Probably, yes.

But he had a career, and could still have one if he wanted to. Doesn't fit this thread. How about you read post #1 for an understanding of what sort of people should/should not be included. Actually I think most people have already been cited.

Hollywood considers her a draw as she has 4 starring roles in the next two years including Beauty and the Beast which will probably be a big hit. She is in the circle with Tom Hanks that should be a big movie.

Left quite a bit open for interpretation.



Sounds right.

Watson and Radcliffe have been very smart moving away from their iconic roles (Either through theater, or small scale films) I mean they were child actors, so having the careers they have post has been pretty impressive.

DiCaprio was thought be lost after Titanic and took 5 years to shake it. It's been 3 years since Potter 8 and they've had praise in a lot of the stuff they have done, so far.

I think Watson in particular is going to have a very solid adult career.

Knightly in particular has floundered into supporting house wife characters after 3 Pirates films. Bloom was just lucky. I'd hardly call him popular though. He has flopped in anything outside of LOTR, and Pirates. He frankly is not better than blockbuster writing and even then was considered weak.

Juaquin Phoenix definitely comes to mind, but his "meltdown/joke" totally hindered his mainstream success. He still has a indie career though.

rofl, I guess Hollywood considers Jai Courtney a draw too since he's in everything.

I think Keira Knightley is also in the "Eh, I'm going to keep Hollywood at arm's length" camp. I think she's not as big because costume movies aren't as big as they were when she came on the scene, but she's still dominant in the genre.

Actually, I think it's no accident a lot of these guys are Brits or Australians. It's easy to see why Hollywood keeps farming the Commonwealth. They're effortlessly charming offscreen. The theatrical discipline is more strident. It's hard to find Americans that are masculine without feeling like a redneck, and exotic while still remaining ethnically white. Plus, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, they have smaller mass media industries where you can have a simpler time distinguishing yourself. Here in the U.S. the industry is much bigger, and so giving newcomers are a shot is riskier and there's more white noise to wade through. But it's harder to make these guys into bankable stars. First, because being bankable means audiences are paying to see you, but if you're changing your voice every other movie, or the you in interviews is different from the you onscreen, audiences aren't going to be inclined to play for you onscreen. Plus, Hollywood is so full of competition and artifice and do you really want to spend so much time away from home to be part of the Big American Machine? Especially since it can take a while to become bankable. (Audiences first became familiar with Brad Pitt in what, 1991? 92? It took until 2004 for him to sell a movie without a more established star)

I think one needs to look at exceptions. Hugh Jackman is arguably the most popular foreign born star. That's because he had a franchise to go to between flops, but also because he seems very happy to play the bullshit Hollywood game and promote! Promote! Promote! Like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Will Smith in their prime.

Jeremy Irvine

He was in War Horse, but has only done crap since.

I noticed war only made 180mil worldwide, that's pretty disappointing. I thought it was a very good movie.

Not gonna lie, I had to look him up. You are just picking ANY young person that has starred in a movie and saying "they didn't become Brad Pitt, they are a failure". Come on, dude. That's unreasonable.

And War Horse cost $66m to produce. It performed well. It was just unlucky to miss out on every single big award it was up for.

Bridget Fonda!

Eh, she was never a lead anyway. But considering her surname, she should have done better. Then again, her talent was non-existent. I'd have chosen Natasha Henstridge over Fonda. At least she headlined a franchise.

So I'm watching the 2006 "gem" The Ex starring Zach Braff and the always-reliable Jason Bateman and I thought of this thread for Braff. Now I know he was only a thing for about a minute and was hardly ever popular, but for a brief time in 2004, people figured he might be a new voice for the generation thanks to Garden State. But he has went completely bust both as an actor and a writer/director.

I guess if the thread was titled "Once almost-promising actors/actresses who were prominent for a very short period of time thanks to one good movie whose careers went nowhere", he would be more applicable.

I mean, he was on Scrubs for 10 years. He's always been niche.

Well, in my opinion, time hasn't been as kind to Scrubs as it has to other sitcoms of the 2000s.

So that aside, his film career seemed to be going somewhere after Garden State but it just didn't. I don't know if maybe he didn't do a follow-up film fast enough or what. Maybe he went for starring roles and should have worked on something he actually wrote instead.

WTF. Your opinion is stupid. Scrubs is far and away the best sitcom of the 2000's.

No no no, I love Scrubs, Chip. But objectively, I don't think it's as well-regarded as, say, The Office, 30 Rock and Arrested Development of that decade.

I don't think this is a relevant point anyway as this thread is for film careers, not TV careers.

Would Jennifer Garner fit, I wonder? Thanks to "Alias", Daredeil, 13 Going on 30, The Kingdom and Juno she was rather well-known around 2002-2007. But then...

It's definitely a fair argument. She did have minor hits in two kids flicks (Timothy Green, Alexander and the Terrible...) but she was expected to make a smooth jump to film and she's more known for being one-half of Bennifer II than anything else.

It didn't help in this age-obsessed, beauty-obsessed world that, virtually overnight, she went from something of a sex symbol on Alias to a Hollywood mom of three. She would benefit now from going back to television.

Although I'm guessing she was content to raise her family all this time as well.

Garner having Dallas Buyers Club, Draft Day, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible yada yada yada Bad Day in the last few years is decent work. I don't think her career left much on the table because although she may have had the right look to be the next Julia or Sandy Bullock (beautiful, but in a real way) to me her acting talent was not enough to write home about

Garner is a fantastic actress and very underappreciated. She was absolutely brilliant on "Alias" and she's done great work in films too. I think she's done fine for herself considering it's pretty known the acting thing takes a back seat to her family life. Curious to see how things will change with the divorce from Ben. I think she'd be phenomenal for a cable series.

Let's get her in season 3 of True Detective

Took the thought out of my head.

Yeah Garner focused on her family in recent years and still maintained decent work output. She still has plenty of potential.

He was kind of hidden in this thread, but should receive some more mention.

Bad Boys was his last big movie, kind of had a fluke with Wild Hogs, that was a strange success in a similar way Grown Ups was.

But anyway he seems to have definitely been able to pull more out of his career.

Hit still hit the big time, though. I actually think he doesn't count. I mean, his career DID go somewhere.

Not really.

He had a hit series. If his standup and career went nowhere after that you'd have cause. But 2 Bad Boys Films, Nothing to Lose, Blue Streak, Big Mama's 1 and 2 (3 even broke even) Out of his 21 film roles, only 1 ever opened under 10 million. He spent the last 3 years working on that show Partners with Kelsey Grammer. I'm not sure if that it has been officially cancelled yet though. Are they working on the additional 90 episodes?

Becoming the next Will Smith or Eddie Murphy should not be the gauge for a successful career.

Though Dave Chapelle's career on the other hand lost all momentum after his breakdown on Season 3 of the show. He literally had so many offers and opportunities that completely fizzed out. Jeez that was 12 years ago already.