Guy Pearce has revealed that he’s not a fan of his own performance in Christopher Nolan’s Memento.
The actor, 57, played Leonard Shelby, a man suffering from a form of amnesia that prevents him from forming new memories, in the 2000 thriller.
In an interview with The Times, Pearce, who is currently starring in The Brutalist, scathingly described his turn in the cult classic as “s***”.
“I watched Memento the other day and I’m still depressed,” he admitted. “I’m s*** in that movie.”
The Australian star revealed that he had chose to revisit the thriller before taking part in a Q&A about the film, only to realise “I hate what I did”.
“I’d never thought that before, but I did this Q&A of Memento earlier this month and decided to actually watch the film again,” he explained. “But while it was playing I realised I hate what I did.”
Pearce noted that he had previously believed that an executive at Warner Bros had barred him from working with Nolan again, but returning to the film had made him change his opinion.
“And so all this stuff about an exec at Warners being why I’ve not worked with Chris again? It came crashing down,” he said. “I know why I didn’t work with Chris again – it’s because I’m no good in Memento.”
The star added that he was “trying to do a flippant attitude” in the film, “but it was all wrong”, and described the sensation of re-watching his performance as like “nails on a chalkboard”.
“If I reckon my performance in Neighbours is a two out of ten, Memento is a five,” he concluded.
In an interview with Vanity Fair last year, Pearce suggested that he had discussed other roles with Nolan after Memento, but ultimately never landed the parts.
“He spoke to me about roles a few times over the years,” the actor said. “The first Batman and The Prestige. But there was an executive at Warner Bros who quite openly said to my agent, ‘I don’t get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to get Guy Pearce. I’m not going to employ Guy Pearce.”
Pearce recently received a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for his turn as a wealthy industrialist in The Brutalist, which tells the story of a Hungarian architect (Adrien Brody) who flees post-war Europe and settles in the United States.
