10 Famous Actors Who Can't Handle Horror Movies

It's safe to say that horror is the film genre that turns away the most audiences just by virtue of being what it is. Films like "Texas Chain Saw Massacre," "The Exorcist," and "It" notably feature moments that terrify watchers, whether it be through exploiting common phobias, depicting grotesque mutilation, or showcasing unimaginable supernatural events. It's all the more surprising when instant body horror classic "The Substance" racks up nominations at major award ceremonies, taking home an Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. 

Of course, "The Substance" is not the first terrifying horror movie that's won an Oscar, nor is it the last. However, it might be assumed that, because of their involvement in creating horror movies and seeing how the sausage gets made, actors would be more immune to watching them than other viewers. As it turns out, the opposite is true. There are many iconic actors who shy away from starring in horror movies, even some who are most notable for acting in them.

For these 10 famous actors, they might have garnered screams, thrills, and chills in certain movies, but in their personal lives, their taste in movies veers away from the terrifying. What they get out of acting in both classic and modern horror movies is much, much different than what they get out of watching them, which is a lot of anxiety and fear. 

Robert Pattinson may have only dipped his toes into the horror genre with the "Twilight" franchise and his memorable role as Cedric Diggory in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," but he truly delved into the macabre with films like "The Lighthouse" (above) and "The Devil All the Time." Some may argue that Pattinson's most recent work in "Mickey 17" is his best performance to date, but the actor has yet to fully immerse himself in a properly terrifying horror film, and judging by his recent statements on the genre, maybe he never will. 

During a conversation with "Mickey 17" director Bong Joon-ho for GQ, Pattinson said, "I used to watch a lot of, like, really dark stuff when I was younger and just think, like, 'Yeah, this is cool,' and now, I'm too sensitive." Pattinson also remarked how strange it is that, the older he gets, the more frightened he is of watching horror movies, rather than the inverse where he gets more desensitized with age. 

Pattinson's aversion to horror nowadays is far from him being a scaredy-cat, though, as he also told Bong about a recent horror movie watch that terrified him so much, "I kept thinking that someone was breaking into my house, and so, like, I was on my sofa with two kitchen knives, like, waiting for the person to come in," which led to a very awkward moment when his partner found him asleep on the couch wielding two large knives. 

As revealed in an interview with Letterboxd, Jennifer Lawrence's four favorite movies of all time includes Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park," an iconic blockbuster that some may classify as a horror movie for its intense sequences of dinosaur rampages. However, Lawrence is not a fan of most horror movies, even though she has acted in several, such as Darren Aronofsky's "Mother!" (seen above), of which /Film wrote, "Aronofsky excels at making films that are claustrophobic, suspenseful, and manic, as his lead characters lose their minds and often self-harm to the point of death ... that's exactly what happens in ['Mother!']"

In an interview with W Magazine, Lawrence claims she struggles with watching horror movies, saying, "I'm an adult, I don't need to [watch horror movies] ... I'm gonna be scared every day, and I do it all the time. Why?" Lawrence also had a lot of fears outside the realm of horror movies, including zombies and ghosts, both of which are frequent tropes in horror movies, so it's understandable that the actress' poor judgment in selecting a film to watch often backfires. 

Given Lawrence's critical success with the recent comedy "No Hard Feelings," it's possible she might have her sights set on doing more work that's lighter on the jump scares. Nevertheless, her next slated film (with the previously mentioned Robert Pattinson) will actually be a horror comedy called "Die, My Love" , based on a 2017 novel about a woman in the countryside who slowly descends into madness. 

It's no secret that the "Harry Potter" franchise utilizes some elements of horror flicks, from the ghastly Dementors to its Transylvania-esque architecture. However, lead actor Daniel Radcliffe led a proper horror film in 2012, just after the end of the "Harry Potter" films, with "The Woman in Black" (pictured above), in which he plays a lawyer investigating a small town haunted by the ghost of a woman in funeral attire, played by Liz White, who seeks revenge against the townsfolk for the death of her own son. 

However, as Radcliffe described in an interview with MTV, "The Woman in Black" is not really up his alley, saying that if he wasn't in it, he probably wouldn't see it himself, nor would he force any of his loved ones to go see it, either. It's not an entirely surprising admission from the actor, given that Radcliffe's best roles post-"Harry Potter" work have included absurd indie films ("Swiss Army Man"), Broadway theater ("Merrily We Roll Along"), and TV comedy ("Miracle Workers"). 

"The Woman in Black" wouldn't be Radcliffe's last horror film, as the actor also appeared in genre-bending films like "Horns" and "Victor Frankenstein," but even he'd admit that horror is not a genre he ever imagined himself doing. Given the insane filmography that Radcliffe has pursued following his iconic role as the Boy Who Lived, it wouldn't be surprising if he ended up doing another horror film at some point, though no one should expect anything we've seen before. 

Jenna Ortega's career started off as innocently as possible, with a lead role in "Stuck in the Middle" on Disney Channel. However, in recent years she's become somewhat of an icon in horror movies, with some of Ortega's best movie moments being in slasher films like "Scream" (above) and "X," in addition to working with Tim Burton on the Netflix series "Wednesday" and "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice." In many interviews, Ortega has described horror as a very comfortable genre for her as an actress, though it hasn't always been that way. 

In a cover story with Vanity Fair, Ortega opened up about her long-time fear of horror movies such as "Child's Play," which she mistakenly watched when she was a lot younger. In an effort to overcome it, Ortega forced herself to re-watch the film over and over again to de-sensitize herself. Even though it later inspired her desire to work in horror, Ortega claimed that doing so "f—ed me up for years to come. I still was a massive scaredy cat, but I was interested in something that scared me."

Though she's now considered a scream queen, Ortega isn't interested in being typecast in the horror genre for her entire career, despite her upcoming work including A24's comedy horror "Death of a Unicorn" and The Weeknd's "Hurry Up Tomorrow." She got an opportunity to break free from horror in her 2024 film "Winter Spring Summer or Fall," a romance film with her "Wednesday" co-star Percy Hynes White. 

Hugh Jackman is obviously most recognizable as the Marvel superhero Wolverine, but for the most part, the actor prefers to scare his enemies rather than be scared. The Australian actor has taken on his fair share of pretty intense roles, including an ambitious magician in Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige" and a violent father of two missing daughters in "Prisoners" (seen above). Aside from that, Jackman's greatest moments in film include his penchant for musicals like "Les Miserables" and "The Greatest Showman."

However, unlike Wolverine himself, Jackman is very capable of fear. His biggest fear is actually one that he shares in common with Jenna Ortega, admitting that he's freaked out by horror films about dolls that come to life, like Chucky in "Child's Play." At the very least, he's not the only actor to admit he's afraid of creepy dolls, as he shares this phobia with his "Deadpool & Wolverine" co-star Channing Tatum, who was confronted on "Ellen" about the fear. Luckily, Jackman has yet to face that kind of surprise on live television yet. 

Surprisingly, Jackman claims to have been quite the scaredy-cat when he was younger, struggling with many other phobias aside from Chucky, including heights and the dark. Nevertheless, Jackman probably won't be making an appearance in any films like "Saw" or "Annabelle" anytime soon, though if he did, he'd probably give quite the authentic performance. 

At this point, there isn't a single genre Emma Stone can't master. After debuting in teen comedies like "Superbad" and "Easy A," Stone has been a scene-stealer in superhero blockbusters ("The Amazing Spider-Man"), musicals ("La La Land"), and Oscar-winning period dramedies ("The Favourite"). Even Stone's four favorite movies from Letterboxd showcased her preference for comedy spanning the entire history of cinema. Nevertheless, there's one genre Stone has shied away from: horror. 

When telling Entertainment Weekly about the movies that have been a huge part of her life, only one horror movie made the cut: "The Exorcist," but not for good reasons. As Stone explained, "I saw ["The Exorcist"] when I was a kid, and I didn't sleep for weeks. Then I found out it was based on a true story, and I was like [shudders]. It was the most terrifying movie ever. It's the psychological stuff that gets me." She even nearly played Anya Taylor-Joy's role in 2022's "The Menu" before dropping out, but that would've been quite a different kind of horror than the kind that haunted her childhood. 

While Stone's work with director Yorgos Lanthimos has delved into violent and surrealist territory with her Oscar-winning turn in "Poor Things," and 2024's "Kinds of Kindness" (above), she clearly doesn't mind working with greats of the modern horror movie. Her next non-Lanthimos project is slated to be "Eddington," directed by Ari Aster, though time will tell if Stone is too out of her comfort zone on this film. 

For a long time, audiences looked at John Krasinski and saw one thing and one thing only: Jim from "The Office." However, the actor's foray into directing surprised audiences with "A Quiet Place," a horror film (seen above) starring Krasinski and his real-life wife, Emily Blunt, as a married couple struggling to protect their family from aliens with incredibly sensitive hearing. As /Film wrote of the majorly effective monster movie's premiere at SXSW, "'A Quiet Place' is, above all else, really scary ... So many of these recent contained horror films are all build-up and no pay-off, and A Quiet Place pays off again and again." 

While a lot of acclaim was hurled towards Krasinski's take on the horror genre, the former sitcom actor surprisingly wasn't a fan prior to reading the script by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. Needing to study up, Krasinski dove into horror films of modern cinematic history like "Get Out" and "The Witch," but found himself more drawn to the likes of classic horror movies "Jaws" and "Alien." However, the horror was never the part that interested Krasinski first about the project; it was the story of parenthood. 

In fact, Krasinski has even claimed that he nearly turned down "A Quiet Place" when he was first offered it as an actor because of his aversion to horror, but he changed his mind after reading it. Little did he know that his debut as a horror director would spawn a new blockbuster horror franchise. 

While many are familiar with Danai Gurira from her role as Okoye in "Black Panther" and other Marvel Cinematic Universe projects, her performance as Michonne in "The Walking Dead" got her named the best character in the series by Rolling Stone. You would think that in order to survive a post-apocalyptic world, one would have to be pretty used to seeing some terrifying things. Unfortunately, the Zimbabwean-American actress is not as fearless as the badass zombie killer she plays on TV. 

As Gurira herself has admitted, she might be able to watch her own show, but otherwise she apparently hates horror movies. As she told Den of Geek, "[The] idea of getting into the psychology of what [Michonne's] going through is a lot different from sitting and watching 'The Exorcist,' which I will avoid with my life! But because I'm a scaredy cat, not because it's not brilliant." For Gurira, her fear of horror movies lies more in fearing the unknown, whereas with "The Walking Dead" she knows everything that's going to happen already from working on it. 

What's most surprising about Gurira's aversion to horror, however, is that prior to joining the cast of "The Walking Dead" in the third season (one of the show's best), one of Gurira's first films was Wes Craven's 2010 slasher "My Soul to Take." Given how mixed reviews for that film are even by horror fanatics, it's safe to say Gurira probably isn't rewatching it on her own time for a number of reasons. 

Megan Fox has been very open about her love of all things occult, from tarot cards to blood-drawing rituals, but surprisingly the actress draws a hard line when it comes to horror movies. After breaking into mainstream popularity in the "Transformers" franchise, Fox became a cult icon with the 2009 horror comedy "Jennifer's Body," which was just about as far out of her comfort zone as she could possibly get. 

As she told People Magazine, "I don't ever, ever watch scary movies because I have a very intense fear of the dark. The last horror movie I saw, I think was called 'Tooth Fairy,' and I was like 15 years old and I saw it and I slept with my mother for two weeks afterwards. I get really affected by them." This even posed an issue for Fox when she was doing ADR dialogue for "Jennifer's Body," causing her to be jump-scared even while she was in the recording booth watching the film. 

In recent years, Fox has made appearances in horror-adjacent films like "Till Death" (seen above), which /Film named one of the best horror movies of 2021 and earned Fox acclaim from critics, many of whom called it the best performance of her career. However, the actress has also gone on record to say she doesn't want to do movies like "The Hobbit" in fear of ruining them for herself, so perhaps acting in horror has been a great loophole for Fox's career. 

Many cinephiles would probably agree that Ridley Scott's 1979 film "Alien" (seen above) is one of the best horror movies ever, perhaps only rivaled by its James Cameron-directed sequel "Aliens." There are a lot of moments in the film that stand-out to audiences, from the infamous chest burster to the adorable kitten Jonesy, but needless to say, Sigourney Weaver defined "Alien" as much as "Alien" defined her, turning her from a relatively unknown Broadway actor into a box office draw who would go on to star in "Ghostbusters," "Galaxy Quest," and "Avatar." 

However, the actress recently admitted on The Graham Norton Show that she hates watching horror movies, in response to fellow guest Nicholas Hoult's recap of working on Robert Eggers' terrifying and grotesque "Nosferatu." Though Weaver has no trouble acting terrified in films like "Alien," she rarely ever goes to see them herself. Hopefully, the "Alien" franchise is excluded from Weaver's avoidance of horror, given how inspired actress Cailee Spaeny was by the character of Ellen Ripley for "Alien: Romulus." 

Nevertheless, even if she doesn't like horror movies, Weaver won't dissuade audiences from watching them. Her most recent release, in fact, is the Apple TV+ thriller "The Gorge," of which she told GamesRadar+, "It's a great date movie because it's terrifying and you're going to be sitting in each other's arms from, you know, the first half hour." Odds are, Weaver probably won't be picking it as her own personal Valentine's Day watch, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't!