.
04:42I never thought they were going to kill and rape all these women every night, every day, week after week,
04:48year after year.
04:49It was very destructive to my soul and my personality, and after that,
04:52I didn't think I would get to work in television again, end quote.
04:56He also called it the biggest public mistake he has ever made.
04:59Much like Denise Crosby, though,
05:00Patinkin harbored no ill will against his fellow cast members,
05:03and even left letters of apology to them explaining his departure and wishing them luck.
05:07From season three onwards, Patinkin's FBI agent Jason Gideon was replaced by Special Agent David Rossi,
05:13and Gideon was later murdered by a serial killer in the show's tenth season.
05:17John Rhys Davies, Sliders.
05:19Sci-fi fantasy series Sliders ended up running for five seasons from 1995 to 2000,
05:24though main cast member John Rhys Davies, who played Professor Maximilian Arturo,
05:29left after the third season amid disputes about the quality of the show's writing.
05:32Davies famously called the scripts incomprehensible gibberish,
05:36and added, quote,
05:37It's hard to rewrite on the huff when you've got a network that wants you to say the words in
05:41the script.
05:41I would go to the writers and complain, but they would say,
05:44John, why don't you just say the words as written?
05:46And I'd say, I'll tell you what, I will actually say the words as written
05:50when you can actually write intelligent sentences, end quote.
05:53Despite praising the show's concept and cast,
05:56he called it the single biggest missed opportunity of his life,
05:59and expressed regret that Sliders couldn't achieve its full potential as,
06:03in his own words, the best show on television.
06:05Reports differ on whether Davies was actually fired or quit,
06:09but he's since held back nothing in disparaging the show's subpar creative leads.
06:13However, more recently, he did consider himself open to a revival.
06:17Katherine Heigl, Grey's Anatomy
06:19Katherine Heigl was one of Grey's Anatomy's breakout stars,
06:22playing fan-favorite character, Dr. Izzy Stevens.
06:25However, Heigl's reputation for not being a teen player,
06:27landed her in hot water several times throughout the tenure on the show.
06:31Infamously, she declined to submit her work for Emmy consideration in 2008,
06:36having been unhappy with how Izzy was written during the show's fourth season.
06:39She said, quote,
06:40I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination,
06:45and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the Academy organization,
06:48I withdrew my name from contention, end quote.
06:51This, unsurprisingly, put her at loggerheads with the show's creator Shonda Rhimes,
06:56who later implied that she thought the actress was an asshole.
06:59Though she was initially supposed to appear in the final episodes of season 6,
07:02Hila requested to be released from her contract 18 months early to spend more time with her family,
07:07resulting in the character departing prematurely in the middle of the season.
07:11Ed Harris, Westworld
07:13The brilliant Ed Harris has starred in HBO's hit sci-fi show Westworld as the shadowy veteran guest known as
07:19the Man in Black.
07:20However, season 3 saw a major reinvention of Harris' role on the show,
07:24as in the late season episode Decoherence,
07:26he finds himself trapped in a mental institution decked out in a white straitjacket.
07:30In a recent interview, Harris was candid about his dislike for the sudden character change, adding, quote,
07:42The grueling nature of the character's time in the institution likely couldn't have made Harris any happier about ditching his
07:48dark duds either,
07:49though the actor is at least philosophical enough to appreciate the nature of his work.
07:53He said, quote,
07:59Robert Beltran, Star Trek Voyager
08:01Robert Beltran played First Officer Chakotay on Star Trek Voyager,
08:05and was so dismissive of the show's creative direction that a popular myth endures to this day
08:09that he was actively trying to get himself fired.
08:12In his own words, quote,
08:14I risked being fired because I wasn't happy creatively.
08:16I felt like I was telling the truth, and if people can't take the truth, that's fine with me,
08:21but I'm not going to be stifled by the prospect of being fired, end quote.
08:25Beltran became especially vocal about his misgivings with the writing,
08:28following the introduction of Seven of Nine in season 4,
08:30feeling that Chakotay was one of the several characters who had their role reduced as a result.
08:35In a more recent interview, Beltran compared working on Voyager to the grind of working at a car factory,
08:41saying, quote,
08:42If I was working in a car factory and putting on tires,
08:44the only difference would be the size of the tires I was working on from week to week.
08:48If it wasn't real satisfying to me creatively,
08:50except with the occasional scene that I really liked doing,
08:53then it was a day at the factory and I always did my work and I always did my best,
08:58end quote.
08:58The actor has nevertheless spoken positively about the lifestyle the lucrative job afforded him,
09:03and praised many of his fellow cast members,
09:05even if it's clear that he was sticking it out for the pay rather than his love of the craft.
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