Not a fan? Celebrities including Constance Wu, Rupert Grint and Andrew Lincoln have all chosen not to watch their own projects over the years — even if they were hits.
Lincoln, who has starred on The Walking Dead since 2010, refuses to watch himself on the show and has even boycotted the AMC series as a whole.
“I kind of step back from it all. The fun bit for me is doing it. I love that. That’s the exciting thing for me,” he told Entertainment Weekly in August 2013, noting that even if he’s not in an episode, he still chooses not to tune in. “When I direct, the most exciting thing for me is obviously all the different stages, the three-tiered journey, the prep, the design, and you to act through the actor, and then the edit. That’s when I get turned on by the whole thing.”
The Love Actually star explained that his job is to “be as truthful as I can in this role,” which could be compromised if he’s watching the episodes back and becoming critical of his performance.
“I don’t think it’s that unusual if you ask a lot of actors, because it’s the same thing as not reading press or reviews. You can’t do both. You can’t get good stuff and not get the bad as well. That’s not the exchange,” he continued. “So if I step back from it and don’t even engage on any level, all I’m left with is the good stuff, the fun stuff, that hopefully I’ve enjoyed day-to-day.”
Nearly 30 years after playing the dad in Double, Double, Toil and Trouble, Eric McCormack revealed that he’s never seen himself in the role. In fact, he was surprised that the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen film is still such a hit.
“[I’m] always happy to talk about movies I did 30 years ago! It doesn’t make a man feel young,” the actor told EW in October 2021 of the 1993 holiday movie. “And I didn’t even know if it had a life anymore. I’d expected a Christmas movie or two to have lives, but I didn’t know people were watching Double, Double.”
7th Heaven alum Barry Watson exclusively told Us Weekly in October 2021 that he never “had time” to watch the drama while portraying Matt Camden for 10 seasons. His sons, Felix and Oliver, however, have seen a few of their dad’s episodes over the years.
“I don’t remember any of that show. It was all just, like, a blur because it was so long ago for me,” Watson said, noting when his boys binged the series, they “made fun” of his hair on the show. “And then I made fun of Oliver because during the middle of [COVID-19] pandemic, when the kids were doing remote learning, his hair grew out and I was like, ‘You look like Matt Camden! You got Matt Camden hair.’”
Scroll down to see which actors have yet to watch some of their biggest movie and TV hits: