Die-hard fans of Christopher Nolan's Memento might find this hard to digest, but, the film's leading man Guy Pearce, who played the memory-affected protagonist of the director's mind-bending psychological mystery, said he isn't proud of his performance in the film.
In an interview with The Times, the actor, who plays one of the principal characters in the upcoming multiple Oscar-nominated film The Brutalist, says he felt "depressed" after revisiting the film. “I’m having an existential crisis. I watched Memento the other day and I’m still depressed. I’m s*** in that movie. I’d never thought that before, but I did this Q&A of Memento earlier this month and decided to actually watch the film again. But while it was playing I realised I hate what I did.”
Pearce has yet to tell Nolan about this, but he believes the latter would agree with him about his "bad" performance in a movie that he sees as good. "It’s funny; people say I should’ve been nominated for Memento. Now I understand why I wasn’t,” he said.
Remembering something English actor and theatre director John Gielgud said on acting, Pearce said, ‘You can be good in a good movie, good in a bad movie, bad in a bad movie, but never be bad in a good movie.’ Yet I watched Memento and realized I’m bad in a good movie.”
Calling Nolan a "towering intellect," Pearce thinks the filmmaker is "hard to compete with."
Memento marked Nolan's first full-length feature film after his directorial debut with the 70-minute feature Following.
Written and directed by him, and co-starring Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano, Memento won much praise for its innovative non-linear narrative that combines two parallel timelines — one in colour and the other black-and-white — for which it is beloved among cineastes and is one of Nolan's films that brought him to the attention of global audiences.