Actor John Corbett—celebrated for his role in the film franchise “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and TV series “Northern Exposure”—recently shared that he’s dissatisfied with his Hollywood career.
The 63-year-old award-winning actor reflected on his 30-year career path during a “Fly on the Wall” podcast on July 3, telling hosts Dana Carvey and David Spade that “it’s been unfulfilling” and he would’ve preferred to have picked a different profession as he’s reaching the end of his career.
“Look, I’m in the fourth quarter of the football game now, in life and showbiz. It’s just a fact. So I can reveal now I picked the [explicit] wrong thing to do with my life,” Mr. Corbett told the two stand-up comedians and longtime friends.
The actor and country music singer went on to say that he has despised being constantly told what to do on-set “by any authority figure” since he was a child. He further pointed out that he feels disappointed he hasn’t been part of any creative processes, such as scriptwriting.
“I picked something to do with my whole life—for the fulfillment of my work life—which is, ‘Dude, stand here, say this, put this on, look this way, say it faster, cut your hair like this,'” Mr. Corbett said.
“As far as a fulfilling creative work life, I didn’t write one [explicit] line. I didn’t write one joke to make people laugh. So it’s been unfulfilling on that level,” he added.
Mr. Corbett said that his career has seen “some good times here and there,” and he doesn’t want to sound ungrateful because the money is good and he lives in a beautiful house, but he said being an actor is such a “boring life.”
“Have you ever sat in a waiting room of a doctor’s office for like an hour and been like: ‘What the [explicit]?’ For me, that’s what making a movie is like,” Mr. Corbett said, explaining most of his career was waiting for someone to knock on his door to tell him, “Hey, we need you to come back and say that thing again.”
“Anybody listening who has never been on a movie set, if you came to visit any one of us for two days, just two of those 14-hour days, you’d say I never want to be here ever ever again—this is like watching paint dry,” he told the podcast.
This isn’t the first time Mr. Corbett expressed frustration over his acting career. Last year, he told the New York Times that acting wasn’t his passion.
“I’ve made friends with the idea of, this is just what I do,” he said in an interview in June 2023. “When the phone rings and it feels like the money’s right and the place is right and the time is right, I’ll go be this guy that these people want.”
Mr. Corbett is best known for playing Chris Stevens on the 1990s TV series, “Northern Exposure,” which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
He also played Sarah Jessica Parker’s love interest in the HBO series “Sex and the City.” He recently reprised the iconic role for the “And Just Like That” revival series.
Other credits include his role as Henry in Jason Matzner’s “Dreamland,” which earned him an award as Best Supporting Actor at the 2006 Method Fest Independent Film Festival. He also appeared in “NCIS: Los Angeles” as Special Agent Roy Haines.