Even Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson can acknowledge the fact that the Baywatch movie sucked. That's why he so graciously accepted the 2018 Razzie for So Bad You Loved It!—a new Golden Raspberry Award category spotlighting movies so incredibly bad that viewers actually enjoyed them by the time the credits started rolling.
Before hitting the 2018 Oscars ceremony, Johnson took to Instagram to announce he too would be bringing home the gold on Sunday—just not the golden statue handed out at the Academy Awards. "No, not an Oscar—maybe one day—but a Razzie."
"Here's the cool thing: the movie was so bad that they actually had to create another category. The new category is a movie so rotten you eventually fell in love with it. I'm not kidding, which means the shit sandwich you've been eating is so bad that you eventually started to like it," Johnson, 45, explained.
Officially called the Golden Raspberry Awards, the Razzies are handed out every year, the day before the Academy Awards. The awards, um, honor the worst movies and performances of the year, with winners (losers?) recognized in nine categories. For this year's 38th annual Razzies, The Emoji Movie took home four golden raspberry trophies (including Worst Picture), while Tom Cruise was named Worst Actor (for The Mummy) and Tyler Perry Worst Actress for BOO! 2: A Medea Halloween.
Baywatch's win came in a special category. Based on the NBC series of the same title, the movie followed a troop of lifeguards as they patrolled the shores of Malibu Beach in Los Angeles. Although the film starred Hollywood big shots like Johnson, Zac Efron and the original series' lead actor, David Hasselhoff, the 2017 movie didn't receive nearly as much acclaim as the show, which aired from 1989 to 2001. And the film scored all of 18 percent on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer, likely leading to its 2018 Razzie nomination.
Negative reviews aside, Johnson was still proud to receive some sort of praise for Baywatch—even if it was an award for being one of the worst movies of the year. "Look, we made Baywatch with the best of intentions; it didn't work out like that, but I humbly and graciously accept my Razzie," he said.
'The Emoji Movie' and Tom Cruise honored at 2018 #RazzieAwards https://t.co/Ry2GZ90ScE
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) March 3, 2018
The Rock isn't the first Hollywood A-lister to publicly accept their Razzie. Director Paul Verhoeven (Showgirls), actor Tom Green (Freddy Got Fingered) and superstar Sandra Bullock (All About Steve) are among the celebrities who have gamely owned their bad career choices.
But it was Halle Berry's 2005 Razzies moment that set the bar—by actually showing up to the awards ceremony to pick up her Worst Actress trophy for Catwoman. "I'd like to thank the rest of the cast. To give a really bad performance like mine, you need to have really bad actors," Berry said in a parody of her 2002 Oscars acceptance speech. She also thanked her manager, who, she said, "loves me so much that he convinces me to do projects even when he knows that it is shit."
If only the Academy Awards speeches were that honest—and fun.
