Alec Baldwin Once Called One of His Films “A Complete Disaster”

Alec Baldwin has had a long career full of hits and misses, and he doesn’t shy away from admitting when a project went wrong. While he’s worked with top directors like Martin Scorsese and David Mamet, some films have left him regretting his choices. One movie he openly criticized is the 2012 musical comedy Rock of Ages.

The film, directed by Adam Shankman, tells the story of a small-town girl, played by Julianne Hough, who moves to Los Angeles to pursue a music career.

Baldwin played a rock club owner named Dennis Dupree, starring alongside Russell Brand. Despite its star-studded cast, the movie failed to impress critics and audiences. Baldwin later called the film a “complete disaster” in an interview at the American Magazine Media Conference.

Speaking about his initial excitement, Baldwin admitted that he quickly realized the production was chaotic. “It was a complete disaster… A week in, you go, ‘Oh God, what have I done?’” he said. He described the experience like being on a plane in trouble: “The plane is buffeting, the engine is on fire.”

Director Adam Shankman spoke to Collider about working with Baldwin and the ensemble cast, including Russell Brand. Shankman said Baldwin was immediately on board with his role. “When I talked to Alec, he said, ‘What would I do in the movie?’ I said, ‘You’re a guy from the ’60s who started this hot rock club… You’ve been so stoned for the last 27 years that you didn’t realise you were gay.’ And he was like, ‘I’m so in! That’s amazing!’”

Shankman added that working with the cast was an adventure. “I started with all these people who lived in the ’80s, but it was really fun to take Julianne and Diego and explain to them who they were and how they fit in and educate them. I sent them to rock star college. The whole movie was just such an adventure in that way. It was just a joy.”

Despite the fun behind the scenes, Rock of Ages struggled at the box office and with critics. The film grossed only $59 million worldwide on a $75 million budget. Critics called out the script and felt it didn’t stay true to the original Broadway musical. However, Tom Cruise’s cameo performances were praised, and the soundtrack reached #1 on the Billboard Top Soundtracks chart.

Rock of Ages featured music from many classic ’80s rock bands, including Def Leppard, Journey, Poison, and Bon Jovi. The cast also included Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Malin Åkerman, Mary J. Blige, Bryan Cranston, and others. Principal photography took place in Florida and Los Angeles between May and August 2011, with Shankman directing and Adam Anders and Peer Åström composing the film’s incidental music.

While Baldwin has had many hits in his career, he doesn’t hide his regrets. Rock of Ages remains one of the projects he publicly called out as a mistake.

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