Guy Pearce wasn’t impressed rewatching Christopher Nolan’s ‘Memento’: ‘I’m s— in that movie’

Guy Pearce wishes he could forget Memento.

The actor got candid about his work in Christopher Nolan‘s breakout thriller, in which he plays a man with no short-term memory who tries to solve the murder of his wife.

“I’m having an existential crisis,” Pearce said in a new interview with the U.K.’s The Times. “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 realized I hate what I did.”

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and L.A. Confidential star explained why he dislikes his performance in Nolan’s 2000 film. “I was trying to do a flippant attitude, but it was all wrong,” Pearce said. “John Gielgud once 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. F—.”

Pearce clarified that he still stands by some of his early work. “Look, I’m pleased with L.A. Confidential, but I look at this and go, ‘Oof! Nails on a chalkboard!'” he said of Memento. He then compared that film to his work on a beloved Australian soap opera: “If I reckon my performance in Neighbours is two out of ten, Memento is a five.”

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly’s free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

The actor said he hasn’t consulted with Nolan since rewatching (and hating) his performance. “No, because I reckon he’d agree with me,” Pearce said. “It’s funny; people say I should’ve been nominated for Memento. Now I understand why I wasn’t.”

Memento ultimately received Oscar nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing, ultimately losing to Gosford Park and Black Hawk Down, respectively. Pearce received his first Academy Award nomination this year for his supporting turn in The Brutalist.

Pearce also took the opportunity to set the record straight about why he hasn’t collaborated again with Nolan, which he’d previously blamed on an unimpressed executive. “All this stuff about an exec at Warners being why I’ve not worked with Chris again? It came crashing down,” he said. “I know why I didn’t work with Chris again — it’s because I’m no good in Memento.”

Pearce had reflected on meeting with Nolan to consider other projects after Memento. “He spoke to me about roles a few times over the years,” Pearce recently told Vanity Fair. “The first Batman and The Prestige. But there was an executive at Warner Bros. who quite openly said to my agent, ‘I don’t get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to employ Guy Pearce.'”