Very few actors have a perfect batting average. For one reason or another, even the best actors find themselves in the occasional clunker. On the flipside, there are also a number of very well-known actors who have a ridiculous number of rotten movies we’ve forgotten about. Then there are those who have made some truly terrible movies to the surprise of nobody. Would it shock you to know that Nicolas Cage and Eddie Murphy have each appeared in a movie that received the dreaded 0% on Rotten Tomatoes? Of course it wouldn’t — in fact, you might even have trouble narrowing down which ones are the offending movies in each of their spotty filmographies. 

Most actors that are household names fall somewhere in the middle of those two extremes, having an understandable mix of good-to-great movies and bad-to-awful movies under their belts. But there are some actors who have starred in a 0%-rated-on-Rotten-Tomatoes movie that might come as a surprise. These are the kind of actors who seem to be somewhat picky and make mostly good choices; when they are in a bad movie, it typically still has its fans or is at least mildly entertaining enough to have had a few critics go to bat for it. And that is usually the case with everyone in this feature — except for that one complete and utter misfire that is way beneath them. 

When one thinks about Sean Connery in the context of a legendarily bad movie, it’s easy to assume the main offender is “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.” Indeed, that 2003 adaptation of Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s comic book series didn’t win much favor with critics, earning a 17% Rotten Tomatoes score. Its troubled production also caused Connery to leave Hollywood behind altogether, and it would be the last live-action role he’d ever play. 

But just because “Gentlemen” is the film that effectively ended Connery’s movie career doesn’t mean it’s his worst film. That dishonor belongs to “Highlander II: The Quickening,” the movie that is basically a case study in how a sequel can be so bad that it ruins the franchise. Though the original “Highlander” — a fantasy adventure about an ongoing war between immortal warriors — was initially a commercial failure, it became a legitimate cult classic to the point that a sequel was made five years later. 

Connery returned to reprise the role of Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez for “The Quickening,” joining Christopher Lambert as the only major returning characters from the original. But the movie was a failure of absolutely colossal proportions, scoring a 0% on RT. Pretty much every attempt to do anything further with the “Highlander” franchise after the initial film has been a misfire, proving that perhaps there really can only be one.

Before finally scoring his breakthrough role as Don Draper in “Mad Men,” Jon Hamm had a decade of screen credits behind him. His most prominent roles up to that point were also on television, including being part of the main cast of police procedural “The Division” and a recurring role on NBC’s “Providence.” He did have some minor movie roles during that time, but it was after he starred on “Mad Men” that his film career really took off. Hamm has since built an impressively varied filmography that includes “The Town,” “Baby Driver,” “Bridesmaids,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” and “Confess, Fletch.”

But things were a bit rocky in those first few years of trying to balance a film career and “Mad Men” — and we aren’t just talking about Hamm appearing in the Zack Snyder flop “Sucker Punch.” In 2009, he co-starred with Josh Lucas, Rhona Mitra, and James Van Der Beek in the crime drama “Stolen.” As the Rotten Tomatoes consensus points out next to its 0% rating for the movie, “this would-be thriller squanders a solid cast on overly serious and suspense-free storytelling.” Fortunately for Hamm, “Stolen” did little to rob him of his still-budding film career, in part because hardly anyone even noticed it — it only made about $8,000 in a very limited theatrical release before going straight to video. 

When considering which of Dominic Cooper’s roles he’s best known for, most people will likely be split between Jesse Custer on the TV series “Preacher” and young Howard Stark in various Marvel Cinematic Universe projects. Those who lean a little more musically might instead know Cooper best as Sky Rymand in the two “Mamma Mia!” films. What almost nobody will say they remember first about Cooper is his title role in the 2017 action movie “Stratton.”

Released only in its native U.K., “Stratton” was received extremely poorly, with critics handing it a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score. Also along for the disappointing ride is fellow MCU alum Gemma Chan, as well as Tyler Hoechlin, best known as the Arrowverse’s main Superman. Ironically, another Superman — Henry Cavill — was originally meant to star as protagonist John Stratton, but he left before filming began over issues with the script. It seems like Cavill could see that this was going to be a stinker, even when it was still just words on paper, and got out while he could. 

After making a name for himself in the 1990s with his rubber-faced mugging and loose-limbed slapstick on the sketch series “In Living Color” and megahit comedies like “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and “The Mask,” Jim Carrey eventually started branching out into drama. And he’s done some excellent work in that arena, most notably with “The Truman Show” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” But when Carrey misfires at drama, the results are arguably way worse than when he’s in a bad comedy, as demonstrated by his only two movies to score less than double digits on Rotten Tomatoes.

“The Number 23” was seen as Carrey’s first major misstep after becoming a huge star, not only underperforming at the box office but giving him the worst reviews of his career up to that point — and that even includes his campy pre-fame dud “Once Bitten.” But “Number 23” still managed to eek out a 7% on RT. It would be some years later, with the 2016 mystery thriller “Dark Crimes,” that Carrey finally got his first 0%-rated film. 

Carrey spent the next few years focusing on television and seeming to have little interest in making movies, until his big comeback as Dr. Robotnik in the “Sonic the Hedgehog” movies, which — if he sticks to his plan to retire after “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” — serves as a much better note to end his career on than “Dark Crimes” would have been. 

Kate Beckinsale rose to prominence around the turn of the millennium with movies like “Pearl Harbor,” “Brokedown Palace,” and “Serendipity.” But it’s when she took on the lead role of a vampire named Selene in the “Underworld” sci-fi action franchise that she became a true Hollywood A-lister. Since then, she’s enjoyed showcasing her range in movies across pretty much all genres — while also returning to play Selene in a new “Underworld” movie every few years.

Of course, not all range is necessarily good range. It’s arguable whether Beckinsale appearing in the poorly-received Adam Sandler fantasy comedy “Click” did much to establish her funnywoman bona fides, for instance. Nor did her 2016 attempt at a psychological horror film, “The Disappointments Room,” help endear her to fans of that genre. Like many of the review headlines for the movie, the Rotten Tomatoes consensus can’t help evoking the irony of the title — “‘The Disappointments Room’ lives down to its title with a thrill-free thriller that presumably left its stars filled with regret — and threatens to do the same for audiences.” And thus, Beckinsale got the first 0%-rated movie of her career. 

When Christopher Lee passed away in 2015 at the age of 93, he left behind an incredible career the likes of which probably won’t ever be matched. His screen acting credits span a mind-boggling eight decades, and he holds the record for playing classic horror character Dracula more times than any other actor. Lee was also still successfully introducing himself to entirely new audiences well into his 80s, thanks to playing Count Dooku in the “Star Wars” franchise and Saruman in “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” films in the 2000s and 2010s. 

Given the nearly 300 credits Lee racked up in his storied career, it’s not at all shocking that there were a fair amount of duds in the mix. The actor clearly enjoyed working, and did so steadily throughout his life. But even so, there are some choices he made that are baffling for someone of his acumen — such as playing a campy, over-the-top Russian villain in 1994’s “Police Academy: Mission to Moscow.” 

It was at that point in the shockingly long-running law enforcement comedy series that original star Steve Guttenberg had bowed out, with the earlier film’s B- and C-tier characters now leading the charge. So for that to be the point when Lee decided to sign on — earning his first and only 0% Rotten Tomatoes score in the process — is especially unfortunate.