How Zac Efron's 2012 Thriller With 45% RT Score Nearly Caused Director To Quit Hollywood

Summary Negative reviews almost led Lee Daniels to quit directing after The Paperboy's release in 2012.

Daniels felt misunderstood by critics and considered quitting, but cherished the film.

Despite the harsh reception of The Paperboy, Daniels continued to create successful projects.

The Paperboy director Lee Daniels explains how the movie nearly caused him to quit Hollywood. Co-written and directed by Daniels, previously known for Precious, the 2012 crime thriller follows the true story of a Miami reporter who returns to his hometown in Florida to investigate a murder case involving a death row inmate during the 1960s. The film's cast includes Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman, David Oyelowo, John Cusack, and Macy Gray.

In an interview with IndieWire, Daniels explained how The Paperboy nearly caused him to quit Hollywood. The director reflected on the harsh reception of his 2012 film, which made him contemplate quitting directing due to feeling typecast and misunderstood by critics. Despite the negative reviews, he fondly remembers the positive audience reaction at Cannes and cherishes the film as one of his personal favorites. Read his full comments below:

That movie doesn’t get any love. I was going to give up directing after that, because it was so trashed, and reviewers didn’t get the world. I felt like it was my Black version of my white version of The Paperboy. I was offered all these Black roles, Black jobs, Black films, and I was like, "No, I’m a fucking filmmaker. I’m not just a Black filmmaker. And I really want to work with white actors. How can you label me like this?" In walks Paperboy, and I was like, "Ok, I’m never going to direct again, because they just came for me... I love all of my work equally, but the ones that were kicked to the curb are the ones that I hold dear to my heart, and [The Paperboy] is something I hold dear to my heart.

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Why The Paperboy Was Panned By Critics

& What Lee Daniels Has Directed Since

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Daniels is known for producing the 2001 film Monster's Ball, which made Halle Berry the first African-American woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress and Daniels the first African-American producer to independently produce an Oscar-winning movie. After that, Daniels directed Precious, which received six Academy Award nominations, including Geoffrey Fletcher, who became the first African-American to win a Best Screenplay award at the Oscars. Because of how acclaimed and monumental his past work was, Daniels' next film after Precious, The Paperboy, was highly anticipated.

However, The Paperboy came nowhere near the level of critical acclaim experienced by his past work and instead, was eviscerated by critics. The Paperboy was panned as trashy and melodramatic and, while it may have benefited from its strong cast and sordid plot, the film was too inconsistent and frequently veered into camp. The movie was mocked for some of its more outrageous moments, including Kidman's character urinating on Efron's to treat a jellyfish sting. As a result, the movie has a 45% score on Rotten Tomatoes and an even worse 33% audience score.

Related Zac Efron & Nicole Kidman's New Movie Can Make Up For 45% Rotten Tomatoes Flop From 12 Years Ago Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman are reuniting for a new movie and it looks to be a huge improvement over their critically panned flop from 2012.

Though Daniels contemplated quitting directing after The Paperboy, he quickly returned to form the following year with The Butler, a critical and commercial success. His next film, 2021's The United States vs. Billie Holiday earned Andra Day an Oscar nomination for her electric performance. On television, Daniels also co-created the smash hit Empire. Thankfully, Daniels didn't quit directing due to The Paperboy, as the world would have been robbed of many of these subsequent stories.

Source: IndieWire