14 roles that ruined the careers of once promising actors (24 photos)

Success in the acting field depends not only on talent and love from fans. Some roles give you worldwide fame, while others ruin your career once and for all. Our heroes know this firsthand.





1. Elizabeth Berkeley



The role of Jessica in the television series “Saved by the Bell” made young Elizabeth Berkley famous, but her first big film job practically ruined her career. We're talking about 1995's Showgirls, which has a 23% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And it’s not only that the erotic drama was classified as a film in the strictest NC-17 distribution category, but Berkeley’s performance itself was criticized. The actress continued to act in films for the next decade, but did not receive serious roles.





2. Sofia Coppola



It looks like Sofia Coppola's acting career is over before it even began. When Winona Ryder turned down her role in Francis Ford Coppola's third film, The Godfather, the director cast his daughter in the role. Although the third installment in the Oscar-winning film series failed to match the first two, Coppola's performance was particularly noteworthy. She was even accused of almost ruining the film. However, Sofia confirmed her abilities in other areas and became a famous director.



3. Jaden Smith



Jaden Smith starred in The Pursuit of Happyness with his father Will Smith, then there was The Karate Kid, and again a duet with his father in the film After Earth (12% on Rotten Tomatoes). This work was a big failure: critics wrote that Jaden “plays with a face like a beaten homeless person.”

Will Smith expressed his regret and wrote that his son took the blame for the film's failure, and the fans and press were absolutely vicious. After this, Jaden took a long break from acting and is now focusing on music.



4. Mike Myers



In the '90s and early 2000s, it seemed like Mike Myers could do no wrong. Rising to fame with Wayne's World and the Austin Powers comedies, Myers voiced the title character in Shrek and became known to an entire generation. But after “Shrek,” his career began to decline sharply: the third “Austin Powers” was noticeably inferior to the first two, and then he starred in the film “Cat” (10% on Rotten Tomatoes). Myers' character was more creepy than funny, and the film itself had virtually no plot.

The nail in the coffin of Myers' career was the film "Sex Guru" (13% on Rotten Tomatoes). Film critic Roger Ebert wrote: "Myers made some funny films, but the kind of film only a green boy could write on closet walls." The sarcastic review coincided with the opinion of the majority of viewers. Myers left Hollywood for a long time and has not acted in leading roles since then.



5. Dan Carvey



Myers' Wayne's World co-star Dana Carvey had a similar situation. But none of Myers's flops compares to Carvey's Master of Disguise, which has a mere 1% on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert called the comedy "a desperate miscalculation" and compared it to "a party guest who thinks he's funny but is wrong."

Although Carvey claimed that he gave up his career for the sake of his children, the “Master of Disguise” was clearly involved.



6. Alicia Silverstone



Batman & Robin was so poorly received (11% on Rotten Tomatoes) that director Joel Schumacher even apologized for his film. But the main victim was not Schumacher or George Clooney, but Alicia Silverstone, who played the role of Batgirl.

Silverstone became famous thanks to Clueless, and for her role as Batgirl she received a prize in the Worst Supporting Actress category. One moreAnother failure was the film "Excess Baggage". The actress was also criticized in the press due to her excess weight. As Alicia herself admitted, stress discouraged her from acting for a long time.



7. Taylor Lautner



After the film adaptation of the Twilight novels, Taylor Lautner basked in fame. He may have lacked Oscar-winning abilities, but Taylor managed to become a Hollywood heartthrob. And then “The Chase” happened. The New York Times review of the film was titled "At Least He Gets Abs." The critic compared Lautner to "an advanced robot that imitates human speech without emotion."

And if the actor had at least some hope, then the film “Odnoklassniki 2” dispelled all his dreams. The comedy received 8 nominations for the Golden Raspberry anti-award.



8. Rachael Leigh Cook



Rachael Leigh Cook gained popularity after playing the role of Laney Boggs in the film She's All That. And the next film, “Josie and the Pussycats,” was a fiasco. Cook herself said that after the failure they stopped offering her good roles. The actress switched to television, but even then her fame began to fade.

9. Taylor Kitsch



We've got another failed teen idol story, this time about Taylor Kitsch, who is best known from Friday Night Lights. The main role in the film "John Carter" promised success, but the action movie failed miserably in the United States. The next film, “Battleship,” also did not become a hit. And although Taylor continues to work in Hollywood, his chances of becoming a blockbuster star are lost.

10. Paris Hilton



In the early 2000s, socialite and reality TV star Paris Hilton decided to try her hand at acting. She starred in teen dramas such as Veronica Mars and The O.C. Next up was House of Wax (28% on Rotten Tomatoes). Hilton won in the Worst Supporting Actress category. She also received the Golden Raspberry anti-award for her work in Beauty and the Ugly (6% on Rotten Tomatoes).



11. Shaquille O'Neal



Former basketball player Shaquille O'Neal made a similar attempt to make a career in Hollywood. His role in "Gamble" brought him the Golden Raspberry Award. However, Shaq did not stop there, starring in the family film and box office bomb “Did You Call the Genie?” And the superhero film “Steel” received only 12% on Rotten Tomatoes and became the last straw in O’Neal’s faltering film career. The director later admitted that Shaq was “not an actor” and should not have cast him.

12. Mariah Carey



Mariah Carey transitioned from singing to acting in the 2001 drama Glitter. The film was extremely unsuccessful, receiving only 6% on Rotten Tomatoes and earning $5.2 million against a budget of $22 million. One critic said that Carey “has the acting range of a parrot.” After such a failure, Virgin Records dropped Mariah from their label. Carey returned to the musical Olympus, but it became clear that she would not become a movie star.

13. Eddie Murphy



Eddie Murphy achieved incredible success in the 80s and 90s. The beginning of the end of his career was the 2002 film “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” (5% on Rotten Tomatoes). Variety called the film "an ill-conceived and expensive project": on a budget of $100 million, it grossed just over $7 million and became one of the biggest flops of all time.

With the Shrek franchise, Dad on Duty, The Haunted Mansion, and an award-nominated role in Dreamgirls under his belt, it seemed Murphy could survive Pluto Nash's near-unprecedented downfall. But The Tricks of Norbit (9% on Rotten Tomatoes) all but ended his career. The actor complained that all his work in the 2000s was "crap", which forced him to take a long break from work.



14. Greta Garbo



Finally, back to the old school: Greta Garbo in the film Two-Faced Woman. After the film's release, Garbo received the worst reviews of her career. The unsuccessful and trifling comedy was the last work of the talented actress. The 1941 film has a 30% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with modern critics being more kind to Greta's comedic performance.