Here's Why Guy Pearce Says He Wanted To “Punch” A “Snobby Actress”

I’m not going to mince words — Guy Pearce is incredible in The Brutalist. His performance is an undeniable highlight when it comes to Brady Corbet’s ambitious American epic, and he’s very rightly nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as a result of his efforts.

Guy’s awards season press run has also been highly entertaining. Late last year, he revealed that a Warner Bros executive apparently hated his acting in 2000’s Memento so much that he barred him from appearing in any future films from director Christopher Nolan.

In a recent interview with The Sunday Times, Guy revealed that he, too, believes he was “shit” in Memento. “I watched Memento the other day and I’m still depressed. I’m shit in that movie,” he said.

“I have many feelings about that show,” he said. “In the old days you were either a theater actor or a film actor, and if you got stuck in a soap you were the lowest of the low — but what an opportunity. I had no clue what I was doing but learnt a lot. When young actors ask me for advice, I shrug and say, ‘Get lucky?’ Because I got lucky.”

But Guy also pointed out that acting in shows like Neighbours was also “frowned upon” amidst other Australian acting types — and he went on to share an anecdote about an encounter that proved just that.

“I did a play a year after I left and this snobby actress said, ‘How could you even do that?’ I wanted to punch her!” he recalled.

“Now, obviously, I didn’t punch her,” he said. (Thank God for that!) “But it was such a horrible attitude. And then, five years later, I saw her on some shit ad on TV. I so wanted to go and find her and say, ‘OK…’”