Movies That Famous People Walked Out Of

Sometimes when you're sitting in a theater and object to a movie you're watching, you have no choice but to make a scene, and walk out of the auditorium in a huff and a puff of disgust. Other times, you're perhaps too embarrassed to leave, so you quietly slink your way out of your seat and tiptoe towards the exit. While not everyone has admitted to doing it, most of us have at one point in our moviegoing life made the decision to abandon ship and leave a movie before it's over. And sometimes we are not alone in our multiplex exoduses, and walk out together in droves (even in revered places like the Cannes Film Festival).

"Scary Movie 2" caused the Wayans' brothers' mother to walk out after just 10 minutes, questioning, "'Who are these children that made this movie? They certainly aren't mine'" (via The Courier-Post). Awkwafina told Ellen Degeneres that her grandmother left during "the most pivotal part" of her movie "The Farewell" to go cook. Critics are not immune either, with Roger Ebert lasting a full two hours of "Caligula" before giving up on the "sickening, utterly worthless, shameful trash."

Walking out of a movie isn't just a practice of everyday ticket buyers, family members of actors, or picky critics, but of famous people themselves. In fact, sometimes a star will walk out of their own movie! So, sit down, stay awhile (or part of a while), and see what movies made famous people hit the road lickity-split!

Author Stephen King has been one of the biggest contributors to pop culture, with over 50 films based on his horrific work. He hasn't always loved the film adaptations of his books, however, telling Rolling Stone, "the movies have never been a big deal to me. The movies are the movies. They just make them. If they're good, that's terrific. If they're not, they're not." He notoriously has never been a fan of Stanley Kubrick's take on his "Shining," telling IndieWire that it's "like a big, beautiful Cadillac with no engine inside it."

Clearly, the prolific writer has never been one to mince words or his opinion when it comes to movies, and has shared his favorites with publications like Entertainment Weekly and BFI. He recently revealed one of his least favorites, though, posting on Twitter, "I have walked out of only one movie as an adult: TRANSFORMERS." He later clarified that it was "Michael Bay. The first one," although the author didn't go into further detail about what exactly made him walk out of one of the biggest summer movies of the 2000s.

Oprah Winfrey has long wielded a lot of power and influence with her opinions. Her good word on a book or her "favorite things" gets her fans flocking to stores, and in turn can change the creator's fortunes. Besides starring in and producing movies, she enjoys recommending ones she loves to others. Winfrey is such a fan of movies that, as she explained to the Columbia Daily Herald, she even sat down with students at her girls' school in South Africa to tell them the "movies you need to know," including "Terms of Endearment," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," and "The Wizard of Oz."

One movie not on that list is Neil Jordan's 1994 adaptation of Anne Rice's 1976 novel, "Interview with a Vampire." Oprah was one of 30 people to walk out of a screening of it, due to its violent and gory nature. She said, "I believe there are forces of light and darkness in the world, and I don't want to be a contributor to the force of darkness," (via The Orlando Sentinel) and that darkness almost made her cancel an upcoming show interview with Tom Cruise. The interview did take place, with Cruise telling her "the movie is not for everyone." Cruise didn't forget about her aversion to the movie, and called her out in a 2017 interview with Extra for walking out of it, to which she responded with a smile, "Tom, I still don't like it!"

When Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" orbited theaters in 1968, for many critics and stargazing theatergoers, the 139 minutes glued to the big screen was "the ultimate trip," which "makes most of the science-fiction films that have gone before it look like interstellar waxworks," as Louise Sweeney wrote for The Christian Science Monitor.

But for some, it was more like a bad trip. The New York premiere actually saw upwards of 250 walkouts, according to the film's star Keir Dullea, who also noted that Hollywood icon Rock Hudson walked out of the Los Angeles screening, muttering "What is this bulls–t?" (via The Hollywood Reporter). Roger Ebert's retelling of the events was a little bit more PG, as he wrote that Hudson "stalked down the aisle, complaining, 'Will someone tell me what the hell this is about?'" Hudson wasn't the only one left annoyed and confused by the film, as "Taxi Driver" writer Paul Schrader described Kubrick's movie as "pretentious and sophomoric, or worse yet, a put-on."

As the third actor to portray ladies' man James Bond, Roger Moore knows a thing or three about steaming up the silver screen. However, Moore's limits of decency were tested to its deepest depths after taking in a notorious 1970s porn film.

Moore told The Daily Star that Sammy Davis Jr. invited him, Bond producer "Cubby" Broccoli, and their wives to go see a movie. When asked which one, Davis pointed to his throat, so Moore thought it was "something about a dentist." The film in question was 1972's "Deep Throat," and everyone quickly realized that it wasn't exactly about oral hygiene. Moore added, "the ladies were absolutely horrified. I was disappointed. I had to leave with the ladies."

Moore was so upset that he told The Edmonton Journal in 1973, "It's the sort of trash that will kill our industry. The next thing you know, we'll be moving the toilet into the living room!" His feelings didn't stop there, as he suggested a way for the film industry to self-censor and monitor sex on screen: "Filmmakers should adopt a rule boycotting from future employment any player who takes part in a porno production."

Despite his aversion to the explicitness of "Deep Throat," Moore didn't have any issue returning for a Bond film titled "Octopussy." According to Moore's autobiography "My Word Is My Bond," when "For Your Eyes Only" theme singer Sheena Easton heard the movie's title, she was taken aback, to which Moore replied, "What's wrong with 'Octopussy?' It's an Ian Fleming title."

As Sonny Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's first "Godfather" film, James Caan brought volcanic energy to the role of the spitfire eldest heir to Marlon Brando's Vito. In fact, Caan got so in character that he actually injured co-star Gianni Russo — who played Sonny's abusive brother-in-law Carlo Rizzi — during a memorable fight scene. Russo told Entertainment Weekly that Caan's improvised antics left him with a chipped elbow and two broken ribs, and the two "are not friends at all, believe me."

Luckily, when Caan got angry at his director, he did not take it out on him physically, unless you physically walking out on a screening. Caan recalled what set him off to The Hollywood Reporter: "When Michael [Pacino] tells me he is going to take care of the cop and Sollozzo [Al Lettieri], I say, 'You'll get brains all over your nice Ivy League suit.' There was a scene before in the same room that I had with Bobby [Duvall] that was like 10 pages long — and Francis cut all of it out! I was so pissed off, I couldn't watch the rest of the film. But otherwise, he gave me a great honor." 

For Robert Duvall, it was the 1940 John Ford classic adaptation of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" that prompted a walkout. In 1989, Duvall came clean to The Washington Post about his disdain for the film, "I walked out on 'The Grapes of Wrath.' I don't think it was that well done. Everybody says it's a great film, and that films were better way back then. Well, maybe, but they patronize and put quotes around everything. On the one hand, they're patting them on the back, on the other, they're excusing them. The people I've met in Oklahoma don't act like the people I saw in that movie."

He was so displeased with Ford's take on Steinbeck's Dust Bowl Depression era tale that he wanted to make a remake himself (via The Edmonton Journal). He explained his feelings to The Sun Sentinel, noting how Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath" is an example of how Hollywood can't seem to realistically tackle tales of the countryside because "a lot of times movies do better with urban things than rural things." While Duvall never got to see his own "The Grapes of Wrath" take root, in 2016, he finally did take part in a Steinbeck adaptation in James Franco's "In Dubious Battle" and got the chance to bring his more realistic take on rural life to the screen.

While Madonna may be the Queen of Pop, her reign doesn't always extend to all areas of pop culture. The material girl has ruled the airwaves, but has sometimes struggled to do so at the box office. Madonna starred in the 1993 erotic thriller "Body of Evidence," which initially made shockwaves for its NC-17 rating (via The LA Times). The controversy didn't stop there, as critics lambasted the film, with Roger Ebert calling Madonna "the queen of movies that were bad ideas right from the beginning."

According to The Evening Standard, Madonna sank down in her seat at a screening of the movie, as the audience laughed at her sex scenes with Willem Dafoe. The mocking continued, with the moviegoers applauding when Madonna's character gets slapped in the face and is told that she "has an inflated opinion of herself." Perhaps understandably, this led to Madonna angrily leaving the theater before the film's conclusion.

Madonna spoke to The Los Angeles Times about the unfair treatment she received, saying, "I'm disappointed in [Body of Evidence], but I'm not sorry I did it. I think I did a good job. But I got the blame for everything. It was like I wrote it, produced it, directed it, and I was the only one acting in it, you know?"

When Quentin Tarantino unleashed his debut "Reservoir Dogs" on an unsuspecting world, not everyone was ready for it. The realistically violent story of a gang of bank robbers holding a cop hostage culminates in an unforgettable scene of slicing his ear off (to the sweet sounds of "Stuck in the Middle with You"), which is the film's signature moment and a make-or-break point for the audience.

Tarantino relished the reaction that moment caused, telling The Hollywood Reporter that he used to count "the walkouts during the torture scene, and 33 was the largest" total. When it played at Spain's Sitges horror film festival, he was ready for there to be zero walkouts; after all, this was a horror-loving audience who could handle it. To his shock, "five people walk out of that audience, including West Craven! [The director] who did The Last House on the Left walked out?! My movie was too tough for him."

In a Rolling Stone interview, Tarantino noted that at that festival, guest judge Stuart Gordon of "Re-Animator" fame was "was burying his head in his hands," and special effects maestro Rick Baker also walked out. Baker later told him, "I walked out of your movie, but I want you to take it as a compliment. See, we all deal in fantasy. There's no such thing as werewolves or vampires. You're dealing with real-life violence, and I can't deal with it." For the director, "it never bothered me when people walked out, it just meant that scene worked."

Actors are often their own harshest critics, so perhaps it's no surprise that some actors find it hard to sit through their own movies. When it came to her performance in 2010's teen comedy "Easy A," Emma Stone may have garnered a Golden Globe nomination, but never gave herself an "A" for her work ... because she's never seen the movie in full. In a revealing 2018 Actors on Actors conversation with Timothée Chalamet, she admitted to feeling the pressure of having to carry the film both on-screen and as the narrator. Stone noted that she "went to a friends and family screening to see it, and I had to get up and walk out. Who wants to watch themselves for that long?" and said that she still hasn't seen the film, just a few scenes.

"Easy A" also was too much to bear for co-star Amanda Bynes, who recalled to Paper that during a screening, she didn't have the response that other viewers were. She said, "I literally couldn't stand my appearance in that movie and I didn't like my performance. I was absolutely convinced I needed to stop acting after seeing it." She added, "I was convinced that I should never be on camera again and I officially retired." True to her word, she hasn't been in a movie since. Easy A? More like difficult A!

There is perhaps no filmmaker that tests audiences' patience and repels them from theaters quite like Danish director Lars von Trier. His serial killer tale "The House That Jack Built" caused quite a stir at its 2018 Cannes screening, prompting over 100 viewers to bolt early (via The Guardian). The controversial director takes it in stride (and with pride), telling SciFiNow, "People have walked out on many of my films, and I think that it's important to have some walkouts." Von Trier elaborated on this in an interview with Cineuropa: "It's quite important not to be loved by everybody, because then you've failed."

While he pushes his audiences to the limit, he tests the wills of his actors even more. Nicole Kidman was put through the wringer for her starring turn in von Trier's 2003 film "Dogville." Grace (Kidman) is on the run and takes shelter in the town of Dogville, where she's turned into an indentured servant and sex slave as payment for the townspeople's "kindness."

"Dogville" isn't just tough for viewers; Kidman herself couldn't make it through a special screening of the film. She told The Daily Mail, "It was hard watching it. The screen was huge, and the sound, and the extremeness of the situation. I was sitting there watching, and I thought, 'This is too exposing', so I left." Kidman divulged to Entertainment Weekly that "Dogville" is "very strange and unusual and took a lot out of me. I'm glad I went into von Trier world, but it was difficult."

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Perhaps the only modern filmmaker who can give Lars von Trier a run for his money with challenging viewers to stay in their seats is provocateur Gaspar Noé. To fully sit through one of his films is an achievement worthy of a badge of courage. When Noé's brutal "Irréversible" played at Cannes in 2002, which features a 9-minute scene of a sexual assault, it led to 250 walkouts (with some angry viewers captured on video), and 20 patrons required oxygen after fainting (via Far Out Magazine).

It's a bit surprising then to discover that a similar scene in Sam Peckinpah's 1971 "Straw Dogs" caused the teenage Noé to leave the theater. He relayed to The Guardian that "I thought it was too heavy to handle. During the rape scene, I had to walk out." He later explained his rationale to IndieWire, noting that since this sexual violence occurs midway through, he thought, "Well if this is the middle of the movie, I don't want to see what happens next."

Noé also made an early exit during "Black Panther" for entirely different reasons. He admitted to Variety that he "tried 'Black Panther.' I escaped from the cinema after 20 minutes. I thought it was as bad as 'Star Wars.' I hated 'Star Wars.' I hated the R&B music [in 'Black Panther']. The music was so bad that I had to escape."

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

While Woody Harrelson passed on starring in The Farrelly Brothers' 1994 comedy classic "Dumb and Dumber," he found time to spare for their follow-up two years later, "Kingpin" (via T-Lounge). As the one-handed, washed-up bowling pro Roy Munson, Harrelson brings both a sad and winning sense of pathos to the hilarious 1996 movie. As an actual bowler, Harrelson was more a turkey than one likely to score a turkey, with Peter Farrelly copping to Fast Company, "Woody was horrible. He was shockingly bad. Like, he never got better... I don't think Woody ever broke 100 the whole time we were bowling."

Pin inaction aside, Harrelson wasn't very fond of "Kingpin," and he stormed out of the screening when he saw the film for the first time. He explained to Backstage that "there was a lot of stuff I thought was great that got cut, and I just didn't like it; I didn't think it was funny," and left "Kingpin" in the gutter for a long time, despite pleas from director Peter Farrelly to give it a second chance. He finally acquiesced decades later when his daughter Makani wanted to watch, and when they did, had a change of heart, exclaiming, "This movie's fantastic!" and "immediately called Petey to apologize."

By the mid-1980s, John Cusack was ready to move on from "teen sex-discovery films," telling The Los Angeles Times that "Better of Dead" would be his last. He noted the film is "so bizarre ... it's either going to be a smash or a cult film." The 1985 film, written and directed by Savage Steve Holland, went the route of cult classic, which Holland calls "a bastard step-child. No one ever believes in it, cares about it." (via The Sneeze).

One of the harshest critics of the movie is its star, Cusack. Holland told The Sneeze that before starting production on 1986's "One Crazy Summer," that cast and crew had a screening of "Better Off Dead" that they may have been better off... not doing. Cusack lasted 20 minutes before storming out. He told Holland that the movie was "the worst thing I have ever seen. I will never trust you as a director ever again, so don't speak to me.'" They were somehow able to move forward to complete "One Crazy Summer."

Cusack explained himself on in a Reddit AMA by responding to a fan's question of whether or not he hated "Better Off Dead." He wrote, "No, I just thought it could have been better but I think that about almost all my films. I have nothing against the film...Glad people love it still."

For a film franchise that excels on parody and satire, it makes sense that members of the famed comedy troupe Monty Python lent their voices to the family fun of "Shrek." John Cleese was drafted for the second film, and for "Shrek the Third," Eric Idle joined him in the pageantry. Idle played the Arthurian legend wizard Merlin, who described his character in a Meet the Cast featurette as "some kind of broken-down old high school teacher of magic."

While Idle was all smiles walking into the film's premiere, that grin was quickly turned upside down after the theater's lights dimmed. The opening scene of "Shrek the Third" finds Prince Charming performing in a not-so-charming bit of dinner theater, which includes the sound of fake horse trotting made by banging coconut shells together. That equine gag was just a tad familiar to Idle since it was borrowed from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," and he promptly walked out of the theater.

He later told 99.1 MIX FM (via The Star), "John and I are in this film and you steal our joke?" While the radio presenter noted it was a flattering homage, Idle retorted, "Do you think if I stole your wallet that'd be homage to your money?" and threatened to sue the filmmakers. Idle composed himself enough to return to the premiere, but remained shocked because "if you steal peoples jokes, I don't think that's homage, I think that's theft."

Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer detective books made him one of the best-selling novelists of the 20th century (via The Guardian). Fellow scribe Max Allan Collins wrote for The Los Angeles Times that "without [Spillane] and Mike Hammer, there wouldn't be Dirty Harry, James Bond or even Frank Miller's 'Sin City.' Mickey changed the tough hero forever with his potent mix of sex and violence, and he opened previously forbidden doors that all of popular fiction soon moved through."

When it came to big screen adaptations of his work, Spillane had no issue spilling the beans on his opinion of them. His first novel, 1947's "I, The Jury," was turned into a 3-D film six years later, and he confessed to Redbook that he was so disappointed and humiliated by it that he blew off the premiere mid-screening. As he explained, "Hollywood doesn't know how to tell a story. The minstrels, the troubadours, used to tell their story and then pass the hat. Hollywood is lucky; they pass the hat first."

That didn't prevent Spillane from continuing to turn out whodunnits, nor did Hollywood stop adapting them. In 1963, Spillane even played Mike Hammer in the movie "The Girl Hunters." Still, he never got over his disdain for Hollywood, telling The Los Angeles Times, "they listen to their own trade papers, but they don't listen to the people in the Middle West, or any place else."