10 movie scenes that ruined an actor’s reputation
While the saga of actors and their careers can seem quite dramatic, it’s rare that just one film is enough to destroy someone’s entire career. Many would point to Battlefield Earth as the film that sank John Travolta’s star run, but his decline as a star is a result of a series of misfires that included Domestic Disturbance, Lucky Numbers, and Basic.
Similarly, it took several flops in a row for Johnny Depp to prove that he was no longer a box office draw, and the controversies about his personal life only further complicated the situation. Unlike a director, who has to spend several years working on a film that could potentially fail, actors have the freedom to work more regularly.
There are, nonetheless, films that are so disastrous that they need to be pinned on one person as being the issue, and all the criticisms can sometimes be bottled up into one scene. In the pre-Internet era, a single scene could be remembered and cited for its awfulness because it wasn’t easy to access other clips online; in the Internet age, clipping out embarrassing acting moments has made it easier to shame actors.
Not every actor can be Daniel Day-Lewis and have a spotless filmography that doesn’t include any mistakes, as most stars have at least one major flop or critical disappointment in their career. Yet, some scenes are too striking or divisive for audiences to erase from their minds; for better or worse, films stay around forever.
10 movie scenes that ruined an actor’s reputation:
Meg Ryan – The sex scene in ‘In the Cut’
Meg Ryan was one of the undisputed queens of romantic comedies up until 2003, when she decided to star in the crime thriller In the Cut, directed by the acclaimed Australian filmmaker Jane Campion. Campion has always made divisive movies, but In the Cut was quite different from what audiences expected, and ended up joining the exclusive club of releases that earned an “F” CinemaScore from audiences.
A key issue among viewers is that they could not accept Ryan, who was essentially ‘America’s Sweetheart’, in an explicit film that included a realistic sex scene that wasn’t intended to evoke pleasure from viewers. The notion that Ryan’s reputation was somewhat “tainted” but her decision to commit to the graphic content destroyed her career, even if Campion was able to make a comeback six years later with the PG-rated romantic drama Bright Star.
Alicia Silverstone – Barbara Gordon becoming Batgirl in ‘Batman & Robin’
Alicia Silverstone was one of the defining teen stars of the ‘90s thanks to the popularity of Clueless, so it only made sense that she would want to join one of the decade’s biggest franchises. Batman & Robin was a botched film from the start, but critics were particularly harsh on Silverstone’s turn as Barbara, who turns into Batgirl in the final act. Silverstone felt ridiculous in the costume and out of her depth playing a superhero, and she bore the blame for the creative decisions made by Joel Schumacher.
While George Clooney had already developed a creative partnership with Steven Soderbergh, and Chris O’Donnell was eventually able to find a consistent gig on television, Silverstone was considered so toxic that she disappeared. It sadly wouldn’t be the last time that Hollywood reacted venomously to the failure of a female-led superhero film.
Brandon Routh – Superman pushes The Mass into space in ‘Superman Returns’
Superman is among the most popular franchises of all-time, having spawned countless comic book iterations, but the performance by Christopher Reeve in the original 1978 Superman: The Movie set a gold standard that every other actor who took on the role would be compared to. Brandon Routh may have looked enough like Reeve, but the problem with Superman Returns is that it lacked the sense of adventure and spectacle that had made Richard Donner’s take so novel.
Audiences had waited 19 years for the return of Superman on the big screen, but Superman Returns featured very little action; the end featured Routh’s version of the Man of Steel pushing a mass into space, and not fighting any villains. The boring, surprisingly melodramatic approach of Superman Returns might have inspired DC to get more aggressive with the highly violent reboot in Man of Steel, but it nonetheless ruined Routh’s career.
Taylor Kitsch – Alex is arrested in ‘Battleship’
Taylor Kitsch had taken a beating early on in 2012 when John Carter became the biggest box office bomb of all-time, but there was enough blame levelled at Andrew Stanton, Disney, and his co-stars that he wasn’t seen as the sole reason it flopped. Kitsch had a backup option with Peter Berg’s science fiction action film Battleship, released two months later, but it received negative reviews and was forgotten amidst the legendary box office run of The Avengers.
While Battleship had other casting issues, including a sleepy Liam Neeson and a miscast Rihanna, Kitsch’s performance as the protagonist Alex didn’t work, especially since the film opened with him being arrested for a goofy prank. It was clear that the persona of the tough bad-boy football player Tim Riggins that Kitsch developed on NBC’s Friday Night Lights wasn’t translatable to the big screen.
Seth Green – Craig’s Tokyo adventure in ‘Old Dogs’
Walt Becker might not be a name that many people recognise, but he’s quietly made some of the weirdest and most aggressively obnoxious studio comedies of the 21st-century, with 2009’s Old Dogs being his disasterpiece. Robin Williams and John Travolta do some of the worst work of their careers as businessmen who have to look after two young kids, and it featured Seth Green in the role of Craig, a junior executive.
Green was already a popular animation figure thanks to his series Robot Chicken and his long-running vocal role on Family Guy, but Old Dogs offered him the potential to become a live-action comedy star. However, the surprisingly off-colour approach that Becker took involved a scene where Craig gets “lost” in Tokyo while partying. It was enough to pigeonhole Green as an actor who could only play creepy sidekicks, which led him to stick to his animated works.
Justin Baldoni – The abuse scene in ‘It Ends With Us’
Justin Baldoni has been locked in a legal battle against Blake Lively for nearly two years due to a feud that occurred during the making of It Ends With Us, which they co-starred in together, and he directed. While so much mudslinging has occurred on both sides that it’s impossible to determine what the truth is, Baldoni’s case hasn’t been helped by the fact that he plays an abusive partner who strikes Lively’s character in the film.
Many audiences aren’t able to separate what they see onscreen from their perception of someone in real life, and Baldoni’s depiction of a misogynistic character has come back to haunt him as Lively’s supporters call him out. Regardless of how the legal proceeding goes, it seems unlikely that Baldoni will ever direct a studio film again, and he definitely won’t be starring in one.
Mickey Rourke – Ivan introduces his bird in ‘Iron Man 2’
Mickey Rourke scored the comeback of a lifetime when he delivered an Academy Award-nominated performance in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, which was so powerful that the industry was able to briefly forget how difficult an actor he had been. Rourke was seemingly lined up to take a victory lap when he was cast as the villainous Ivan (also known as “Whiplash”) in Iron Man 2, but it wasn’t long until his ridiculous demands caused chaos on set. Rourke refused to abide by the script and forced Jon Favreau to include a subplot in which his character, Ivan, gets obsessed with raising a rare bird.
Although Iron Man 2 was a hit, Rourke’s performance was distractingly uneven, especially when compared to the scenery-chewing role by Sam Rockwell as the secondary antagonist Justin Hammer. Stories of Rourke’s misbehaviour ensured that he’d be stuck making direct-to-DVD films for the next 16 years.
Matt LeBlanc – Don flirts with Judy in ‘Lost in Space’
The cast of Friends had a mixed track record when it came to their roles after the show ended. Jennifer Aniston became a legitimate romantic comedy star, Lisa Kudrow found success on HBO’s The Comeback, Courtney Cox had both Cougar Town and the Scream franchise, David Schwimmer became a respected filmmaker, and Matthew Perry had a number of well-received comedy roles.
However, Matt LeBlanc’s film career crashed and burned when he took on the role of the ace star pilot Don West in the big-budget space opera Lost in Space. That Don seemingly does nothing other than incessantly flirt with Dr Judy Robinson (Heather Graham) suggested that LeBlanc would always feel like Joey Tribbiani, regardless of what role he was taking. Joey’s womanising was generally pretty funny on Friends during its peak, but it became a distraction from Lost in Space because LeBlanc simply didn’t have the premise of a movie star.
Luke Ford – Alex and Rick are reunited in ‘The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor’
Brendan Fraser had become an unexpected action star thanks to The Mummy franchise, but enthusiasm for the third instalment in the series dipped when it was announced that Rachel Weisz was not returning as Evelyn and would be recast with Maria Bello. The sequel decided to age up Elevlyn and Rick O’Connell’s son, Jack, who had been a child in the second film, The Mummy Returns, and cast Luke Ford to play the older version of the character.
It was more than obvious that the intention was for Rick to “pass the torch” to his son so that Universal could make more sequels with Jack as the main character, but Ford didn’t have nearly as much presence as Fraser. A scene where the two characters are reunited after facing death indicated that Fraser’s charisma was what made the film work, and that Ford was simply weighing the third instalment down.
Jake Lloyd – “Are you an angel?” in ‘Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace’
Star Wars has had a tough history with ruining the careers of its actors, as many of the stars have been subjected to online abuse and bullying campaigns due to the franchise’s toxic fanbase. It cannot be overstated how much anticipation there was for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, the first film in the series in 16 years, and how strong the backlash was when it didn’t meet expectations.
Although there were a number of issues critics and fans had with the film, everyone seemed to agree that centring the story on a nine-year-old version of Anakin Skywalker was a mistake. Jake Lloyd can’t be blamed for the horrific dialogue that George Lucas asked him to read, but the scene in which Anakin asks Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) if she is an angel is such a lousy character introduction that no one would have ever been able to recover from it.
