10 actors and actresses who played their worst/best roles in their careers in 2024 (11 photos)
Every new year becomes a new milestone in the careers of great actors: you can give the best performance of your life, getting into all the award lists, or you can disgrace yourself so much that you don’t update your social networks for several months.
2024 gave us both these and these clients. In this list, we have collected five triumphs, that is, middling actors and actresses who had not previously favored us with great roles, but then suddenly gave a benefit performance in honor of themselves, revealing to us new facets of their talent, and their five colleagues who made a mistake, from whom we could well expect breakthroughs or simply maintaining their high level of acting and skillful selection of projects, but it was not to be.
We made such conclusions about these specific actors based on publications in the media and critical reviews of the films. We also took into account the status of the performers, their career trajectory, roles and recent works.
In some of the listed films, the problem, of course, is not only in the acting, but in the overall low quality of the production and script, but signing up for good projects, anticipating their level is also an actor's job.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson is the worst
In Kraven the Hunter
No one was surprised that this movie was a flop, as we have long known that the Sony Spider-Man Universe franchise is cursed. This year, it already gave us Madame Web, so the bar was low and Kraven did not really raise it.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson is certainly a great actor, but his character was perceived as boring and poorly developed. Critics noted that the writers failed to make him even slightly interesting. The plot was called formulaic, the secondary characters and the main villain were forgettable, and the action scenes could not save the film from destruction.
Demi Moore is the best
In the film "Substance"
And here we fully expect an Oscar nomination, despite the creepy arthouse nature of the film. 62-year-old Demi Moore, who had not been nominated for anything particularly notable in her entire career, suddenly gave the role of her life. You had to see it. Despite the fact that the actress partially played herself (or rather, her career situation at this stage of her life), and the film itself hits the viewer in the eyes very hard with visual decisions, her acting performance broke through this veil and turned out to be one of the most impressive of the year.
Bill Skarsgard is the worst
In the film "The Crow"
"The Crow" for zoomers, as expected, turned out to be a pale shadow of the 1994 original. And the very talented Bill Skarsgard is a pale, tattooed version of Brandon Lee. Critics found the film awkward, overwrought, and lacking in emotional depth, despite Skarsgård's best efforts (trying to pass his character off as John Wick) and his excellent form.
Hugh Grant is the best
In The Heretic
We've already written a post about how Hugh Grant, who has transformed from a romantic handsome man into an unpleasant character on screen, has become a much more interesting actor. And in the thriller The Heretic, an even older Grant, in the role of a lecturer, steals every second of the film when he is in the frame. His talkative politeness, behind which some kind of horror is obviously hidden, is fascinating and makes you freeze, listening to how else he will chatter away the two main characters.
Yes, the film itself could not bring the plot to an interesting level, losing its mysterious fervor in the last third, but Grant was ominously beautiful, and remained so. His acting here is magnificent.
Cate Blanchett is the worst
In the film "Borderlands"
A large part of the audience already at the level of the trailer appeared had a question: why did such a status dramatic actress as Cate Blanchett sign up for such trash? Maybe she saw something in the script that we didn't?
No. There's nothing to see. It was a complete failure, and critics rightly felt that Blanchett's talent was wasted. The film itself received low ratings, made a paltry box office, and fans of the game series of the same name felt cheated, to say the least.
Chris Hemsworth is the best
In the film "Furiosa: The Mad Max Chronicles".
Surprisingly, Chris Hemsworth was finally able to suppress his inner Thor and play something interesting. Either that fake nose or that big beard helped him get out of his boring role, or Chris really didn't screw up. It's fair to say that Dementus, played by him, became one of the most striking villains of this year. Chris, is that you?!
Adam Driver is the worst
In the movie "Megalopolis".
Driver's filmography is pretty interesting, but this is a real miss. "Metropolis" is a depressingly yawn-inducing creation from one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. It's understandable why Adam signed up for it: the film could be the last in Francis Ford Coppola's career. However, the film, in its carelessness and general lack of obviousness, forced Driver to give a strangely false performance. Apparently, the actor took the material too seriously, and he shouldn't have.
Ariana Grande is the best
In the film "Wicked: The Tale of the Witch of the West".
Agree, you fully admitted that this film could be an absolute failure. A prequel to The Wizard of Oz about young Glinda and Elphaba, seriously? But, oh, the prank worked. And the actresses playing the main roles, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, did especially well. How they sing!
We're including the latter in the list, because her filmography has been extremely limited up until now (she's primarily a singer), and here she's immediately one of the main roles, and such a famous heroine at that. And so, Grande suddenly turned out to be amazing in the role of Glinda, an initially selfish character who gets better as the film progresses, gradually washing away all the audience's skepticism with her performance.
We give Ariana Grande a huge plus! Do you know which other singer took part in the musical this year?
Lady Gaga is the worst
In the movie "Joker: Madness for Two".
Here it just so happened that the person clearly miscalculated with the choice of the movie, believing that the second "Joker" would continue the line of the original, which was the first comic book movie to be nominated for an Oscar as the best film of the year. And Joaquin Phoenix even won this Oscar. Probably, Gaga was counting on something like this. However...
Even if you haven't seen the movie, you've probably heard what a strong downgrade there was compared to the first part. Of course, it's not like the problem is Lady Gaga and her Harley Quinn, but on the other hand, she didn't show anything special here. Gaga said that she re-learned to sing for the role, and generally prepared in every way, but whether anyone noticed is a big question.
Initially, Gaga's choice for this role looked extremely promising and intriguing, but she sank along with the film. Including because of how director and screenwriter Todd Phillips (who knew he would dare to do postmodern philosophical experiments with a film whose budget was $200 million) treated her character. Namely, he pushed her far into the background and gave her a strange arc, where it looked especially careless how Harley was taken out of this film. We saw an incomprehensible waste of a cool heroine, and many viewers, for obvious reasons, exclaimed: "So what? That's it?"
Yura Borisov is the best
In the film "Anora".
Yura Borisov, who suddenly (for him, among other things) gets into all the award lists of this season, fits into the role so well that it was as if it was written especially for him. The actor played the role of a cold but fair man with an imperturbable face and a warm heart in an exemplary manner. The result is a portrait of a hero named Igor that is quite objective for American cinema. This is the case when a perfect fit for a role works wonders.