Worst Female Leads

[NCMojo]

NBC showed Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom tonight, which is just painful to watch, in no small part due to an atrocious performance by Kate Capshaw. Her role -- Wilhelminia "Willie" Scott -- is by far one of the whiniest, most grating, most insultingly awful performances in cinematic history. There are other awful performances -- anything by Madonna comes to mind -- but when you factor in not only her absolute lack of talent with her character's innate hate-ability... I don't think you'll find a worse female lead.

Or am I wrong? Do you have a better -- or worse -- example?

[fmian]

That chick in Dogma. Linda Fiorentti or something. She was god awful.

[hgar78]

i'll second linda fiorenetti plus she always reminds me of that girl from meet joe black, the one who squints all the time.

i also can't stand jennifer love hewitt and, of course, j-ho!!!

[Addi88]

That girl who had the lead in The Transporter.

Some of the worst acting.

[movieking]

Just saw Temple of Doom for the first time in years, and I totally agree about Capshaw.

[Sessa17]

Another vote for Capshaw. Another Indy female in Karen Allen also makes my list of most annoying female leads ever. I hate her in EVERYTHING, even the all holy Animal House, I squirm every time she is on camera.

It's really a matter of taste though. IMO the single worste female ever I can think of is Angelina Jolie in anything. I just don't see what people like about her. She has that pouty goth look with I just loathe. Her lips make me want to vomit, there is NO WAY they are real. Her voice is annoying. She just looks like a slob.

[LBPound]

Originally posted by ncmojo
Or am I wrong? Do you have a better -- or worse -- example?

No, you are very much correct. Kate Capshaw's performance in Temple of Doom is the worst female lead ever...officially! :) Just plain awful.

[Deckard-10]

Originally posted by LBPound
No, you are very much correct. Kate Capshaw's performance in Temple of Doom is the worst female lead ever...officially! :) Just plain awful.
Looks like I'm the first (and maybe only person) to actually admit liking Kate Capshaw and her role as Wilhelminia "Willie" Scott. Yes, her character was annoying, but she was suppose to be that way!

Madonna gets my vote for the worst female lead ever.

[Buck Turgidson]

Originally posted by Sessa17
Her lips make me want to vomit, there is NO WAY they are real.

Watch Deliverance. Her dad's lips are awfully juicy and voluptuous. He'd have been in a lot of trouble if Reynolds and Cox hadn't shown up when they did... :eyebrow:

I have a contender: Melanie Griffith in A Stranger Among Us. An excellent cast (including a small role for James Gandolfini), and intriguing premise, a well-written script, one of the best Directors in Hollywood (Sidney Lumet), and the whole damned house of cards falls becaus of brain dead Melanie trying to carry the movie. A waste.

[lesterlong]

Boy do you guys really hate women that much?

[tommyp007]

another vote for J-lo, even in Anaconda (which I kinda liked!)

[LostHiWay]

Originally posted by fmian
That chick in Dogma. Linda Fiorentti or something. She was god awful.

What!?!? Fiorentino is a great actress. She should've gotten the oscar for The Last Seduction....but it was shown on HBO first and she was ineligible.

[jeffkjoe]

Originally posted by tommyp007
another vote for J-lo, even in Anaconda (which I kinda liked!)


Here's ANOTHER vote for J-Lo...

Her movies are made for people with low I.Q.'s.

[chowderhead]

J-Lo
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Tara Reid
Julia Ormond - how the hell did she get the lead to Sabrina, First Knight and Legends of the Fall???
Penelope Cruz
Selma Hayak
the Olsen twin.
Basically my list are actresses that I cannot stand. I think also that many of the leading ladies in the older films like Citizen Kane or Pyscho or whatever tend to overact and be overly dramatic.

[mytzplyx]

My choices are a tie:

Britney Spears in Crossroads
Mariah Carey in Glitter

Nope, didn't watch either, but that's not stopping me from pre-judging.

[FuzzyBallz]

Originally posted by Addi88
That girl who had the lead in The Transporter.

Some of the worst acting.

Oh, no doubt. She's not fit to do action movies.

I like that chick in Indiana Jones: The Last Cruisade though.

Julia Ormond - how the hell did she get the lead to Sabrina, First Knight and Legends of the Fall???

What? She's great in First Knight. Wait, maybe I was just checking her out the whole way through 'cause she's so damn fine.

[Khan]

I haven't seen it but have heard some really, really scathing comments about Lorraine Bracco in Medicine Man.

[Patman]

How about the lead actress, Leonor Varela, in Blade 2? I thought she was basically reading cue cards through the whole movie.

[movieking]

How about Tracy Pollan in the TV movie "1st To Die"? The whole movie was utter garbage, and the acting made soap opera actors look like Olivier...

[matome]

Virtually all singer/actresses are talentless in one area (applies to the male ones as well).

[B.A.]

Originally posted by Deckard-10
Looks like I'm the first (and maybe only person) to actually admit liking Kate Capshaw and her role as Wilhelminia "Willie" Scott. Yes, her character was annoying, but she was suppose to be that way!

Madonna gets my vote for the worst female lead ever.
I agree w/ you in regards to Spielberg's wife. Her character, "Willie", was supposed to be obnoxious in Temple of Doom (just as Vince Vaughn was in Made). I liked Kate in that movie, I can't imagine it w/out her.

I'll throw my vote in for Madonna as well. She has no business trying to act, unless she is making a music video - that is as far as she should be allowed to go.

[ineluki]

My vote goes against Denise Richards.

[PalmerJoss]

Jennifer Lopez in all of her movies except the excellent Out of Sight. Also, Rosie O'Donnell and Madonna in anything they've ever done.

[PolloDiablo]

My vote goes against Denise Richards.
Oh man, if only she'd just keep her mouth shut then it might not be that bad, but in all honesty this woman brings new meaning to bad acting. Gotta love on that MTV show Punk'd when they get that little kid to ask her what it was like to get to play someone smart (I'm guessing he was referring to James Bond?).

[Hiro11]

Madonna in "Body of Evidence"- this is the worst "acting" ever.

[Charlie Goose]

The homely girl from Welcome to the Dollhouse.

Ashley Judd in just about everything, but Eye of the Beholder in particular.

Rucy Riu in Charlie's Angels.

Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead. She bewilderingly got some star power for flashing her ***** in Basic Instinkt, and has bombed in everything she's done since, but she really out-stunk herself in this one.

http://charliegoose.homestead.com/files/goose.jpg Honk!

[Rypro 525]

Originally posted by PolloDiablo
Oh man, if only she'd just keep her mouth shut then it might not be that bad, but in all honesty this woman brings new meaning to bad acting. Gotta love on that MTV show Punk'd when they get that little kid to ask her what it was like to get to play someone smart (I'm guessing he was referring to James Bond?). imo, Denise had two good performances, Wild Things (I think the reason is obvious) and Undercover Brother.

[NCMojo]

Actually, I don't think you should count bad actresses in bad roles. I mean, anyone can point a finger at Madonna and say, "Hey! She was awful in ." WHat sets Kate Capshaw (and her ilk) apart is that:

A) she is not really a [i]bad actress;
B) the movie was overall pretty good;
C) she is such an annoyingly whiny and grating presence that it almost ruins the movie

Another good example of a movie having a horrendous female lead Sandra Bullock in Demolition Man. Again, good actress -- the movie more or less doesn't suck -- but she comes across as clumsy and obnoxious throughout.

Teri Hatcher in Tomorrow Never Dies is another great example. Really, was anybody truly saddened when her character died? Even Pierce Brosnan couldn't help smirking a bit.

(For the record, I do not hate women. I like women. There are plenty of horrific male leads out there as well, and that's not even counting Keanu Reeves. In fact, it's harder to come up with really awful female leads -- so many good ones come to mind like Frances McDormand in Fargo...)

[PolloDiablo]

My list
Denise Richards (As Stated above worst. Actress. Ever.)
Julia Roberts (Not persay a bad actress, but not my cup o' tea)
Sandra Bullock (Same as above)
Pretty much all singers turned Actress

[inri222]

Demi Moore

[Sunday Morning]

Halle Berry-- Not a whole lot going on there. She does have a good publicist.

Gwyneth paltrow-- Not a whole lot to hang on to. Both physically and dramatically. Yawn.

Jennifer lopez-- Oy.

Any other hot young actresses & actors winning oscars & noriety out of nothing. You should all be sentenced to a bitch slapping supervised by the resurrected bette davis, the luminous faye dunaway & meryl streep.


Seems to me Linda fiorentino sucked in dogma because obviously she wasn't having a good time. Supposedly she did not get along with kevin smith and his direction so she did her best not to seem interested-- and it shows.

She was amazing in the last seduction. One of the best most complicated roles in film noir.

[GoldenJCJ]

Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies. Great movie, and they give the impression that she plays a strong character in the movie, but really all she does is whine and scream throughout the whole thing. Quite annoying.

[iggystar]

Sharon Stone...she's now having sex with the AOL icon...need I say more? Hollywood has finally figured out how bad she is.

She's not officially an actress but Oprah Winfrey should never try again.....ever (Beloved, The Women of Brewster Place).

[wendersfan]

I'd have to say Sandra Bullock. I tend to dislike Julia Roberts in most everything, but once she started working with Soderbergh she's much more palatable.

Linda Fiorentino? Sorry, The Last Seduction was great. Same goes for Jennifer Lopez in Out of Sight. Seems to me the problem with J-Lo might be one of poor roles/projects/directors instead of talent.

[Joel]

Originally posted by PalmerJoss
Jennifer Lopez in all of her movies except the excellent Out of Sight.

I think J-Lo did great in Selena.

I vote for Mariah Carey in Glitter.

[Freud]

Angelina's lips are certainly real. My wife has the exact same pouty look...all natural.

As far as bad performance in a female lead....that's easy

Tom Laughlin's wife Delores in Billy Jack. Stiff...wooden...cardboard....nasty nasty performance.

[jfoobar]

How on earth can I be the first person to mention Andie MacDowell?

[Yahoo Sirius]

Kim Basinger in L.A. CONFIDENTIAL. How she ever got the Academy Award (not to mention a nomination) for that wooden performance is beyond me. She was even worse in 8 MILE.

[Chipmaker]

Lois Chiles in Moonraker -- geez, how hard is it to be a Bond girl?
(Denise Richards was awful too, but at least she's sweet eye candy.)

Pia Zadora in The Lonely Lady is one of the very worst movies and performances I've ever suffered through (once, and only once).

[PixyJunket]

Halle Berry

YO MAMMA!!

Only actress to win an oscar for a porno movie.

[suziq999]

Cmon guys.... CINDY CRAWFORD hands down is THE worst.

[Darq]

<b>Sean Young</b> is terrible in almost EVERYTHING.

[FredC]

I've got to go with Jennifer Love Hewitt. Heartbreakers and Tuxedo, ugh.

[Rocky_Stallone000]

I may get flamed for this but Julia Roberts in "Erin Brockovich" is probably the worst movie I've ever seen.

I love Steven Sodenbergh movies and all but "Erin Brockovich" was trash, that was the only movie he directed that I didn't like.

[d2cheer]

Originally posted by LBPound
No, you are very much correct. Kate Capshaw's performance in Temple of Doom is the worst female lead ever...officially! :) Just plain awful.

Agree but... Melanie Griffith in Shinning Through was so painfull I almost didn't make it through the movie... If I wasn't at the theater I would have shut it off.

[Buck Turgidson]

Originally posted by d2cheer
Agree but... Melanie Griffith in Shinning Through was so painfull I almost didn't make it through the movie... If I wasn't at the theater I would have shut it off.

I previously mentioned her dreadful turn in A Stranger Among Us, but I think this one is actually worse. My friend and I were MST3King this one after @ 15 minutes.

The "climactic" scene w/ Douglas making like Emmit Smith for the Swiss border is a classic piece of unintentional comedy.

[movielib]

Originally posted by JustinS
How on earth can I be the first person to mention Andie MacDowell?
Only because somehow I missed this thread until now. She has to be the worst actress who gets major roles in movies.

[Saxofonix]

Sally Field in anything.
Melanie Griffiths in anything.

[Daytripper]

Originally posted by wendersfan
I'd have to say Sandra Bullock. I tend to dislike Julia Roberts in most everything, but once she started working with Soderbergh she's much more palatable.

Linda Fiorentino? Sorry, The Last Seduction was great. Same goes for Jennifer Lopez in Out of Sight. Seems to me the problem with J-Lo might be one of poor roles/projects/directors instead of talent.

I agree here with almost everything you say. Can't stand Bullock. I cannot believe that woman is still getting work. Sure, I know WHY. Her movies make money. But she's terrible. I like Roberts in some move ("Notting Hill", "Brockavovich" and "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"). COMPLETELY agree about Fiorentino in "Seduction". Wow, what performance! Also, hate J Lo with a passion. But she was pretty good in "Out of Site" and "The Cell". But her choices in roles over all is awful.

To the person that said Gwyneth Paltrow, I've like her in everything I've seen. To me, she's even made even an average movie watchable. And to the person that said Sally Field. Have you ever seen "Norma Rae" and "Places in the Heart" (!?)

[edytwinky]

Gretchen Mol in Rounders if you count that

[zekeburger1979]

Tea Leoni in Jurassic Park III. I was rooting for the dinos to get her after 5 minutes.

Also, pretty much anything with Demi Moore in it, especially in Ghost. I hated, hated, hated that movie.

[TheAllPurposeNothing]

Actually, I think Andie McDowell has been good in a number of films (Groundhog Day, Sex Lies & Videotape).

IMHO, the worst performance ever from an actress would be Carol Lynley in "The Poseidon Adventure." Says all her dialog as if it were written out syllabically for her.

Strangely, the second worst is from another sinking ship movie: Kate Winslett in "Titanic." How she ever got nominated for that one, I"ll never know.

[Drexl]

Natalie Portman in the Star Wars prequels

[C Roberts]

My vote would definitely go to Madonna. Although there are several worthy nominees listed here none of them have done the multitude of mediocrity that Madonna has so its harder for me to judge them.