Michael Madsen Really, Really Hates IMDb

At last count, Michael Madsen’s entry on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) includes nearly 250 acting credits, a list that runs the gamut from Kill Bill: Vol. 1 to something called Egill: The Last Pagan. But according to the 57-year-old actor, some of the more embarrassing entries in his filmography are incorrect — and he’s not happy about it.

“It’s, like, you know, you meet somebody on an elevator and they say they have a screenplay that their brother-in-law wrote, and you say, ‘Wow, that sounds interesting,‘” he told The A.V. Club in a new interview, “and the next thing you know, it’s on IMDB that you’re in it or that you’re in post-production. Or you go and you do two days for some young kids to help them out, and they put your name above the title, and they put it on the IMDB, and suddenly it looks like you’ve done 75 films in the last 10 minutes. But a lot of them never got finished, some of them never got released, and the rest of them are in limbo somewhere."

Madsen’s not the only performer to gripe about the site: In 2011, a 42-year-old actress unsuccessfully sued IMDb, claiming it damaged her career by publishing her age. But Madsen’s complaint is that the site lists movies that are little more than half-realized pipe-dreams — or paycheck-stoking embarrassments.

“They put things on there that shouldn’t be on there, or you lend your name to something so you can put some groceries in the refrigerator or pay for your gas, and suddenly it turns up on there like it’s some great thing that you wanted to do,” he told The A.V. Club. “Either that, or it makes you look like a complete idiot.

“I don't get the IMDb...I’ve called them several times myself and said, “Guys, look…” I’ve given them specific titles that should not be on there. But they won’t take them down.”

As we await the inevitable leaked audiotape of Madsen’s famously gravelly voice chiding some lowly IMDb engineer, we can all take stabs at guessing which entry on his page cheeses him the most: Could it be his role as President Ben Dover in Unbelievable!!!!!? Or his turn in the forthcoming CobraGator?