15 Actors Who Never Watch Their Own Movies

It might be easy to assume that actors are self-centered and love watching their own movies, but for a lot of the biggest stars in Hollywood, that's actually not the case. Not only do some actors hate watching themselves on screen, but they even make active efforts to avoid having to at all costs. Suffice it to say, you won't catch them rolling up to an AMC Theatres on the midnight premiere of their latest flick. At most, they'll probably have seen it while doing ADR (automated dialogue replacement) or bringing along clips during the project's press tour.

There's a lot of reasons why actors prefer not to watch their own movies. Some actors hated working with their directors so much that they essentially disown their own projects, while others simply just struggle with seeing their face and voice projected 25 feet tall. Whatever the reason, these 15 actors, when they can, aren't ones to take a trip down memory lane if they don't have to, which means they don't get to rewatch some of the greatest movies ever made by virtue of them being in it. 

At only 36 years old, Emma Stone has won two Oscars for Best Actress (for "La La Land" and "Poor Things"), produced successful indie films like "A Real Pain" and "I Saw the TV Glow," and even made her Broadway debut in a 2014 production of "Cabaret." However, even way earlier in her acting career, Stone was adamantly against watching her own movies, telling David Letterman in 2011 about an awkward experience screening "The Help" at the White House, "You can't really separate yourself [from it], and then you think, 'Is that really what I'm — that's what they went with?'"

This habit continued well into her career, as Stone has admitted she hasn't seen some of her biggest films, like "Easy A," often walking out of screenings due to the sheer anxiety it gives her. However, her experience completely shifted given that she was a producer on "Poor Things," meaning she couldn't just come to set, do her job, and let the audience do theirs. Given that "Poor Things" is all about female freedom for Stone, hopefully this inspires her to watch more of her own work in the future. 

In the past few years, Jeremy Allen White has become a burgeoning star in mainstream film and TV, thanks to his Hulu series "The Bear," in which he stars as a fine dining chef who hates himself. While the self-loathing of Carmen Berzatto might be exaggerated, there's probably a lot that's relatable to White given that he's admitted he also tends to not enjoy watching his own projects. As he told Stephen Colbert during press for season 3 of "The Bear," "I have a hard time watching myself on camera, I really don't do it, I don't like it." 

However, as White explained, he made the exception for season 3 of "The Bear," binging seven episodes in one sitting, though it's worth pointing out that there are entire episodes of "The Bear" that don't focus on White's character. We have a feeling that White will have a much easier time watching himself on screen in 2026 when his "Star Wars" character (Rotta the Hutt), appears in "The Mandalorian & Grogu." 

Every time you go to an AMC Theatre, you will be dazzled by the introductory video with Nicole Kidman in which she boldly states that "heartbreak feels good in a place like this." However, if there's one person who probably avoids an AMC Theatre at all costs, it's Kidman herself, who apparently doesn't like to watch her own movies. That makes one of us, as the best Nicole Kidman movies and TV shows prove that she has one of the most captivating screen presences in Hollywood, whether it's seducing Bruce Wayne in "Batman Forever" or antagonizing a lovable bear in "Paddington." 

Particularly, Kidman admitted to this quirk after receiving the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024, reacting to a clip shown from "Eyes Wide Shut" by saying, "I'm OK celebrating directors because it's their work. But my own little part of it, it's like [groans]," (via The Los Angeles Times). It also probably makes it extremely awkward to have your kids see work like "Eyes Wide Shut," which despite being one of Kidman's best roles can be quite an intense way to see your own parents. 

In the 2001 film "Training Day," Denzel Washington spoke the iconic line, "King Kong ain't got s–t on me!" Though it's also a meta statement on Washington's prolific acting career, when it comes to even the best Denzel Washington movies, the actor himself is apparently not much of a fan. During an interview with The Times for "Gladiator II," Washington claimed, "I haven't watched any film from my past from start to finish, not even 'Malcolm X,'" and even though that feels like sacrilege to say, he continued, "After 'Malcolm X' I made some real clunkers. Look them up — I won't say their names."

It's almost staggering to think of the amount of incredible films Denzel Washington has made that the actor has yet to see in full, whether it be "Philadelphia," or "Flight," or even "The Equalizer" films. However, the exception was more than likely made for the handful of films of his he also directed, such as "Fences" and "The Great Debaters." Just don't let Spike Lee know that Washington hasn't seen "Malcolm X"!

Angelina Jolie's career spans not just genres, but across independent and blockbuster movies. Among the best Angelina Jolie movies include dramas like "Girl, Interrupted" (for which she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress), action comedies like "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," and most recently, the biopic "Maria." Surprisingly, she considers herself a poor audience member, and hasn't seen many of her most notable films, telling radio host Smallzy, "There's quite a few films of mine I've actually never seen, cause I like the process ... I usually see it and I get frustrated cause I thought it was going to be something else." 

The one exception to the rule, according to Jolie, is the 2021 Marvel film "Eternals," of which she's more a member of an ensemble than the leading lady like many of her other roles. It's a shame that "Eternals" didn't become a bigger hit with MCU fans, given that a sequel from Chloé Zhao could've been another of Jolie's films that the actress has been willing to sit through.

Bill Hader has been incredibly forthcoming in the years since leaving "Saturday Night Live" that he suffered from severe anxiety during his time on the show, even having to hide his panic attacks from his co-stars. Hader really became somewhat of an advocate for mental health struggles whilst promoting his HBO series "Barry," in which he plays a depressed hitman who discovers a love for performing after following a target to an acting class. "Barry" was really Hader's opportunity post-"SNL" to flex his own skills as a director, eventually taking on directorial duties for the entire fourth and final season. 

As Hader told The Independent, directing himself was something he had to get used to, claiming, "That's no fun, just in general. I don't like the way I sound. I don't like the way I look. It's just embarrassing." Although he might not leap to do more live television anytime soon, doing "Barry" has surely given Hader the confidence to at least watch himself while he's also directing, which is quite a huge deal for someone that used to worry about not getting a Stefon bit right. 

We don't like to make sweeping judgements here at /Film, but if it's true that Saoirse Ronan hasn't seen many movies starring herself, then she's not even really a real cinephile. Since she was incredibly young, Ronan has garnered Oscar nominations like they were nothing with films like "Atonement," "Brooklyn," "Lady Bird" and "Little Women," but of her entire filmography, she claims that there's only one that she can sit through: "Lady Bird," Greta Gerwig's lovely coming-of-age tale that served as the future "Barbie" filmmaker's directorial debut.  

In an interview with the Standard, Ronan chalked up her comfort in watching "Lady Bird," compared to the rest of her films, as due to the fact that she can separate herself from the titular character. As she herself stated, "I'm usually really anxious watching anything that I'm in, I really don't enjoy it but I don't know why I was able to watch this and go 'Oh Lady Bird is her own person.'" We can forgive this for now, but Ronan is going to need to marathon all her own movies, especially "Little Women." 

We would ideally be more opposed to the notion that Javier Bardem hates watching his own movies were it not for the existence of Anton Chigurh, the chilling villain of "No Country for Old Men." Although his filmography is much more diverse than that, with appearances in children's films like "The Little Mermaid" as well as blockbusters like "Dune" and "F1," Bardem's aversion to himself comes down to looks, not even acting ability, telling GQ, "I can't even watch that f—ing nose, that f—ing voice, those ridiculous eyes. I can't handle that."

It's a mystery why Bardem isn't more confident in his own appearance, given that he's married to Penelope Cruz and was cast by Aaron Sorkin to play Desi Arnaz in "Being the Ricardos," lending credence to the idea that some people think he's quite good-looking. That being said, we can fully understand why that "No Country for Old Men" haircut may have changed the way Bardem viewed himself in the mirror. 

Few actors are as transfixing on screen as Kate Winslet, whose performance in "Titanic" is what makes the movie work, as opposed to Leonardo DiCaprio's charm or James Cameron's directing. She has since gone on to give even more impressive performances in films like "Revolutionary Road," "The Reader," and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." However, if you ask the actress herself, she can barely stand watching herself in "Titanic," let alone all those other films. 

As for "Titanic," Winslet blames her aversion to the film on self-criticism of her own performance, which is ironic considering how incredible of a performance it really is. As the actress told CNN, "I have a hard time watching any of my performances, but watching 'Titanic' I was just like 'Oh God, I want to do that again,'" (via FarOut Magazine). This was even confirmed by Winslet's daughter, Mia Threapleton, who says her mother not only hates watching herself, but refuses to let her kids watch "Titanic," particularly one scene that takes place in a car. 

Andrew Garfield has done crowd-pleasing blockbusters, Oscar-winning dramas, and arthouse auteur projects, but no matter what genre he's in, Garfield tries to never watch his own films. The truth came out when Garfield was promoting the 2010 film "Never Let Me Go," where he admitted he hadn't seen that movie but had seen David Fincher's "The Social Network," but only because the filmmakers forced him to. When arguing why he prefers to not watch his own films, Garfield had a thoughtful answer for The Hollywood Reporter: "I don't want to be aware of what I'm doing. As soon as I am, I'm less open."

However, there's one other instance in his career where Garfield admits to having seen one of his own movies, and that's "Spider-Man: No Way Home." After its premiere, Garfield snuck into a movie theater with Tobey Maguire so that the two could watch their triumphant returns as multiversal Peter Parkers with a packed audience of fans, which must've felt incredibly rewarding after Garfield's "Spider-Man" era ended with the whimper that was "The Amazing Spider-Man 2." 

Constance Wu's first mainstream success was the ABC sitcom "Fresh Off The Boat," which ran for six seasons, but her career really hit a sweet spot after starring in the 2018 rom-com "Crazy Rich Asians." She then saw further success with the 2019 drama "Hustlers," but by then, Wu had made a vow to stop consuming media that she was in. In fact, it was after seeing "Crazy Rich Asians" in a theater that made Wu swear off watching herself on-screen.

As she told "Live with Kelly & Ryan," "I didn't watch my talk show appearances or 'Fresh Off the Boat' or 'Hustlers,' ... I want to focus on the present and not be self-critical and think too much, dwell too much on the past." On the plus side, it hasn't seemed to effect Wu's drive as an actress, as in recent years she's appeared in indie dramas ("The Friend"), animated series ("Velma"), and has even starred in an off-Broadway production of "Little Shop of Horrors" as Audrey opposite Corbin Bleu. 

What we're dying to know is how it is at all possible for Tom Hanks to go through life without having seen a movie featuring Tom Hanks. The actor has starred in some of the biggest movies known to man, whether it be "Forrest Gump," or "Saving Private Ryan," or "Cast Away," or "You've Got Mail," or "Toy Story," or "Sully," or "Bridge of Spies," or, or, or, the list goes on and on. Even more surprising, the thing that's keeping Hanks from watching his legendarily incredible filmography is the same ol' insecurities that a lot of other actors have admitted to.

In fact, Tom Hanks doesn't watch most of his films, as he revealed during the press tour for "A Man Called Otto." Hanks claims that for a lot of his big movies, he struggles with seeing the inauthenticity behind some of his roles. On "The Great Creators with Guy Raz," Hanks elaborated, "I see the loss. I see that one time, 'Oh, man, I missed that opportunity.' ... I didn't go to the place that I could have gone." Sorry, Tom, but if you think it's possible to have given a better performance in "Forrest Gump," you're dead wrong. 

What's a bigger crime against humanity: the fact that Marcus Mumford hasn't watched all of his wife, Carey Mulligan's, movies? Or, the fact that Carey Mulligan herself hasn't watched all of Carey Mulligan's movies? The actress has done some incredibly strong, albeit underrated, work over the years, whether it be in "Inside Llewyn Davis," "Promising Young Woman," or even one of the best "Doctor Who" episodes ever, "Blink." But in general, Mulligan feels a bit silly watching her own films.

In the case of her 2011 cult classic "Drive," Mulligan once attempted to watch it on a plane, but got embarrassed that people could see her watching her own movie. One time she did see the Sundance debut for her film "An Education," and told Variety of the future Oscar-nominated performance, "I had never seen myself on-screen that much before. I thought I was really boring to watch. It was all really weird." So maybe Mr. Mumford gets a pass for not seeing all of Mulligan's movies for now, but if we were him, we'd change that pronto. 

Adam Driver hadn't done much acting at all prior to being cast in Lena Dunham's HBO series "Girls," and after watching the first episode on Dunham's laptop, he decided he actually never wanted to watch himself on-screen ever again. As he told Vulture in 2013 about his own aversion to watching himself, "I feel like with the things I'm in that I have watched, I go into a spiral and obsess about all the mistakes I made. Even with the pilot — there are so many mistakes I wish I would have changed, but you know, you just can't."

This even caused a bit of a stir publicly in 2019 when Driver walked out of an NPR interview after the host, Terry Gross, played a clip of him in "Marriage Story." Maybe it was the bad press this story got Driver, but the actor has since clarified that he's making an effort to change and watch everything he's in, claiming he wants to be able to defend his performances. Though we doubt he'll ever go back to "Girls" (even though he should), at least this means he gets to watch the best Adam Driver movies all for the first time. 

Talk about actors who have gut-punch after gut-punch in their filmographies. Julianne Moore has one of the most versatile careers in Hollywood, from heartbreaking turns in "Boogie Nights" and "Still Alice" to Oscar-nominated performances in "Far from Heaven" and "The Hours." When asked if her children watch her films during the press tour for "Still Alice," Moore dropped the bombshell that even she herself refrains from watching her own movies, but with a slight caveat.

Talking to "Good Morning Britain" in 2015, Moore clarified her stance on watching her own movies, saying, "What I do try to do, actually, when I'm working, I like to watch playback because I feel like ... if it didn't feel right then I'll say 'Just let me see that back.'" Though when the film is over, Moore takes a "once it's done, it's done" approach. If anything, her interest in seeing the performance back in the moment actually signals quite a healthy relationship to her own celebrity image and tolerance for watching her acting with a critical eye. Bravo, Julianne, bravo.