Star-Derailing Role: Difference between revisions

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The latest blockbuster which an A-List star has starred in has just hit the theaters nationwide. They've done the usual talk show circuit hyping the film. The studio's marketing department spared no expense advertising it. Then the numbers come in...

** 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.

* ''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.

* 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 Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'', and ''[[Sister Act]]''. And after it? Not a whole lot.

* [[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.

** The remake of ''[[The Nutty Professor]]'' became a [[Career Resurrection]] for him in the late '90s, with many critics noting that the Buddy Love character was a giant [[Take That]] against what Murphy had been reduced to in the public eye (obnoxious and self-absorbed). Unfortunately, he quickly fell on the same track he was on before with another string of flops, the most notorious being ''[[The Adventures of Pluto Nash]]''. His voice acting in the ''[[Shrek]]'' films kept him on the B-list, and his supporting role in ''[[Dreamgirls]]'' looked to be another [[Career Resurrection]] (with many going as far to peg him as the front runner for an Academy Award), but then he backflopped with ''[[Norbit]]'' (despite being a box office success, it was savaged by critics) and the two family films ''Meet Dave'' and ''Imagine That''. Following the critical ravaging of those films, he has since declared his intention to go back to making mature comedies, starting with the [[Brett Ratner]] film ''[[Tower Heist]]''. But even this may not save him, as his first (released) film after ''[[Tower Heist]]'' was the critically mauled bomb ''A Thousand Words'', which despite having been on the shelf for four years previously was actually accompanied by a reasonably strong advertising campaign.

* [[Sofia Coppola]] isn't an actress by trade to begin with, and was a last minute replacement for ''[[The Godfather|The Godfather Part III]]'' after [[Winona Ryder]] fell ill. However, her heavily criticized performance as Michael Corleone's daughter, as well as charges of [[Nepotism]] (since [[Francis Ford Coppola|her father]] was the director), pretty much effectively ended Sofia's acting career. However, she has enjoyed [[Lost in Translation (film)|much greater success]] following in her father's footsteps as a director in her own right.

* Roberto Benigni followed his Oscar-winning film ''[[Life Is Beautiful]]'' with a live-action version of ''[[Pinocchio]]'' with himself playing the title character (keep in mind that Benigni was in his ''fifties'' at the time), which earned a [[Rotten Tomatoes]] rating of '''0%'''. He has barely worked in film since then.

* Mena Suvari in the 2008 ''[[Day of the Dead]]'' reboot. Prior to this, Suvari was an indie queen who made a name for herself by starring in a string of popular and well-regarded teen films (including ''[[American Pie]]'' and ''Sugar and Spice'') and the critically-acclaimed ''[[American Beauty]]''. She followed this up with several more teen films (including the 2001 flop ''The Musketeer''), culminating in the aforementioned ''Day of the Dead'', which went straight to DVD and flopped domestically. Aside from her work in the ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' series as Aerith (which she last performed in 2007), she's only appeared on bit parts in TV shows and DTV trash.

** The ''Pie'' curse extends to directors as well. Outside of the Weitz brothers, every director of the series has seen negative effects to their career. The second film's director didn't direct another film for eight years (which still hasn't received a release), the third film's director made one more film before disappearing, and the straight-to-DVD installments had directors with already dead careers. The directors of ''American Reunion'' should watch their asses.

* Vince Vaughn in ''[[The Dilemma]]''. In the early-mid '00s, he was one of Hollywood's top comedy actors thanks to films like ''Old School'', ''[[Wedding Crashers]]'' and ''[[Dodgeball]]'', which gave him enough clout to guarantee creative control on a film. His career was starting to slip with weaker films like ''Four Christmases'', but on the set of ''[[The Dilemma]]'', he suffered a major case of [[Small Name, Big Ego]], forcing many rewrites, [[Wag the Director|taking over creative control]] from director [[Ron Howard]], and defending his character's [[Unfortunate Implications|homophobic comments]]. Consequently, audiences stayed away. Now, he's trying to repair the damage by taking smaller roles in dramatic fare.

* Stephen Baldwin was an up-and-coming actor with roles in films such as ''[[Last Exit To Brooklyn]]'', ''[[Threesome]]'', ''[[Eight Seconds|8 Seconds]]'' and ''[[The Usual Suspects]]'' who was looking to become a successful sibling act to his brother Alec. Then he starred in ''Bio-Dome'', which irreparably destroyed his career and possibly his sanity (seeing his later work and behavior).

** His ''Bio-Dome'' co-star, Pauly Shore, didn't fare much better. This film's critical thrashing, along with the premature cancellation of his self-titled FOX sitcom ''Pauly'', turned Shore into a running joke for most of the late '90s.

* 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."

* 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.

* 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]].