14 DAY TRIAL // If you ever wondered which is the pair of worst actors (male and female) since 1985, when the modern era in cinematography began, wonder no more. Based on the popular Tomatometer on RottenTomatoes.com, Slate magazine has come up with an answer: Chuck Norris and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
The Tomatometer is the number given to any movie which averages critics’ opinions and fans’ take on said release. As such, movies can be either “fresh” (good, over 60%) or “rotten” (bad).
While actors’ careers represent a combination of fresh and rotten that makes them linger in the middle, 50%-ish area, directors tend to get increasingly better critical reception as they advance in years, Slate writes.
Summing up the ratings all actors who have made at least 10 films since 1985, Slate came up with the Worst Actor, Worst Actress, Best Actor, Best Actress, Worst Director and Best Director.
Worst Actor is Chuck Norris, Slate writes, perhaps unaware of his powerful roundhouse kick that can send even the Earth into a backwards spin, if one is to believe the countless Chuck Norris facts out there.
“Appearing in one bad film is a mistake. Appearing in dozens of bad films is a deliberate choice. Thanks to movies like The Delta Force (20 percent), Missing in Action (23 percent), and Top Dog (0 percent), Norris tops – or, as it were, bottoms – the list of worst-reviewed actors, with an average score of 18.4 since 1985,” the magazine writes.
Worst Actress is Jennifer Love Hewitt, who, despite her success as a television actress, is yet to conquer the silver screen. In fact, she’s the only one to have zero movies peak over 60% on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Her average score of 18.9 owes to such duds as Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (7 percent), I Know What You Did Last Summer (35 percent), I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (7 percent), and both Garfield movies (15 percent and 11 percent, respectively),” Slate writes.
Best Actor is French star Daniel Auteuil, while Slate names Arsinée Khanjian as Best Actress.
Speaking about her latest “win” in a statement to Entertainment Weekly, Love can’t but hit back at Slate and critics by hinting that critical reception of one film means nothing if fans really like it.
“Clearly, I need to learn French and go to Paris to make some French films, since those seem to be the favorites of critics. And do they give trophies for this?” Love says.