Celebrities Who Haven’t Seen Their Own TV Shows and Movies: Constance Wu, Jared Leto, Rupert Grint and More

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Celebrities Who Haven’t Seen Their Own TV Shows and Movies: Constance Wu, Jared Leto, Rupert Grint and More

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.” [jwplayer grQQootH-zhNYySv2] 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: [podcast_block]

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Celebrities Who Haven’t Seen Their Own TV Shows and Movies: Constance Wu, Jared Leto, Rupert Grint and More

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.” [jwplayer grQQootH-zhNYySv2] 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: [podcast_block]

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Ellen Pompeo

In February 2022, the Grey's Anatomy star revealed that she hasn't actually watched many episodes of her long-running ABC series. "I haven't really seen most of them, I've watched only a handful," she said during an episode of her "Tell Me with Ellen Pompeo" podcast. "The few times I've directed, I went back and watched some old episodes."

The show has been on for more than 15 years, but the Massachusetts native explained that she likes to revisit older episodes when she directs so she can preserve some of the "spirit" from the series' first few seasons. "My intention is always to keep the spirit of the early days," she said. "That's really the hard work, is to try to keep that sort of DNA, which is hard but gives us a goal at least to strive for."

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Eric McCormack

The Will & Grace alum revealed in October 2021 that he never saw his hit 1993 Halloween movie, Double, Double, Toil and Trouble, during which he played the dad of the Olsen twins’ characters' Kelly and Lynn Farmer.

“I'm going to this year. I'm going to go to my Hulu account and watch it finally,” McCormack told Entertainment Weekly when reflecting on the cult classic. “But no, I never have. It's hard to go back and see ... certain looks. And also, I was probably a year-and-a-half into television, so I was still trying to adapt my stage acting to the camera. Maybe I was terrified to go back and watch it.”

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Barry Watson

“I never watched any of the series,” Watson exclusively told Us in October 2021 of his hit series 7th Heaven. “I was so busy working all the time. All I remember is working crazy hours on that show because I was the only one of the kids on a show that was over 18. I was 21 when we did the pilot. So they could work me as long as they wanted to”.

The Michigan native continued: “Half the time I was talking to, like, pieces of tape on the wall that was supposed to be one of the other characters. And I'd be there until two o'clock in the morning. You know, I never had time to watch the show.”

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Rupert Grint

The Harry Potter star, who played Harry’s BFF Ron Weasley in the franchise, surprised fans in February 2021 when he shared how many of the movies he’s actually watched. “I’ve probably seen the first three at the premieres, but after that, I stopped watching them,” the British actor told Variety at the time. “But now that I have a daughter, I will probably have to watch them with her.”

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Constance Wu

“The last movie I saw of mine was Crazy Rich Asians. It was watching that movie, after that experience, that I stopped watching anything,” Wu said during a February 2020 appearance on Live With Kelly and Ryan. “I didn’t watch my talk show appearances or Fresh Off the Boat or Hustlers. Just because I thought, you know, I want to focus on the present and not be self-critical and think too much, dwell too much on the past.”

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Adam Driver

The Girls alum told the New Yorker in October 2019 that he was “mortified” after seeing himself on the HBO show which is when he swore off watching himself on screen. “That’s when I was, like, I can’t watch myself in things. I certainly can’t watch this if we’re going to continue doing it,” he explained, noting he “went totally cold” when he felt obligated to attend the Star Wars: The Force Awakens premiere in 2015.

When it came to watch BlacKkKlansman, Driver agreed to attend a showing of the movie, but said he hid in the greenroom while it played. He later returned to the theater to take a bow.

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Busy Philipps

“I never watched Dawson’s Creek. I didn’t watch it before I was on the show and I barely watched it after I was on the show, so I don’t have the same connection that other people have to it,” the actress, who played Audrey Liddell on the WB series from 2001 to 2003, told the Belfast Telegraph in July 2018. “Freaks And Geeks, I think, is ultimately the classic [out of my shows]. And then probably Cougar Town.”

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Jared Leto

After winning the Academy Award for Best Support Actor in Dallas Buyers Club, Leto conceded that he’d never watched his performance. "I can't hear that voice! I've never really heard very much of it and I've never watched the film," the 30 Seconds to Mars singer said during an August 2014 interview with the New York Times’ TimesTalks. "I will [watch it] at some point, I'm sure. But too soon!"

He added: "It can never live up to the expectations I would have of it now because it was such a beautiful experience and the response that it got was really wonderful."

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Andrew Lincoln

The English actor told Entertainment Weekly in August 2013 that he has multiple reasons as to why he never watches himself as Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead.

“The original reason is the fact that I don’t actually enjoy looking at myself,” he said at the time. “And also because of the directorial choices that possibly, because I’ve done it, make you go, ‘Oh, there’s a take that blah-blah-blah.’ But mainly because I did it for a while, I watched it, and it’s a self-conscious thing of watching myself and going, ‘Oh, I like it when I do that. That’s kind of cool.’ And then, ‘Oh, I don’t like it when I do that.’ And that defeats the object of what I want to do as an actor, which is to try and be in the role and not be self-conscious.”

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Julianne Moore

"I haven't seen any of my own movies," the Still Alice star told Britain’s Daily Express in 2013. "I can't sit there for a premiere or anything. I like being in the movie more than I like watching them. That's my big thrill, rather than seeing the finished product."

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Naveen Andrews

“I was very confused [by the ending] just because I never saw the show,” Andrews, who played Sayid Jarrah on Lost, told Daybreak in June 2012 of his hit drama. “I saw the pilot, you know, because you have to have some knowledge of the piece that you are in, but I never saw an episode of Lost.”

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Helena Bonham Carter

The Enola Holmes actress told The Telegraph in November 2009 that she’s never seen any of her long list of film or TV projects. "It's not like I am going to do exactly the same part next year, so what's the point?" she said at the time. ''I love acting because I love doing it. You do it so that other people can watch it if they want to watch it."