Guy Pearce remembers his performance in Memento as awful

Last Updated on February 28, 2025

Leonard Shelby can try to remember Sammy Jankis all he wants, but Guy Pearce would truly like to forget Memento. Despite Christopher Nolan’s film being a breakout for both the star and its director, Pearce insists he gives an absolutely terrible performance in it, even too bad to forget.

Speaking with The Times, Guy Pearce — who earned his share of acclaim for Memento, although most went to Nolan’s screenplay – admitted that his performance as the tattooed amnesiac is one he genuinely despises and it stands as the chief reason why he hasn’t worked with the director since. “…I’m having an existential crisis. I watched Memento the other day and I’m still depressed. I’m sh*t 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. And so all this stuff about an exec at Warners being why I’ve not worked with Chris again? It came crashing down. I know why I didn’t work with Chris again — it’s because I’m no good in Memento.”

Oh, come on, Guy, surely you can’t believe your own lies here. And certainly Christopher Nolan would beg to differ…right? “I reckon he’d agree with me. It’s funny; people say I should’ve been nominated for Memento. Now I understand why I wasn’t. Look, I’m pleased with LA Confidential, but I look at this and go, ‘Oof! Nails on a chalkboard!’ If I reckon my performance in [Australian soap opera] Neighbours is two out of ten, Memento is a five …” I don’t think we need any ink to remind us not to check out Neighbours…

Today, Memento still remains one of the most structurally exciting films of the decade, something that became a bit of a trademark for Christopher Nolan with movies like Inception, Interstellar and Tenet. And a lot of the success of the challenging Memento – and why it still stands as one of our favorites of his – is because of Guy Pearce, who I think gives a bit more nuanced performance than he’s letting on.

What do you think of Guy Pearce’s performance in Memento? Is he being too hard on himself?