A role for actors can be a gamble: it may be a blast that makes them super-popular or it may be a disaster that jeopardizes their entire career. Even the most popular actors can get into this kind of trouble. For example, Ben Affleck spent several years restoring his reputation after Gigli, and Halle Berry put her career in jeopardy with her role in Catwoman.
We at ViralSection have noticed that an unfortunate role may “spit” even the most talented actors out of Hollywood and not all of them are able to restore their reputation.
Taylor Lautner
© The Ridiculous 6 / Happy Madison
The young and strong Lautner became really popular right after the release of Twilight, but after the franchise ended, he didn’t know what to do. And the film Abduction is the one that pulled him down. Despite the fact that the film was not a total failure in the box office, the critics thought that Lautner’s acting was terrible.
Since then, Lautner has been trying to revive his career, but he is not doing very well: all the films he’s been in since Twilight have gotten very bad reviews from viewers.
Demi Moore
Demi Moore started her career in the middle of the ’80s, and in the ’90s she was one of the most well-paid actresses in the industry. But she didn’t know that the role she spent every day in the gym preparing for and learning how to strip, would be a stain on her reputation.
The film Striptease got 6 Golden Raspberries and almost became the worst film of its decade. Moore got her fair share of criticism, too: her dancing was mocked by critics. And even the film G.I. Jane, with Demi’s great acting, couldn’t put her back on top in Hollywood.
Brendan Fraser
This is a case where the same role that first made an actor famous, then failed him. Fraser was famous long before the release of The Mummy, but it was this film that made him a well-known star. The sequel was also a hit, but part 3 is where the things got really crazy, disappointed the viewers, and put Brendan’s career in danger.
Up until 2014, the actor played in several roles every year, but none of them helped him become popular again.
Nicolas Cage
© Face/Off / Paramount Pictures
© The Wicker Man / Equity Pictures Medienfonds
Cage’s facial expressions are an art form that is proven by the millions of memes with his face. By the way, his talent for making funny faces was useful when he was working on Vampire’s Kiss and Face/Off which is when his career was blooming. But the release of the film The Wicker Man, where the actor went too far with his face, was the first alarming sign.
Despite this failure, Cage continued to appear in good films until he got a role in Drive Angry that had terrible results at the box office. Also, in 2012, the actor was forced to pay $13 million in taxes, which made him accept roles in some really bad films and led to multiple Golden Raspberry awards.
Kristin Kreuk
© MsKristinKreuk
The career of the charming Kristin Kreuk went south after her main role in Street Fighter. For some reason, this film was not shown to a focus group. There was no good story, it was all clichés, and all the fight scenes looked ridiculous. The film was named The Worst Film by Rotten Tomatoes and Kreuk was harshly criticized by viewers.
Taylor Kitsch
After his role in Friday Night Lights, Taylor Kitsch became a prisoner of this role: both viewers and critics alike only saw him as this depressed character. But in 2012, Disney decided to take a chance on this actor and he got the main role in John Carter: it didn’t earn a lot of money and Kitsch’s acting was not very good.
His second main role in the 2012 film Battleship, which was the second box office failure for Kitsch, was not forgiven. He still appears in movies, but none of them have been very successful.
Adam Sandler
Despite the fact that the roles in Adam Sandler’s career were not all good, for a long time, he was on the list of the best Hollywood comedians and he sometimes earned around $25 million for his roles. But the patience of critics and fans ended after the film Jack and Jill, that Adam himself wrote and produced.
The movie garnered a record number of Golden Raspberry nominations. It won 10 awards, including The Worst Film.
Now, Sandler only appears in the films made by his company, Happy Madison, most of which don’t even make it to the big screen.
Lindsay Lohan
Everyone knows that Lindsay Lohan’s career went south for reasons that are not connected with her work, but it was the film I Know Who Killed Me that made critics doubt that Lindsay was actually talented. Before that awful thriller, almost every film with Lohan was a hit, but all her movies after it were not successful in any way.
Eddie Murphy
The drama Dreamgirls that Eddie Murphy won the Golden Globe for and was nominated for Oscar for was the last good film in his career. Just one year later, Eddie won 3 Golden Raspberry awards for his roles in Norbit.
The film that was full of bad, sexist jokes, got a whole lot of bad reviews from critics.
Orlando Bloom
© Tour de Pharmacy / HBO Films
Black Hawk Down, The Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Troy — Orlando Bloom was doing quite well until he agreed to a role in the comedy-drama, Elizabethtown. The boring film was a failure in the American box office, it earned the lowest ratings among movie critics, and it ruined Orlando’s career.
Of course, he tried to do better in The Three Musketeers and Romans, but it wasn’t really enough.
Which Hollywood stars played the most terrible roles, in your opinion?
Preview photo credit The Ridiculous 6 / Happy Madison
