GUEST EDITORIAL: Lights, Camera, Action! Actors Whose Careers Were Ruined in One Role

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Lights, Camera, Action! Actors whose Career was Ruined in One Role

by Carmella Andersson

The path to glory for most actors is quite thorny. They often have to star in the movies of little-known directors just to garner the attention of Hollywood cream society. And then having the whole world at their feet, going out in the blaze of glory, the odds of stumbling are high. When one ordinary role can cost the long-awaited reputation. It may seem just empty words, but actually, the celebrity world has so many examples to present. Let’s take a glimpse!

Demi Moore- G.I. Jane

The 1990 film Ghost brought Demi Moore not only international fame but also a few major film charts and an invitation to star in other pictures. However, in 1996 the film Striptease was released, which was poorly accepted by the public, and critics, consequently, Moore received Erin Grant’s Golden Raspberry Award at the annual Razzie Awards for the role. That being said, it was the G.I. Jane role that has put paid to Moore’s great career. This Ridley Scott action movie gifted her with one more Razzie Award for the Worst Female Actress. The star herself states that G.I. Jane is one of her favorite films and that critics unjustly rated. 

Terrence Howard- Iron Man

The deal is that Howard asked for more revenue than the lead actor Robert Downey Jr. Well, greed is not the kind of feature a resume writer would recommend you to mention on your resume, because it definitely won't be beneficial for any type of career, as a result, he was showcased only in one picture afterward.   

Chris Klein- Rollerball 

This handsome athlete Oz from American Pie had won viewers' hearts all at once. However, just a year after the release of the second part of the franchise on the adventures of four friends, Chris starred in Rollerball, a remake of the 1975 film of the same name. The movie received terrible reviews from the audience and critics. Thus, Klein’s rising career had collapsed before it even started.  

Jennifer Lopez- Gigli 

The comedy film Gigli, according to both critics and viewers became the worst picture in Ben Affleck’s career. However, he subsequently managed to restore his reputation as an actor. The same cannot to be said about his colleague on the set Jennifer Lopez. Even though before this complete failure JLo appeared in the Golden Globe-winning film Selena, Gigli’s failure hampered her acting career for quite some time. In all fairness, the vast majority of fans know Lopez more as a singer than an actress, where she is unique in her craft. 

Lindsay Lohan- I Know Who Killed Me

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Lindsay Lohan was one of the most sought-after young actresses in Hollywood, in whom everyone saw a great future. However, a rotten apple spoils the whole bunch. In Lohan’s case, it was a 2007 low-budget horror film I Know Who Killed Me. Every detail was terrible, from the script to the acting. On top of that, during the shooting process, the actress was undergoing treatment from numerous dependencies. Lohan was either often late on the set or didn’t appear there at all, which also adversely affected the workflow. 

Elizabeth Berkley- Showgirls

The moving picture Showgirls was released in 1995. Almost immediately after the premiere, the movie received a squall of negative reviews not only from critics, but also from the audience. That eventually led to several Razzie Awards. In the ostracized group of stars was Elizabeth Berkley, whose acting was described as “extremely poor”. Above all, the fans didn’t forgive the abrupt transformation of her acting since before starring in Paul Verhoeven's film where she was part of various teenage sitcoms. The new glory had negatively affected Berkeley's promising career. Directors didn’t want to collaborate with an actress who appeared in an unsuccessful role. As if all this were not enough, not long after the film release Elizabeth’s agent had refused to work with her as well. 

Geena Davis- Cutthroat Island

In 1991, Geena Davis starred in the film Thelma and Louise. Her role as Thelma yielded results in the form of several prestigious awards. However, four years later, the picture Cutthroat island was released. Just like that, in a wink of an eye, the door to a successful acting career for Davis was closed nearly for good. The numbers speak for themselves. On a reported budget of $98 million, the film had grossed only $10 million, which automatically became one of the most expensive box office flops of all-time. For the icing on the cake, one critic stated that in the role of a pirate, Geena looked just stupid. 

Shannon Elizabeth- American Pie

The role of an eastern-European girl Nadia in the American Pie franchise was both a gift and a curse for actress Shannon Elizabeth. Despite the honor and fame that cult movie series brought the actress, she became a hostage of one image and never got the chance to get out of that framework. Not long after the American Pie series, there was another controversial appearance in the 2001 sex comedy film Tomcats, which became a real milestone around Shannon Elizabeth’s neck and put a fine point on her acting career.  

Jennifer Love Hewitt- Jewtopia

From the beginning of the 1990s up till the end of the 2000s, Jennifer Love Hewitt enjoyed quite a fruitful period as an actress. Back then, she was filmed in various pictures rather actively, but the first major success came with I Know What You Did Last Summer and its continuating sequel. In 2013, a Broadway play-based film Jewtopia premiered, although it didn’t receive a wide release and wasn’t welcomed neither by critics nor by viewers. The reason was as clear as day. The number of stereotypical heroes and a large number of dirty jokes was off the scale. At this very moment, her career in the big cinema had come to an end. Today, Hewitt is rarely seen on the screens, she is a happy mother of two and fully dedicates herself to family.

Neve Campbell- Wild Things

American-Canadian actress Neve Campbell is one of those performers who is commonly referred to as a “scream queen”, who received significant fame after playing a role in the Scream franchise. Throughout four movies in the series her character, Sidney Prescott, succeeded in getting away from the murderer nicknamed Ghostface. However, in 1998 it was time to leave the well-loved image behind by starring in the erotic thriller Wild Things. Even though the reaction to the film was generally quite positive, it was a miserable box office flop. Her image in the film, which was far too different from the positive character in the Scream, failed to gain the audience’s appreciation.  

As you can see, nothing is stable in this world. In point of fact, even such a desirable advancement in the field of cinematography can turn into a catastrophe just with a twist.  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carmella Andersson works as a resume writer for Resumes On Time company. It gives her an opportunity to improve her critical and creative thinking skills.