Actors Whose Careers Were Ruined By One Role

No one on Earth is perfect, and everyone makes mistakes — up to and including every single superstar who employs an army of agents, managers, and publicists just to avoid having it look like they make mistakes. It's a glamorous life in Hollywood, and it's easy to assume that our favorite stars are just as smooth and charming offscreen as they are when the cameras are rolling — but the reality is that they goof just like us, and it's even more embarrassing when they do it. 

In fact, if you really think about it, when you're an A-list actor, your slip-ups are captured on film, projected six stories high, and immortalized for generations to criticize and mock. As the instances listed here prove, all it takes is one box office bomb to tarnish a star. Here's a look at some actors who had their careers ruined by a single particularly ill-advised and embarrassing role.

From 1989 to 1993, Elizabeth Berkley was the brainy but semi-neurotic Jessie Spano in 75 episodes of "Saved By The Bell." But when NBC canceled the series, Berkley (then 23) sought mature roles and found one in "Showgirls" — the first major NC-17 movie ever widely released. Berkley won the part over a young Charlize Theron, but "Showgirls" tanked and incited brutal reviews. 

Berkley took home Razzies for worst Actress and worst new star to go with the film's record 13 nominations and seven wins including worst picture and, eventually, worst picture of the decade. In a 2015 interview with NY Daily News, director Paul Verhoeven said Hollywood unfairly "turned its back" on Berkley, who quickly fell from big-budget features to Lifetime Original Movies. Although she's sporadically popped up in small parts on "CSI: Miami," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," and "The L Word," it's not like you'd catch Charlize Theron on "Dancing With the Stars." Berkley, however, finished sixth in 2013.

Freddie Prinze Jr.'s fame was a product of a time and place: That place being Hollywood, and that time being the 1990s. Back when movie studios were tripping over each other to put out teen slasher flicks and rom-coms, Prinze Jr. was a young man in high demand. He starred as Ray Bronson in 1997's "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and reprised the role in its 1998 sequel, then went on to cement his position as a Hollywood heartthrob with 1999's "She's All That."

The new millennium brought a change in fortunes for the actor. While filmmakers were still keen to put out Prinze Jr. romantic comedies, audiences became less interested in seeing them. The actor starred in a string of critical flops in the first few years of the decade and decided to try something a little different, playing bleach-blond paranormal investigator Fred in the "Scooby-Doo" movie.

Despite a good showing at the box office, the 2002 adaptation of the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon was panned by critics and left Prinze Jr. struggling for credibility, something he more or less gave up on when he returned for the film's 2004 sequel. The actor later revealed that he "didn't have fun" making either movie, and he abandoned Hollywood in the aftermath, pursuing passions elsewhere. He picked up work writing for the WWE and even took part in the odd storyline himself, though his career as a movie star has never recovered.

Everyone within a six-mile blast radius of Gotham felt the career aftershocks of Joel Schumacher's poorly received "Batman & Robin," but former "Clueless" darling Alicia Silverstone went from "Betty" to "Barney" faster than anyone. Her Razzie-winning turn as Batgirl to George Clooney's begrudging Batman helped spoil the release of "Excess Baggage" (the poorly received crime-comedy that was supposed to be her big starring vehicle), killing the momentum of 1995's "It Girl" right when she needed it most. Adding insult to injury, Silverstone was forced to endure a disastrous press tour for the film, as journalists cruelly body-shamed her for having allegedly gained weight during the production. 

Although Silverstone received a Golden Globe nomination in 2003 for her short-lived ABC series "Miss Match" and has slowly but surely fought her way back into the limelight with roles in "The Lodge," "The Baby-Sitters Club," and "Senior Year," it's undeniable that the failure of "Batman & Robin" took the wind out of the sails of a promising young career.

Thanks to the Team Jacob loyalists from "The Twilight Saga," Taylor Lautner was once considered a breakout star in the making, and his name was attached to a slew of now-defunct blockbuster hopefuls. This includes a project with director Michael Bay, the long-awaited adaptation of "Incarceron," and a live-action studio pic about Stretch Armstrong. Unlike Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, who each endured their own critical and box office blunders after the supernatural romance series ended, Lautner wasn't as easily forgiven for his first high-profile flop.

In hopes of banking upon his werewolf popularity, Lionsgate quickly attached Lautner to the mystery-action-whodunit pic "Abduction," but the movie was a critical joke and certainly didn't justify the actor's asking price in the way of audience enthusiasm either. The movie was such a letdown that Lautner has since struggled to keep his name in the mainstream at all, living at the movie mercy of Adam Sandler, who cast him in small roles in "Grown Ups 2" and "The Ridiculous 6."

At this point, it might be hard to believe you need more than two hands to count the number of Certified Fresh films that Nicolas Cage has been involved in, but the vast majority of those successes came early in his career. The Oscar winner settled for a life as a straight-to-VOD star for several years, leaving fans and critics to wonder where it all went wrong.

Cage's career has been pockmarked with a long list of flops, but he always seemed to balance them with well-timed hits; his position as a credible A-lister really started to look seriously dubious after duds like 2006's "The Wicker Man" and 2007's "Ghost Rider." He had a brief reprieve with a successful (financially, at least) sequel to his fantasy epic "National Treasure", but his next outing made it seem like his days of packing out movie theaters were behind him.

2008's "Bangkok Dangerous" couldn't even recoup its budget in the worldwide market, never mind domestically. A remake of the 1999 Thai film of the same name, it was pummeled by Rotten Tomatoes critics for "murky cinematography, a meandering pace, a dull storyline, and rather wooden performances." Bangkok Dangerous has an embarrassingly low 9 percent approval rating on the website, a trend that continued over the years and forced Cage to reexamine his career.

Since then, however, something strange happened — audiences couldn't get enough of the Cage persona. In recent years, he has had a slew of surprise hits, including "Pig" and "Mandy," and even appeared as Spider-Man Noir in "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse."

Demi Moore rose to prominence as part of the Brat Pack, an influential group of young actors who had the run of Hollywood in the mid-to-late '80s. A breakout star of the bunch, she went on to mold pottery opposite Patrick Swayze in 1990's "Ghost," a surprise box office sensation that earned a staggering $500 million worldwide from a budget of just $22 million.

Moore remained a hot property throughout the early '90s, and by the middle of the decade, she officially became Hollywood's highest-paid actress, agreeing to a record $12.5 million payday for 1996's "Striptease." The erotic comedy tanked (opening behind "The Nutty Professor," "Eraser," and Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame") and Moore's reputation went down with it.

She had salt rubbed in her wounds at the Golden Raspberry Awards, where "Striptease" cleaned up, taking home six Razzies including worst picture. She was branded box office poison overnight, to the point that the Disney Corporation started sweating over the release of the Moore-led "G.I. Jane," which they had already signed off on.

"We don't know what to do," one senior executive reportedly told Newsweek (via the Daily Telegraph). "People just don't want to see her. We would have to drag them kicking and screaming to see this movie." After "G.I. Jane" also failed to turn a profit, Moore receded from the spotlight and eventually became better known for her marriage to (and divorce from) Ashton Kutcher.

Taylor Kitsch almost became a pro hockey player at age 20, though injury forced him to reconsider his future. The Canadian told The National that he was forced to live rough after deciding to pursue a career in the movies, sleeping on subways in New York while he trained and then living out of his car in Los Angeles while trying to catch a break.

That break came when he won the part of running back Tim Riggins in "Friday Night Lights." Kitsch gained a cult following during his time on the NBC football drama, which may have ultimately worked against him. Gawker argued the actor was "a victim of the Friends effect," claiming Kitsch fans didn't want to see him in tentpole roles, something the studios didn't count on.

In 2012 — dubbed by Gawker "the year that Hollywood took a chance on Taylor Kitsch and failed miserably" — the actor fronted Disney's disastrous "John Carter" adaptation. The studio lost $200 million on the failed blockbuster, and according to Forbes, "John Carter" became another way to say "box office bomb." The disappointing performance of "Battleship" later that year proved to be the nail in Kitsch's coffin. "There is no doubt that a studio would think twice about casting him as a lead after the poor performances of both 'Battleship' and 'John Carter,'" box office analyst Jeff Bock told Yahoo! Movies. "He might still be on the list, but pretty far down, and certainly not the A-list."

John Travolta's story is one of multiple resurrections. His career has appeared dead and buried on several occasions, yet more than once, he managed to find ways to breathe new life into his career. He became one of the world's most recognizable movie stars after 1978's "Grease," though by the mid-'80s, his star had faded somewhat, thanks to a string of poorly received pictures.

He shot back to the top at the turn of the decade after "Look Who's Talking" raked in an unexpected fortune (almost $300 million worldwide), though agreeing to appear in two sub-par sequels put Travolta right back where he started. It wasn't until the mid-'90s that he became relevant again — thanks to Quentin Tarantino.

"Pulp Fiction" allowed Travolta to reinvent himself once more, and Tarantino even guided him down the right path afterward, advising him to accept a part in Barry Sonnenfeld's "Get Shorty." Two $100 million-grossing films followed (1996's "Phenomenon" and 1997's "Face/Off"), but poor choices over the next few years meant his career re-imploded with the millennium.

2000's "Battlefield Earth" was branded by The Guardian as one of the worst movies ever made, and critics across the board agreed — the film has a pitiful 3 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This drastically miscalculated L. Ron Hubbard adaptation cost $73 million to make and returned less than $30 million, sinking Travolta's career once more.

It seems like a lifetime ago that Tom Green was considered the next big thing in Hollywood. The Canadian funnyman actually dabbled in rap music as a teenager, going under the name MC Bones. Green was a member of the Ottawa-based group Organized Rhyme, and only turned his attention to TV after they were dropped by their label.

According to The Guardian, Green returned to his parents' basement when the group disbanded and started developing his comedy act. Peddling his gross-out brand of comedy on public access TV, he built a cult following that was eventually noticed by MTV. The network picked up "The Tom Green Show" in 1999, and it became popular enough to pique Hollywood's interest.

20th Century Fox jumped on the Green bandwagon and offered him the chance to write, direct, and star in his own movie. The result was the surreal "Freddy Got Fingered," a would-be comedy that debuted to withering critical scorn and ended its theatrical run as a bitter box office disappointment, just about recouping its budget but failing to turn a profit after marketing costs.

The rising star of the moment came crashing down to earth with a thump, and Green has been unable to recapture the public's interest since. "Freddy Got Fingered" has slowly earned cult status over the years (Vice called it "the most underrated film of all time"), but it's all too little, too late for Green.

Let's be real here. Adam Sandler has never really been a critical darling, but he did have a lot of fans who regularly went to theaters to watch his wacky antics for a long, long time ... until Jack and Jill, that is. Thanks to his quotable comedic turns in movies like "Billy Madison," "Happy Gilmore," "The Wedding Singer," "The Waterboy," and "Big Daddy," Sandler was riding high. Even critics had to give him credit for showing off some dramatic chops in "Punch-Drunk Love" and "Funny People," and he had no trouble fronting ensemble efforts like "Grown Ups" and "Just Go With It."

"Jack and Jill," however, seemed to be the last straw for audiences who'd stuck with him through "Little Nicky" and "The Animal." The movie is one of his most-hated projects of all time — even earning him a shelf full of Razzies — and turned audiences off of subsequent films like "That's My Boy" and "Blended." Even "Pixels," which was expected to tap into the same audience that loved similarly video game-themed hits like "Wreck-It Ralph" and "The Lego Movie," bombed, and critics hated whatever was happening in "The Ridiculous 6." Sandler burned audiences with "Jack and Jill," and they've turned their backs on his subsequent work.

But somehow, some way, Sandler has proven uniquely capable of winning audiences back, especially when he takes on dramatic projects. He earned widespread acclaim for his anxiety-provoking work in "Uncut Gems," and served as an unexpectedly warm presence in Netflix's sports drama "Hustle."

After her Oscar-winning performance in 2001's Monster's Ball, Halle Berry could've had any role she wanted. Unfortunately, she wanted to play Catwoman. (The so-called Oscar curse strikes again.) The 2004 Batman spinoff nearly swept the Razzies and Berry took most of the fallout with the Arizona Republic even suggesting she return her Academy Award. Instead, Berry returned to a diminished supporting role as Storm in the X-Men film series and has struggled to reclaim the momentum she had in the early 2000s. She floundered during the late 2000s, disappearing entirely for the last two years of the decade with no credits to her name. 

She slowly but surely found a place for herself in Hollywood during the 2010s, appearing in films like "Kingsman: The Golden Circle" and "John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum." Berry has even turned her attention behind the camera, making her directorial debut in 2020 with "Bruised," in which she also played the lead role.

If you ignore all the "Wayne's World," "Austin Powers," and "Shrek" movies, Mike Myers' entire post-SNL résumé seems a lot less shagadelic. From "So I Married an Axe Murderer" and "54" through the genuinely horrifying "The Cat in the Hat," there were far fewer hits than misses. After the third "Austin Powers" and a five-year break from movies, Myers reemerged in 2008 with the universally hated comedy "The Love Guru," which Roger Ebert called a "dreary experience." 

Myers took home a Razzie and apart from a cameo in one scene in 2009's "Inglourious Basterds" and a few documentaries, he remained offscreen for years — his next major project was his two-season stint hosting a "Gong Show" revival (in character as "Tommy Maitland") starting in 2017, followed by roles in "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Terminal" the following year. His bad luck continued into 2022, with his most recent film the almost universally panned "Amsterdam."

Neve Campbell was inescapable in the late '90s. A breakout star of the immensely popular teen drama series Party of Five, she almost single-handedly sparked the '90s horror revival with "Scream" and "Scream 2," earning herself two consecutive best female performance wins at the MTV Movie Awards, the cover of Rolling Stone, and an SNL hosting gig alongside musical guest David Bowie. 

But then Campbell shed her good girl image for the embarrassing erotic thriller "Wild Things" and although reviews were mixed, her career experienced some significant fallout. Campbell clung to the "Scream" franchise for three more sequels in 2000, 2011, and 2022, but otherwise toiled on studio clunkers like "Three to Tango" and second-rate indie flicks like "When Will I Be Loved," before resurfacing in 2016 for a recurring role on "House of Cards." In 2022, she took on one of the lead roles in Netflix's "The Lincoln Lawyer."

A lot of people point to "Gigli" as the low point in Ben Affleck's career, but it's been even more damaging to the other half of the Bennifer brigade: Jennifer Lopez. Thanks to her breakout role in "Selena" and subsequent successes with "Anaconda," "Out of Sight," and "Antz," Lopez earned leading lady status in both rom-coms (like "The Wedding Planner" and "Maid in Manhattan") as well as more serious film fare (including "Enough," "The Cell," and "Angel Eyes") before "Gigli" came along. She didn't stop working by any means, but throughout the 2010s, leading roles were hard to come by for the former pop star.

But everything old is new again, and Jennifer Lopez is no exception. Not only has Bennifer been resurrected from the dead, with the two tying the knot in 2022, but Lopez is in-demand again as a rom-com star, appearing opposite Owen Wilson in "Marry Me" and Josh Duhamel in "Shotgun Wedding."

In 1999, Chris Klein found both critical acclaim (for playing a sensitive jock in "Election") and box office bank (for playing a sensitive jock in "American Pie"), then enjoyed a two-year run filled with romantic teen dramas ("Here on Earth"), blockbuster sequels ("American Pie 2") and awards shows — he was even named "Male Superstar of Tomorrow" at the Young Hollywood Awards. But when Klein strapped on elbow pads alongside LL Cool J for the dumbed-down "Rollerball" reboot (one of the costliest box office bombs ever) and the phone stopped ringing. 

Aside from Mel Gibson's "We Were Soldiers" (released less than a month after "Rollerball"), Klein appeared in just one movie (the underwhelming "The United States of Leland") during the next two years. He released a steady stream of busts like "Just Friends" and "Street Fighter," and his leading man potential had all but evaporated by the time his cringe-inducing Mamma Mia audition surfaced.

Look. We could fill an entire article with the litany of other reasons why Lindsay Lohan's career has been so in the dumps in recent years, but you have to point to her 2007 flop "I Know Who Killed Me" as a pretty obvious turning point.

Before that film, Lohan was a true Hollywood starlet, even getting to share the screen with Meryl Streep in "A Prairie Home Companion" and Jane Fonda in "Georgia Rule." She became a true teen sensation thanks to "The Parent Trap," "Freaky Friday," and "Mean Girls," and her personal popularity landed her on the cover of countless magazines, for better and for worse. Her name was seen as a selling point when she led up this critically demolished mystery thriller, and its failure to attract an audience proved that those who knew her name may have been more interested in witnessing her tabloid-worthy behaviors than her screen presence. She went on to appear in "Machete" and the TV drama "Liz & Dick," which earned some positive attention, but in the years since I Know Who Killed Me, her screen appearances have been fewer and farther between.

Unlike many child stars, though, Lohan is getting a second act, thanks to a pivot to Netflix Christmas romance with 2022's "Falling for Christmas."

Hartnett's late '90s hits (including "The Faculty" and "The Virgin Suicides") made him a veritable teen heartthrob. His turn as a swoony starcrossed lover in "Here on Earth" didn't do him any favors with critics, but his popularity soared and earned him top billing in a pair of big-budget action films — "Black Hawk Down" and "Pearl Harbor" – and he returned to theaters in short succession with the rom-com "40 Days and 40 Nights," the eerie mystery romance "Wicker Park," and the Frank Miller graphic novel adaptation "Sin City."

His fast-paced ascension hit a major speed bump, though, when he signed on to star in the title role of Paul McGuigan's "Lucky Number Slevin," a star-studded caper that failed to impress fans or critics. With co-stars like Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman, it had all the right ingredients to succeed — but blame landed on Hartnett's shoulders when it failed. After that, he went on to star in the highly disfavored murder mystery "The Black Dahlia" and David Slade's underrated horror "30 Days of Night," but he has since had trouble reestablishing himself as an A-lister. You could argue that it was the buddy cop bomb "Hollywood Homicide" that issued Hartnett's initial career blow, but "Lucky Number Slevin" cemented the fact that he wasn't a bona fide movie star in the making.

Rebecca Gayheart's jarring beauty and perplexing countenance made her something of a standout among the many scream queens of the '90s, thanks to her appearances in back-to-back pop slashers "Scream 2" and "Urban Legend," and her turn in the TV teen drama "Beverly Hills, 90210" only bolstered her fanbase. After her second major TV run in the short-lived "Wasteland" failed to take off, she turned back to the teen scene for the quirky dark comedy "Jawbreaker."

The film was DOA with audiences and reviewers, however, and seemingly relegated her headshot to the B-movie pile forevermore. Her career has suffered a series of letdowns ever since, and while she might have been seen in this or that show along the way since then, she's never quite achieved the same star status others in her '90s peer group enjoyed. Even a turn in the cult classic dark comedy "Dead Like Me" was doomed — she was let go after just five episodes, allegedly because the studio was worried about the fallout from a wrongful death lawsuit that was filed against her after she fatally struck a child in a crosswalk in 2001.

A year after he made an early exit from "That '70s Show," Topher Grace had already put together an impressive movie résumé. From critically acclaimed performances in Stephen Soderbergh's "Traffic" and "P.S." to starring roles in "Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!" and "In Good Company," Grace seemed poised for full-time movie stardom. Then he signed on to play Venom in Sam Raimi's overwrought "Spider-Man 3." 

Fundamentally miscast in the role, Grace didn't exactly fit the ripped physical profile fans expected of Venom, and it certainly didn't help matters that he was just one of three villains battling for screen time. While Grace still found roles in "Predators" and "Interstellar," "Spider-Man 3" diminished his viability as a leading man. Thankfully for Grace, you can always go home: He currently has a recurring role on Netflix's "That '90s Show," which revolves around his character's daughter and her friends two decades after the original show.

Orlando Bloom was a relative newcomer when he landed the role of unconquerable elf archer Legolas in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Even though his long blonde locks and crystal blue eyes in the films were artificial for the movies, Bloom's natural aesthetic earned him heartthrob status, and he quickly nabbed the hearts of millions of fans. His instant appeal earned him high-profile gigs, including the swashbuckling lead in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, a similarly impressive billing stature in Wolfgang Petersen's pseudo-historical blockbuster "Troy," and a respectable spot in Ridley Scott's ensemble cast for "Black Hawk Down."

But then "Elizabethtown" happened. In theory, it's not a terrible idea for a guy who's been in so many large productions to dial it down a notch for a drama, but the movie flopped with critics and audiences alike, instantly undermining his acceleration to the A-list just as quickly as it had begun. The problem? Both his role and the film — and, to be honest, his questionable American accent — were charmless. Bloom starred in 2011's "The Three Musketeers" and has been able to fall back on his dual franchises to carry his film career forward with their endless barrage of prequels and sequels. But in recent years, his focus on smaller projects has made him harder to spot on the big screen — partly because he's also turned to the stage, making his Broadway debut in a 2013 production of "Romeo and Juliet."

Nothing can actually ruin Sean Connery. The man is a Hollywood institution, after all. The original James Bond through three decades, he repositioned himself in the '90s as a versatile action hero with "The Hunt For Red October" and "The Rock." Despite flops like 1998's "The Avengers" and 1999's "Entrapment," Connery still grabbed the title of People's "Sexiest Man of the Century" at age 69. 

In 2003, he returned as executive producer and star of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," adapted from Alan Moore's graphic novel series that puts together a group of classic fictional characters, including Connery's Allan Quatermain ("King Solomon's Mines"), Dr. Jekyll, and Dorian Gray. Despite the interesting premise, "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" failed to connect with audiences. Both shaken and stirred by the film's box office failure, Connery hasn't appeared in a movie since, officially announcing his retirement in 2005.

In 2003, Farrell starred in a staggering four blockbusters ("Daredevil," "Phone Booth," "S.W.A.T." and "The Recruit"). That track record inspired Oliver Stone to cast him as a bisexual Alexander the Great in his controversial 2004 epic "Alexander." Critics hated the bloated movie and historians were offended by Stone's loose interpretation of facts, all while the movie made just $155 million against its $167 million budget. With his credibility as an A-list actor taking a significant hit, Farrell focused on quieter, less financially risky films for a while.

But if you think "Alexander" would be enough to make the Irish actor pack it in altogether, well, you would be wrong. Farrell dusted himself off and has had a career resurgence in the past decade, culminating in a 2022 that saw him play the Penguin in "The Batman," a heartbroken father in "After Yang," and a fundamentally nice man in "The Banshees of Inisherin," for which he received an Academy Award nomination.

"Star Wars" fans had a hard time accepting then-relative newcomer Hayden Christensen as a teenage Anakin Skywalker, and it's partially because he suffered some notorious moments of bad acting throughout. (Or rather, mediocre acting that was not helped by terrible dialogue.) But the films were still staggeringly successful in the way of ticket sales, giving Christensen his shot at becoming the Next Big Thing in Hollywood.

That momentum was short-lived, however, because after he took on a little-seen but well-respected starring role in the newsroom drama "Shattered Glass," he signed on for another perceived tentpole picture with 2008's "Jumper." The sci-fi film, based on Steven Gould's popular novel series of the same name, was structured to launch a franchise, but it disappointed critics and underwhelmed audiences. The failure of that film marked the start of Christensen's mutual breakup with Hollywood, and he took several years off from show business shortly thereafter. He's since returned to making movies, but has been unable to capitalize on the momentum he lost after finishing his stint on The Dark Side.

Emile Hirsch became something of an indie sensation in the early 2000s after he appeared in a succession of critically lauded films including "Lords of Dogtown," "Into the Wild," and "Milk," but those accolades didn't translate to box office gold the way "Speed Racer" filmmakers the Wachowskis hoped it would. Although it has since experienced a critical reappraisal, it failed to make back its own production budget – let alone launch a franchise as anticipated.

It also put a major damper on the Hollywood heat Hirsch accrued through his lower-budget releases. He's since been unable to regain that early momentum, and even releases that have enjoyed some respect, like "Killer Joe" and "Lone Survivor," found him in supporting roles. Hirsch has continued to act in recent years, even appearing in Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," but the industry doesn't seem to be in any rush to put him back behind the wheel of a major motion picture — in a starring role, at least.

At one point, Kevin Costner was one of the biggest movie stars in the world. He put together a string of huge successes in the '80s, including "The Untouchables," "Bull Durham," and "Field of Dreams," and by the time he won dual Oscars for directing and starring in "Dances with Wolves," he was one of Hollywood's most bankable household names. Even "The Bodyguard," which didn't fare well with many reviewers, was a massive box office hit.

When Costner put his clout behind the high-concept dystopian actioner "Waterworld," though, he ended up over his head. A notorious production nightmare that barely made any money due to its engorged budget, it took a critical flogging that sent Costner down a path of many pans to come. While 1996's "Tin Cup" was a charming enough dramedy, it still failed to excite audiences, and his next would-be blockbuster, 1997's "The Postman," brought out even fewer viewers and was roundly panned by critics. Costner's star status was officially jeopardized. One flub is forgivable, but two in quick succession? Disastrous.

It's been hit or miss for Costner since then. High-profile efforts like "Message In a Bottle" and "For Love of the Game" were met with lukewarm critical and commercial receptions, but dramas like "Thirteen Days," "Open Range" (which he also directed), and "The Upside of Anger" served as low-key reminders of the gifts that helped make him a star. Costner's more recent efforts include supporting roles in blockbusters like "Man of Steel" and "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit," but his marquee status never really recovered after "Waterworld."

Cuba Gooding, Jr. rose to fame in 1991 as the lead in "Boyz n the Hood" — a movie considered so socially relevant that it's in the National Film Registry. He went on to win an Oscar for his work in "Jerry Maguire" and was on a roll with "As Good as It Gets," "What Dreams May Come," and "Men of Honor." In 2002, however, he unleashed his first two starring vehicles: the family comedy "Snow Dogs" and the horrifically misguided comedy "Boat Trip." Both were critical disasters, but at least "Snow Dogs" made money, whereas "Boat Trip" failed to connect with general audiences in theaters. 

With his credibility blown, Gooding only made things worse with later Razzie-nominated roles in "Radio," "Norbit," and "Daddy Day Camp." Of the 18 movies he released between 2008 and 2013, all but five went straight to DVD. Since then, his greatest successes have been on the small screen, with a recurring role on "American Horror Story" and a career-redefining performance as O.J. Simpson in "American Crime Story," for which he received an Emmy nomination.

Between 1986 and 1992, Geena Davis went from being a model-turned-actress to an Oscar winner (for 1988's "The Accidental Tourist") and a bona fide box office commodity with "The Fly," "Beetlejuice," "Thelma & Louise," and "A League of Their Own." Then in 1995, Davis teamed up with her husband, director Renny Harlin, for the swashbuckling "Cutthroat Island," which cost $98 million to make and pulled in just $10 million, giving it the notorious distinction of one of the all-time worst financial losses by a movie. 

Davis and Harlin tried again with the moderately successful "The Long Kiss Goodnight" in 1996, but for the next decade, Davis only appeared on the silver screen twice (in 1999's "Stuart Little" and 2002's "Stuart Little 2") and despite winning a Golden Globe in 2006 for ABC's "Commander in Chief," the series only lasted as long as 2000's "The Geena Davis Show": one season.

Warren Beatty took Hollywood by storm in 1967 with his leading performance in the colossal hit "Bonnie and Clyde" (which he also produced), and he became one of his generation's true renaissance men by directing and starring in "Heaven Can Wait," "Reds," "Dick Tracy," and "Bulworth." Although he had endured his share of box office bombs — "Ishtar" and "Love Affair," to name just a few — none of them suffered the spectacular failure of 2001's "Town & Country." 

Although Beatty and his co-stars Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton had a proven track record in Hollywood, audiences weren't charmed by their on-screen antics. One of the most expensive flops in film history, the romantic comedy made back just $10 million of its $90 million budget, and Beatty didn't take on another project for 15 years. His next directorial effort came in 2016 with "Rules Don't Apply," which, despite starring up-and-comers Alden Ehrenreich and Lily Collins, failed to make much of an impact with either critics or audiences.

Meg Ryan carved out a reputation as the queen of the rom-com in the '90s, but her squeaky-clean image (and her career in the movies) took a huge blow at the turn of the millennium. Her marriage to Dennis Quaid was on the rocks, and when sparks flew between Ryan and her "Proof of Life" co-star Russell Crowe, it was the final nail in the coffin. The hostage thriller was panned by the majority of critics, but it was Ryan's real-life fling with Crowe that ultimately derailed the former's career.

"It had an indelible and very destructive effect on the release of the film in the U.S., because the real-life story overpowered the film," director Taylor Hackford told the Guardian ahead of the UK premiere. Crowe (who was dumped by Ryan less than a year into their controversial relationship) didn't appreciate Hackford's words, profanely referring to him as an "idiot" and insisting, "The end of her prior relationship had nothing to do with me."

When Ryan spoke to the New York Times in 2019, she admitted that the fallout from "Proof of Life" and her affair with Crowe was "a big turning point" for her, career-wise. "I felt the effect, like I was the bad guy," she said. When 2003's "In the Cut" also bombed, the industry seemed to turn its back on Ryan altogether. "The feeling with Hollywood was mutual," she added. "I felt done when they felt done, probably."

Jamie Kennedy was best known for playing horror movie fanatic Randy Meeks in the "Scream" movies until his ill-fated turn as Tim Avery in 2005's "Son of the Mask." The sequel put an end to Kennedy's chances of becoming the new Jim Carrey and seriously derailed his career in Hollywood. The backlash had such an effect on him that he made a documentary — 2007's "Heckler" — about the destructive power of movie blogs, a relatively new medium at the time.

"My whole thing is, 'review the piece, not the person,'" Kennedy told IFC. "If I make a movie about a baby that flies and turns green, that's one thing, but don't start attacking me, my family, my life and my faith personally." "Heckler" argues that there is no accountability when it comes to film reviews, something that "irks" Kennedy greatly. "The next thing you know, how come I'm not getting an offer? Your career starts going, and you're like, 'Am I really a piece of s***?' It just breeds insanity."

Some critics enjoyed "Heckler," but just as many couldn't get past the idea that it was Kennedy's way of lashing out at those who hated Son of the Mask — i.e. everybody. "About halfway through the movie, Heckler really becomes more about Jamie's revenge," HuffPost said. "If Kennedy somehow was able to squelch his own anger even a little, he might have had a good eighty-minute movie."

Akira Toriyama's "Dragon Ball" remains one of the most adored manga series ever, spawning several anime adaptations on its way to becoming one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. The animated series "Dragon Ball Z" arrived in America in the mid-'90s. Despite taking a while to catch on, it eventually found a home on Cartoon Network and went on to become a pop culture phenomenon. "It pushed the limits of violence that you could show in a 'kids' series, and it presented this very visceral, very original superhero power fantasy," manga scholar Jason Thompson told CBR.

By the time Fox purchased the movie rights, the "Dragon Ball" fanbase was huge. Sadly, the big-screen adaptation proved to be one of many anime remakes that Hollywood would botch entirely. Justin Chatwin seemed poised to become a star after appearing as Tom Cruise's moody son in Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds," but fans absolutely hated him as Goku, and not just because he was a white guy playing an Asian character. "The film version was an emotionless bore," Social Underground's Jeff Sorensen said, and he wasn't alone in this opinion. "Dragonball Evolution" was received so poorly that screenwriter Ben Ramsey apologized to fans, admitting that he was chasing a "big payday" when he took the project on. Although Chatwin had a popular recurring role on "Shameless," he hasn't made an impact on the big screen since.

Believe it or not, Dragonball Evolution wasn't the worst movie of 2009. According to Rotten Tomatoes (via Kotaku), that unenviable title went to the nigh-unwatchable "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li," another ill-fated film based on a Japanese property. The first sign that something was amiss was the fact that the movie wasn't screened for critics in advance of its release. Word of just how bad (we're talking 5 percent on the Tomatometer bad) "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li" was soon spread, however. It reportedly cost $50 million to make but only managed to pull in $8.7 million in the United States and around half that amount at the worldwide box office.

"The problems with "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li" began with the casting of dead-eyed, sleepy-voiced, charisma-impaired automaton Kristin Kreuk as the titular piano-playing/fighting machine, and they continue with every other miserable facet of the production," AV Club said in its scathing review. "Kreuk delivers her lines like a first-grade Sunday-school teacher addressing her students, and she boasts the energy and magnetism of a department-store mannequin."

Kreuk had been in bad movies before ("Eurotrip" and "Partition" were both hammered by critics) but she made these while playing Lana Lang in Smallville. In a gross error of judgment, Kreuk left the long-running Superman show to play Chun-Li because the schedule wouldn't allow her to do both. "I just wanted to try something else," she told Metro at the time.

Like Kristin Kreuk, Courtney Thorne-Smith left a successful TV show to star in a film that ended up sinking her career. The San Francisco-born actor played Alison Parker on "Melrose Place" for much of the 1990s, but she grew tired of the Fox soap and tried to reinvent herself as a movie star. Unfortunately for Thorne-Smith, her opposite number in 1998's "Chairman of the Board" was none other than Scott "Carrot Top" Thompson.

"In the medium's century-plus history, few movies have been as unwanted and as widely reviled by audiences and critics alike," Yahoo! Movies said of "Chairman of the Board" in 2018, marking its 20-year anniversary with a rundown of just how bad it actually was. The leading man takes the brunt of the blame, but Thorne-Smith also comes in for some major criticism. "She sinks to Carrot Top's dismal level by donning a Native American headdress (seriously?) and then burping the entire alphabet (seriously)."

In a now infamous episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Norm Macdonald made sure that nobody went to see "Chairman of the Board." Thorne-Smith was on the show to promote the movie, but her fellow guest couldn't help but poke fun. "If it's got Carrot Top in it, you know what a good name for it would be? Box Office Poison," Macdonald quipped. "I'm in it too," Thorne-Smith groaned. "What about my career?" Turns out Macdonald was right — "Chairman of the Board" only made $181,233.

Pamela Anderson was seemingly destined for fame. The Canadian model-turned-actress was the first baby born on Canada's 100-year anniversary as a nation and was dubbed "The Centennial Baby" in the press. As a child, she appeared on posters in libraries across British Columbia and she made her first film appearance while still in high school, playing a sex worker in the erotic thriller "Crimes of Passion." Her career didn't really get going until she attended a B.C. Lions football game in the summer of 1989, however.

"A camera man put his TV camera on Anderson during the game and she was shown on the big video screen at the game (and to the TV viewers at home)," the Los Angeles Times confirms. "The audience reaction was tremendous." By October '89, she was on the cover of Playboy magazine. She moved to LA to pursue modeling and started booking acting gigs the following year. Anderson's Lisa became a recurring character on ABC's "Home Improvement," which led to her casting as C.J. Parker in "Baywatch," the show that made her a household name.

Anderson attempted to make the leap to movie star in the mid-'90s, but the campy comic book adaptation "Barb Wire" failed miserably, proving beyond a doubt that her acting abilities were limited. When she spoke to Interview magazine in 2016, Anderson blamed studio intervention for the movie's failings. "It wasn't supposed to turn out like it did," she said. "They changed the script six million times."

In the space of just a few years, Italian filmmaker Roberto Benigni went from winning best actor at the Academy Awards to starring in a film so bad that it has a zero percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, one of the ten worst-reviewed films in the history of the website.

1997's "Life Is Beautiful" (which Benigni wrote, directed, and starred in) is a deeply affecting movie about a Jewish father and his child who are thrown into a Nazi concentration camp during the height of World War II. Benigni manages to keep his son ignorant of the reality of their desperate situation through his wit and imagination, convincing the youngster that everyone there is involved in a big game. It was worthy of all the praise, just as 2002's "Pinocchio" deserved the derision it received — Benigni was named worst actor at the 2003 Golden Raspberry Awards, cementing his fall from grace.

Critics were unequivocal in their dislike of the film. "I can't say this enough: This movie is about an adult male dressed in pink jammies," The Washington Post's Stephen Hunter wrote, and Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle was equally as baffled. "What can one say about a balding 50-year-old actor playing an innocent boy carved from a log?"

The fallout from Jake Lloyd's appearance as Anakin Skywalker in "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace" is well documented, but it stands as one of the swiftest and most unpleasant falls from grace experienced by any actor. Just 10 years old at the time of the film's release in 1999, Lloyd's performance seemed to shoulder the brunt of fans' dismayed reaction to George Lucas's film, despite, as Mark Hamill told Vulture, "He did exactly what George [Lucas] wanted him to do." Online venom from disappointed "Star Wars" devotees combined with relentless off-camera bullying by other kids made Lloyd's life, in his words, "a living hell" (via the Daily Mail).

Lloyd retired from acting in his pre-teens and struggled with mental health issues, including paranoid schizophrenia. In 2015, he was taken to a psychiatric facility after leading police officers in a pursuit that resulted in a slew of charges, including reckless driving and driving without a license. His mother, Lisa Lloyd, issued a statement in 2018 that her son was living closer to his family, who were, in her words, "all working hard to help him."

Businessman-turned-producer Jack Wrather secured the rights to the venerable TV Western "The Lone Ranger" in 1954 but failed to mine much of a windfall from the decision. He found a potential outlet after the success of "Superman" — itself a decades-old IP — and decided to bring the Masked Man to the big screen. To find his Lone Ranger, Wrather even took a tip from "Superman" producers, who had tapped an unknown named Christopher Reeve to play the Man of Steel, and hired a relative newcomer named Klinton Spilsbury to play his lead.

Spilsbury looked the part — "He looked great in the mask," as co-producer Martin Starger told Entertainment Weekly — but failed so miserably at delivering dialogue that director William A. Fraker brought in actor James Keach to dub all of his lines. Spilsbury also didn't do himself any favors by flashing some serious movie-star attitude to the cast and crew, demanding that the film be shot in sequence, picking fights at local bars, and alleging an affair with the designer Halston during an inebriated face-to-face with Andy Warhol for Interview magazine.

"The Legend of the Lone Ranger" opened to scathing reviews in 1981 and disastrous box office returns. Spilsbury bore the brunt of the negative reaction, netting two Razzie Awards for his debut turn. Having traversed an arc from Hollywood up-and-comer to never-was over the course of a single film, Splisbury retired from acting and according to Variety, worked as a photographer.

After appearing in the Emmy-winning TV miniseries "Holocaust," actor Michael Beck gained fame as the gang leader Swan, the hero of Walter Hill's cult favorite "The Warriors" in 1979. But Beck had little time to gain any career traction from that film's success as shortly thereafter Lawrence Gordon, who produced "Warriors," tapped Beck to play the male lead in his next picture, a big-budget fantasy musical built around pop star Olivia Newton-John. The resulting picture, "Xanadu," was one of the biggest box office disasters of 1980, but it left the careers of most of its principal cast and crew intact. Olivia Newton-John generated a chart-topping single with "Magic" and a Top 10 hit with the title track (with ELO), while Gordon, director Robert Greenwald, and co-star Gene Kelly emerged largely unscathed. This was not the case, however, for Beck.

As he told Starburst Magazine, "I did say, probably somewhere in the early '80s, that 'The Warriors' opened the door for me and 'Xanadu' slammed it shut." Beck found himself in a string of atrocious action films, including the certifiably ridiculous "Megaforce," before returning to television in the mid-1980s. There, he found more substantive work through TV movies with Wes Craven ("Chiller") and Douglas Hickox ("Blackout") and episodes of "In the Heat of the Night," "JAG," and "Nash Bridges." He also forged a second successful career as an audiobook narrator for authors like John Grisham and Michael Connelly. In 2005, he reprised the role of Swan in a video game adaptation of "The Warriors."

The son of actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Jaden Smith carved a diverse career path at an early age that often resembled his father's Hollywood trajectory through music and acting. His initial efforts in both mediums were successful: Jaden moved from a minor supporting role opposite his father in "The Pursuit of Happyness" to a lead role in the 2010 version of "The Karate Kid," as well as scoring a Top 10 hit with "Never Say Never," a collaboration with Justin Bieber. Much of this progress, however, was undone by 2013's "After Earth," which again teamed Will and Jaden Smith as co-stars.

M. Night Shyamalan's science fiction epic, about a father and son who return to an uninhabited Earth thousands of years in the future, was co-produced by Will Smith. But his star power and a vast marketing budget couldn't save the film from a tidal wave of critical venom, much of which was leveled at Jaden's lackluster performance. He wisely stepped back from film to focus on music and his own fashion line, but seemed to draw more attention for his sartorial choices, social media posts filled with allusions to conspiracy theories, and criticism of public schools.

Smith rebounded with the 2018 indie "Skate Kitchen" and a supporting role in Baz Luhrmann's short-lived hip-hop drama series "The Get Down." He has largely kept his distance from acting, though, save for occasional voice-over work for animated projects like "Entergalactic," focusing instead on music and other pursuits.

Faye Dunaway was a three-time Oscar nominee, a six-time Golden Globe nominee (winning both for 1977's "Network"), and a major box office star when she signed on to play screen legend Joan Crawford in the 1981 biopic "Mommie Dearest." The film, based on the autobiography of Crawford's daughter Christina, painted a particularly unflattering portrait of the actress as a manipulative and abusive figure — a portrayal that Dunaway played at hurricane-level intensity and volume.

Though Dunaway netted best actress nominations from the National Society of Film Critics and New York Film Critics Circle for her performance, most critics savaged the film; audiences seemed to regard "Mommie Dearest" as high camp, which Paramount acknowledged by revising its promotional campaign with the tag line, "Meet the biggest mother of them all!" For Dunaway, the negative publicity had a deleterious effect on her career: She found herself mired in dismal flops ("Supergirl") or underperforming dramas ("Midnight Crossing"), though a turn as an unglamorous alcoholic in "Barfly" won her a Golden Globe nomination. Television offered her more substantive work, and she earned an Emmy for a 1994 episode of "Columbo" as well as a Golden Globe for the HBO drama "Gia." Dunaway rarely spoke about "Mommie Dearest," but did tell People in 2016, "I think it turned my career in a direction where people would irretrievably have the wrong impression of me — and that's an awful thing to beat."

For a brief period of time in the '90s, actor Skeet Ulrich was poised to become a major Hollywood star. A string of modest hits, including "Boys" and "The Craft," peaked with his appearance as Billy Loomis in Wes Craven's "Scream," and the success of that film suggested that Ulrich would follow in the path of actors like Johnny Depp, to whom he was frequently compared. But the "Scream" bump amounted to nothing: After a minor role in James L. Brooks's "As Good As It Gets," Ulrich appeared in a string of critical and box office flops, including Richard Linklater's "The Newton Boys," "Chill Factor," Paul Schrader's adaptation of Elmore Leonard's "Touch," and Ang Lee's "Ride with the Devil."

The 2000 thriller "Track Down" appeared to deliver the death blow to Ulrich's film career. Lawsuits over plagiarism issues delayed the film's release until 2004, when it debuted on home video to resounding dismissal by critics. Ulrich retreated to television, where he found modest success as F.P. Jones II on "Riverdale" and the cult-favorite series "Jericho." More recently, he reprised Billy Loomis in 2022's "Scream" and 2023's "Scream VI," appearing in visions to his daughter.

Having enjoyed success as both a stand-up comedian — his 2007 comedy album "Party" reached platinum status – and actor, Nick Swardson joined forces with Adam Sandler to try his hand at a feature film career. The build-up to Swardson's movie stardom was gradual, with assignments as writer and bit player on "Grandma's Boy" and in several Sandler titles ("Just Go With It"). But by 2011, the powers that be deemed that Swardson was ready for his time in the spotlight, with the aptly titled "Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star" as the vehicle to usher him to the big time.

Unfortunately, while Bucky Larson attained stardom of a sort as an adult film actor, the film did not grant Swardson access to the A-list. Critics unsheathed their claws for the film, deeming it "one of the ugliest, most misguided comedies in recent years" (AV Club) and proclaiming Swardson's performance as "more energy than wit" (New York Times). Audiences seemed to agree, delivering only $2.5 million in U.S. ticket sales. Swardson, however, did not, and defended the film in a 2011 interview with Splitsider (via the AV Club) in which he said that the negative response from critics "makes them look like such morons." He has since returned to steady rotation in Sandler films and found some redemption on television as a voice actor, guest star, and content creator.

No single picture sent Jean-Claude Van Damme tumbling from the top of the action movie heap in the late '80s and 1990s: His box office fortunes declined slowly but steadily after back-to-back hits with "TimeCop" and "Street Fighter" in 1994. Mid-'90s titles like "Sudden Death" and "Maximum Risk" weren't failures — both surpassed their budgets, but failed to bring in "TimeCop"-sized windfalls. Critics like to point at his twin collaborations with Hong Kong director Tsui Hark — 1997's "Double Team" and 1998's "Knock Off" — as the beginning of the end for Jean-Claude Van Damme. Again, both made a profit, but both films relied on risible pair-ups for Van Damme — Dennis Rodman and Mickey Rourke in "Double Team" and Rob Schneider in "Knock Off" — and increasingly outlandish storylines.

If blame can be laid at the feet of a single Van Damme title, it's probably 1999's "Universal Soldier: The Return," an unnecessary sequel to 1992's "Universal Soldier" which pitted Van Damme's former super-soldier against the next generation of enhanced combatants. Michael Jai White, who appeared in the first film, turns up as the new bad UniSol, with wrestler Bill Goldberg offering brawny backup, but their presence can't compensate for the nagging sense that "The Return" is a tired retreat. Audiences delivered just $10 million in ticket sales against a $45 million budget. Van Damme had already dipped a toe into direct-to-video waters with 1998's "Legionnaire," but after "Universal Soldier: The Return," he waded fully into those waters and remained there until his career resurged with "JCVD" and "The Expendables 2."

The improbable movie stardom of comedian Pauly Shore reached its zenith with 1996's "Bio-Dome," a film with the unique distinction of holding a Metascore of 1 ("overwhelming dislike") on Metacritic. The film was not a financial flop, earning $13.4 million against a $8.5 million production budget, but far below receipts for his previous efforts (echoing the descending pattern of returns for each of his films after "Encino Man"). But the modest return, combined with brutal reviewer response — Variety described Shore and Stephen Baldwin's turns as dimwits trapped in the titular structure as "charmless" — seemed to indicate that the worm had turned on Shore's film career, a fact borne out by the fact that its follow-up, 1997's "The Curse of Inferno," skipped a theatrical release altogether and debuted on The Movie Channel.

Shore continues to appear in films, though primarily as a supporting player or voice-over actor in English dubs of international animated films. The response to his 2003 mockumentary "Pauly Shore is Dead" was more sympathetic, though it also failed to make an impact at the box office. But most, if not all, of his attempts to return to leading man status, such as 2020's "Guest House," have been met with rejection by critics and audiences alike.