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