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Star-Derailing Role: Difference between revisions
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{{examples}}
▲== Anime And Manga ==
* [[Aya Hirano]]'s career took a hit with the failure of ''[[Dragonaut: The Resonance]]'' and her own growing reputation as a "diva", forcing her managers to try to reel her in and limit her to supporting roles to save face. Hirano ultimately "left" the agency when she was caught in a scandal.
▲== Film ==
* [[Halle Berry]] both subverted this trope and later played it straight. Her role in ''[[Catwoman (film)|Catwoman]]'' killed interest in the possible ''[[Die Another Day]]'' spinoff featuring her character, Jinx, and was a factor in [[Genre Killer|killing the budding sub-genre]] of female-fronted superhero films. At the same time, ''Catwoman'' [[Break the Haughty|humbled her enough]] to graciously accept the [[Golden Raspberry Award|Razzie award]] [[Moment of Awesome (Sugar Wiki)|for Worst Actress]] [[Funny Moments (Sugar Wiki)|in person]], saving her career from a complete meltdown; she almost wasn't in ''[[X-Men: The Last Stand|X Men the Last Stand]]'' movie because she was demanding a higher salary and a bigger part. However, ''Perfect Stranger'' was the death knell for Halle as a leading lady, and her subsequent filmography has been a very small series of low-profile character dramas while lending her face to a glut of cosmetics endorsements.
** Of course those paying attention might have seen the second fall coming... her "humble" acceptance of her Razzie also involved her waving around her Oscar and blaming everyone but herself for both the movie's suckage and her being in it.
* Elizabeth Berkley in ''[[Showgirls]]''. The film pretty much [[Creator Killer|derailed the career]] of director Paul Verhoeven, as well, though he would later recover somewhat with ''[[Starship Troopers (film)|Starship Troopers]]''.
* [[Thora Birch]] in ''[[Dungeons
* [[Matthew Broderick]] in the live action adaptation of ''[[Inspector Gadget (film)|Inspector Gadget]]''. This movie, in addition to the American version of ''[[Godzilla (film)|Godzilla]]'', killed his career as a leading man in major motion pictures. He found more success in theater, most notably the stage version of ''[[The Producers]]''.
* [[Dana Carvey]] in ''[[The Master of Disguise]]'', which was actually a botched [[Career Resurrection|comeback attempt]].
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* Geena Davis in ''[[The Long Kiss Goodnight]]'' and ''[[Cutthroat Island]]''. The latter also sank [[Creator Killer|the studio, director Renny Harlin's career]], her marriage (she was married to Harlin at that time), and [[Genre Killer|the entire swashbuckling adventure genre]]. (Even now, the ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' films are the only such movies being produced.)
* Cuba Gooding, Jr. in ''Boat Trip''... and ''Snow Dogs''... and ''[[Daddy Day Camp]]''... Really, a lot of Cuba's post-''[[Jerry Maguire]]'' output has been like this. [[Never My Fault|He attributes this to the fact that the good roles stopped coming for him once Will Smith became Hollywood's new favorite black actor.]]
** Cuba's films were the most-rented from Blockbuster at one time, till the film ''Radio'', in which he played [[Inspirationally Disadvantaged]]. You could say that ''Radio'' [[
* [[Lindsay Lohan]] in ''[[I Know Who Killed Me]]''. Though her out-of-control personal life was largely responsible for the downfall of her career, this film bombed at the box-office and was ruthlessly savaged by critics and audiences alike, so it's a pretty safe bet to say that even if Lindsay's life hadn't gotten so out-of-control, it's still not too likely that her career and "it girl" status would've fared much better after the critical and box-office flop of this film.
* [[Jennifer Lopez]] and [[Ben Affleck]] in ''[[Gigli]]''. Eventually, their careers would recover (though their relationship didn't survive, even if they gave it another chance almost a couple of decades later), but director Martin Brest wasn't as lucky (he later retired from filmmaking due to this film constantly suffering from [[Executive Meddling]]).
* [[Madonna]] has had a couple of these throughout her acting career, at least one per decade. "Shanghai Surprise" killed her '80s film career, then "Body of Evidence" killed her film career in the '90s, and finally the 2002 remake of ''Swept Away'' (directed by then-husband [[Guy Ritchie]]) killed it for good. (Going ''behind'' the camera with ''W.E.'' didn't help her much either.)
* [[Demi Moore]] in ''Striptease'' and ''[[G.I. Jane]]''.
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** A twofer: ''Staying Alive'' and ''Rocky IV'' killed [[Sylvester Stallone]]'s career as a director for twenty years.
* Tom Green starred in, wrote and directed ''[[Freddy Got Fingered]]'', and hasn't been seen much in theaters since.
* Pretty much ''everyone'' involved in the ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band|Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band]]'' movie with the sole exception of [[Steve Martin]], who was so popular at the time even this stinker couldn't diminish his star. Same couldn't be said for George Burns or [[Aerosmith]]—who both suffered a brief career downturn, Aeorsmith in part thanks to drug problems, before returning to popularity in the mid-80's -- or Peter Frampton whose career took a big dip, and rumor has it that he was horrified to hear it was being released on DVD. The Bee Gees were also affected by this (in addition to [[Deader Than Disco|the decline of disco]]), but they did well as songwriters, making U.S. chart-toppers, such as "Islands in the Stream" by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers and "Heartbreaker" by Dionne Warwick.
* ''Heartbeeps'' derailed [[Andy Kaufman]]'s potential film career.
* [[Peter Sellers]] in ''[[Casino Royale 1967]]''; he was actually fired midway through the shoot when he proved too unreliable and uncooperative, and while the film was finished without him it was extremely messy. This left a black mark on his reputation (particularly with American studios), and most of his subsequent films through 1974 would turn out to be flops if they even made it to theaters. He experienced a [[Career Resurrection]] after that.
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** Cindy has made the odd film since then, like ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0186549/combined The Simian Line]'' and the Italian comedy ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0269009/combined Bodyguards - Guardie del corpo]'' (where she played [[As Himself|herself]]).
* The winner ([[Kelly Clarkson]]) and runner-up (Justin Guarini) of the first season of ''[[American Idol]]'' were forced to act in the tie-in movie ''From Justin To Kelly'', which was a legendary critical and popular bomb. Clarkson's talent and appeal helped her withstand that disaster as she went on to sell 10 million albums and become one of the biggest music stars of the 2000s, but Guarini's potential career was totally derailed, and he became the most notorious laughingstock in the show's Top 10 until Sanjaya Malakar. This has since become something of an [[Old Shame]] of Kelly's.
* [[Whoopi Goldberg]]'s career as an A-list star faded into [[Hollywood Squares|center square]] and moderator on ''[[The View]]'' gradually, but it can be argued that the catalyst was ''[[Theodore Rex]]''. Before that, she starred in ''[[The Color Purple]]'', ''[[Ghost (film)|Ghost]]'', ''[[The Lion King]]'', ''[[Star Trek: The
** Whoopi only completed the movie because New Line Cinema threatened to sue her if she walked off the film—and after seeing Kim Basinger get sued into bankruptcy after the fiasco that was ''Boxing Helena'', she decided she could live with the shame if it meant keeping the lights on. ''Theodore Rex'' was initially intended as a theatrical release but went straight to home video instead, making it the most expensive [[Direct to Video]] movie ever made. That's certainly something to keep in mind if you dare to watch it.
* [[Eddie Murphy]] has quite the reputation for being a good actor who should ''really'' fire his agent. Originally a massive comedy star in the '80s (thanks, in no small part, to being a ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' cast member and barely saving the show from disaster during [[Dork Age|its 1980-1981 season]]), Murphy's initial decline began with the 1989 vanity project [[Harlem Nights]], after which the quality of his films took a nosedive. [[Roger Ebert]], in his review of ''Harlem Nights'', made an excellent point (which was, essentially, career advice) about not taking your fans for granted.
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* Between them, ''[[Leonard Part 6]]'' and ''[[Ghost Dad]]'' convinced pretty much everyone that [[Bill Cosby]] doesn't belong on a screen [[The Cosby Show|that can't fit in your living room]].
* To quote Michael Beck: "''[[The Warriors (film)|The Warriors]]'' opened a lot of [acting] doors for me, which ''[[Xanadu]]'' then closed."
* [[Megan Fox]] became the latest in a long line of "it girl" [[Ms. Fanservice|sex symbols]] due to her role in the ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers]]'' franchise. [[Hollywood Hype Machine|20th Century Fox decided to put this to the test by marketing an entire movie around her hotness and newfound fame]], the teen horror flick ''[[Jennifer's Body]]''. Not only did it disappoint at the box office and with the critics, but her performance was singled out as one of the film's bigger problems. After that, she invoked [[Godwin's Law]] in her criticism of ''Transformers'' director [[Michael Bay]], resulting in [[Steven Spielberg]] asking she be fired from [[Transformers: Dark of the Moon|the third film]], and her follow-ups ''[[Jonah Hex (film)|Jonah Hex]]'' and ''Passion Play'' were disasters.
** The failure of ''Jennifer's Body'' also badly damaged the Hollywood career of its writer, [[Diablo Cody]]. See [[Creator Killer]] for more.
*** Cody tried to bounce back with her screenplay for ''[[Young Adult (film)|Young Adult]]'' but despite critical acclaim, hardly anyone saw the film (possibly due to ongoing Cody backlash) and it became director Jason Reitman's lowest grossing film.
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** Her role in ''[[Starship Troopers (film)|Starship Troopers]]'' was of equal quality.
* Dan Fogler, a Broadway award-winner who was tapped by Hollywood executives to headline several major comedy films, including ''School For Scoundrels'' and ''[[Balls of Fury]]''. The final straw, however, came with ''[[Good Luck Chuck]]'', which bombed and mostly killed his film career before he could go anywhere with it. The only films he appeared in after this were the financially-unsuccessful ''[[Fanboys]]'' and ''Take Me Home Tonight'', both of which were shot years before he broke into Hollywood, and ''[[Mars Needs Moms]]'', which just put the coffin in the ground.
* [[Mary
** However, their merchandising empire was still strong despite their failure on the big screen... until ''[[Hannah Montana]]'' debuted a couple of years after that film and ransacked their tween fanbase.
* [[Michael Chiklis]] starred as [[John Belushi]] in the 1989 biopic ''Wired'', which was universally panned by critics and bombed at the box office. He didn't work again for almost two years, and his career didn't fully recover until he landed the role of Vic Mackey in ''[[The Shield]]'', 13 years later. And he only got that role thanks to a complete image overhaul, courtesy of his wife.
* Nick Swardson's career as a leading man began and ended with the disastrous ''Bucky Larson: Born To Be Star''.
* Emile Hirsch and Christina Ricci's careers were damaged with the high-budgeted flop ''[[Speed Racer (film)|Speed Racer]]''. Hirsch, who had been in a number of acclaimed films before it, has mostly disappeared in supporting roles since (not doing another lead role until the 2011 flop ''[[The Darkest Hour]]'') while Ricci's been mostly appearing in low-budget indies, with the exception of the aforementioned ''Bucky Larson'', which fortunately didn't affect Ricci due to her indie cred.
** What's truly unfortunate is that neither of them were particularly ''bad'', nor was ''Speed Racer'' itself—it just hit confused viewers, who saw "Directed by [[the Wachowskis|The Wachowski Brothers]]" on it and assumed they were in for [[Mind Screw]]y philosophical ramblings but got cotton-candy exuberance instead. ''[[Ninja Assassin]]'' had the same problem to a lesser extent.
* Jon Heder's star rose with ''[[Napoleon Dynamite]]'' and fell not long after with ''[[School For Scoundrels]]'' (which also brought down co-stars Billy Bob Thornton and Jacinda Barrett and nearly killed director Todd Phillips' career). Most of his later projects have been barely released (''[[Mamas Boy]]'', ''Moving McAllister'') or bypassed theatres (''Woke Up Dead'').
* Christopher Reeve in ''[[Switching Channels]]''. In his autobiography, ''Still Me'', Reeve claims that this film's failure, along with ''[[Superman IV]]'', ''[[The Aviator]]'', and ''[[Street Smart]]'' (which he in part agreed to do ''Superman IV'' under the condition that he was allowed to star in this long time "pet project" of his), knocked him off the A-list in Hollywood and he would have to audition for major roles for the rest of his career. Reeve also expressed regret in making ''Switching Channels'' (Reeve took on the role because he felt that making a comedy would be a good distraction from the depression steaming from his split with his long time girlfriend, Gae Exton), believing that he had "made a fool of himself" (Reeve played decidedly against type as Kathleen Turner's hapless fiancé) and had to act as a referee for constantly feuding costars Turner and Burt Reynolds. Reeve during his career, also turned down the lead roles in ''[[American Gigolo]]'', ''The World According to Garp'', ''[[Splash]]'', ''[[Fatal Attraction]]'', ''[[Pretty Woman]]'', ''[[Romancing the Stone]]'', ''[[Lethal Weapon]]'' and ''Body Heat''. Reeve even turned down the lead role in a remake of ''[[Mutiny on the Bounty]]'' titled ''The Bounty'' after [[Katharine Hepburn]] recommended him to the director, Roger Donaldson, who ultimately went with his second choice, [[Mel Gibson]].
* [[Meg Ryan]] had a brief moment where her career was derailed after making ''[[Against the Ropes]]'' in 2004, having not appeared in a theatrically released film until 2007's ''In the Land of Women''.
* ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (film)|The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' was notable for not only being the final film [[Sean Connery]] starred in before retiring, but bombing hard enough to kill the careers of most of the starring cast. The film also killed Stephen Norrington's directing career - to date, he hasn't helmed another film.
* [[Prince]]'s acting career was derailed by his second film, the critical and box-office flop ''[[Under the Cherry Moon]]''.
* Although not a box office failure, there's an apocryphal account [https://web.archive.org/web/20140429065501/http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/film/4170549/Star-Wars-Anakin-Skywalker-star-Jake-Lloyd-I-will-never-act-again.html here] that the mockery [[Jake Lloyd]] received for his performance as the young Anakin Skywalker in ''[[The Phantom Menace]]'' caused him to retire from acting at the age of ten.
* Broadway actress (and Tony award nominee) Alyson Reed was set to become a major Hollywood star with the release of the film adaptation of ''[[A Chorus Line]]'' in 1985, in which she played the lead woman Cassie. When the movie tanked with only lukewarm critical reception, she found herself abruptly ''un''booked for talk shows and ignored by studios and casting directors.
* ''[[The Exorcist]]'' is proof that a movie doesn’t have to be bad to fit this Trope, as it certainly was to [[Linda Blair]]. While that role got Blair a nomination for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes (winning one of the latter), the well-known horror film made her a victim of typecasting, and she found it hard to find serious work as an actress afterwards, staring in a lot of B-movies and horror parodies since then, most of them pretty bad; she was nominated for Worst Actress by the Golden Raspberry Awards for three of them. Worse, she has, to this day, gotten a lot of hate mail from fans [[Fan Dumb|who actually think she ''is'' some demon who has possessed an innocent girl]]. Despite this, Blair has ''never'' had any regrets.
* Another example of a great movie that killed the star's career was the 1931 ''[[Dracula (1931 film)|Dracula]]'' film. While [[Bela Lugosi]] became famous for the iconic role, he was also sadly typecast and became unable to find work playing any other role. He spent the rest of his career staring in B-movies, and worse, was often paired with [[Boris Karloff]], always getting second billing. After portraying Dracula for the final time in ''[[Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein]]'', the rest of his career was spent making low-budget trash like ''[[Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla]]''. Whether he ever regretted doing ''Dracula'' is hard to say; while he was eventually buried wearing one of the "Dracula" cape costumes, it was not by his own request, contrary to popular belief, but rather that of his wife and son.
* The 1997 adaptation of ''[[The Island of Doctor Moreau]]'' was this for [[Marlon Brando]], and it was mostly his fault. Despite acclaim for classics like ''[[Guys and Dolls]]'', ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'', and ''[[The Godfather]]'', Brando was notorious for being ''horrible'' to work with on a project, and this film was him at his worst. His bad attitude and endless complaining made the film a colossal mess and a flop, leading to director/writer Richard Stanley being fired by the studio and absolutely ''nobody'' wanting to work with Brando again. The few starring roles he had after that until his death were obscure next to his previous ones.
==
* [[Emeril Lagasse]] in ''[[Emeril]]''. After this sitcom tanked, he went from being one of the hottest chefs in the country to being just another face in the TV chef crowd. (It also has the misfortune of being [[Robert Urich]]'s last series.)
* [[Bette Midler]] in ''Bette'', the spectacular failure of which effectively ended her acting career. She now usually gets work performing her hits on various shows.
* [[Michael Richards]] in ''The Michael Richards Show'', the first post-''[[Seinfeld]]'' project that established the "''Seinfeld'' curse". Since it flopped in 2000, he's only done voice-over work (including in his old co-star's ''[[Bee Movie]]'') and played himself in ''[[Curb Your Enthusiasm]]''. Then his career got buried in 2006 when he decided to deal with a heckler at one of his stand-up comedy shows by [[N-Word Privileges|using the n-word]].
* Although Geena Davis was still stinging from her film disasters above, her ''[[The Geena Davis Show]]'' didn't help matters. One telling clue: usually when a show is named after its star, [[The Danza|they keep that name in the show]] (Emeril played "Emeril" in ''Emeril'' and Bette played "Bette" in ''[[Bette]],'' for example.) Despite being ''The
* ''[[The Paul Reiser Show]]'' promptly bombed as soon as it aired, and NBC cancelled it after two episodes. Considering he has done nothing noteworthy since ''[[Mad About You]]'' came to an end over a decade ago, this likely signals the end of Paul Reiser's on-screen career.▼
▲* Although Geena Davis was still stinging from her film disasters above, her ''The Geena Davis Show'' didn't help matters. One telling clue: usually when a show is named after its star, [[The Danza|they keep that name in the show]] (Emeril played "Emeril" in ''Emeril'' and Bette played "Bette" in ''Bette,'' for example.) Despite being ''The GEENA DAVIS Show,'' Geena Davis's character was named "Teddie".
* [[Lucille Ball]], the star of ''[[I Love Lucy]]'', conceived of the idea for, produced and acted in another primetime comedy series, ''Life With Lucy'' (no relation to Ball's [[Star-Making Role]]) on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] in the 80's. Ball was given complete creative control over the series - which meant that she tried to replicate ''[[I Love Lucy]]'''s success in the 50's for an 80's crowd. Suffice to say, the attempt didn't work, and the resulting series (about a widow who goes to work at a hardware store) was painfully unfunny and cringe-inducing to watch (at least partially because Lucy was trying to duplicate her famous slapstick comedy, which didn't work nearly as well for her as it did when she was younger). The show flopped on arrival, and its failure made Ball stop working on any more projects.▼
▲* ''The Paul Reiser Show'' promptly bombed as soon as it aired, and NBC cancelled it after two episodes. Considering he has done nothing noteworthy since ''[[Mad About You]]'' came to an end over a decade ago, this likely signals the end of Paul Reiser's on-screen career.
* Dan Fogler's attempt to jump into TV after his film career died was the maligned [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] "men in trouble" "comedy" ''[[Man Up!]]'' It lasted for eight episodes, and there was no word of Fogler landing on a new pilot in the subsequent development season.▼
▲* [[Lucille Ball]], the star of ''[[I Love Lucy]]'', conceived of the idea for, produced and acted in another primetime comedy series, ''Life With Lucy'' (no relation to Ball's [[Star-Making Role]]) on [[ABC]] in the 80's. Ball was given complete creative control over the series - which meant that she tried to replicate ''[[I Love Lucy]]'''s success in the 50's for an 80's crowd. Suffice to say, the attempt didn't work, and the resulting series (about a widow who goes to work at a hardware store) was painfully unfunny and cringe-inducing to watch (at least partially because Lucy was trying to duplicate her famous slapstick comedy, which didn't work nearly as well for her as it did when she was younger). The show flopped on arrival, and its failure made Ball stop working on any more projects.
* [[Wanda Sykes]]'s once-strong career as a comedienne and actress fell apart after the failure of her talk show ''[[The Wanda Sykes Show]]''. It was said that her openness about her lesbianism and her inability to appeal to Middle America blackballed her from ever heading a major production again. Her post-cancellation work has been mostly in smaller theatrical projects in recent years.▼
▲* Dan Fogler's attempt to jump into TV after his film career died was the maligned [[ABC]] "men in trouble" "comedy" ''Man Up!'' It lasted for eight episodes, and there was no word of Fogler landing on a new pilot in the subsequent development season.
▲* Wanda Sykes's once-strong career as a comedienne and actress fell apart after the failure of her talk show ''The Wanda Sykes Show''. It was said that her openness about her lesbianism and her inability to appeal to Middle America blackballed her from ever heading a major production again. Her post-cancellation work has been mostly in smaller theatrical projects in recent years.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Trivia Trope]]
[[Category:Show Business]]
▲[[Category:Star-Derailing Role]]
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