- 3 years ago
Those times when some of the industry's biggest stars thought they were well and truly done.
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00:00 Whether it was down to the fact that it seemed as though nobody wanted to work with them after a high-profile misfire,
00:05 or simply feeling as though they'd been found out as actors after one rather disappointing showing,
00:11 the following stars very much felt as though their time in the spotlight was over at these precise moments in time.
00:17 Gareth here from WhatCulture.com, and here are 10 exact moments actors thought they were finished.
00:23 Number 10, Matt Damon's career was going downhill before being offered The Informant.
00:28 As hard as it may be to believe, Matt Damon's career was actually in a little bit of trouble in the early 2000s.
00:34 According to the star himself during a Hot Ones interview, before being offered the lead role in Steven Soderbergh's The Informant,
00:41 his career was very much heading in the wrong direction.
00:44 At the time of chatting with the talented director, Damon's eventual hit Bourne series hadn't been released in cinemas,
00:50 and the star had been at the centre of a number of big screen bombs.
00:53 And the actor was actually so convinced that nobody would be willing to give him a job at the time of chatting with Soderbergh,
00:59 that he didn't even realise he was being offered the part by his eventual director.
01:03 So after double-checking if he was merely being brought on board to write the script,
01:07 and being told that Steven most definitely just wanted him to star in the comedy crime flick, Damon was all in.
01:13 And while it may have taken nearly a decade for the two to actually unleash The Informant into the world,
01:18 by the time it was, Damon was a rather bankable Hollywood star,
01:21 and the feature went on to earn some pretty decent reviews too.
01:24 Number 9 - Margot Robbie questioned if she wanted to continue after Wolf of Wall Street.
01:29 Few will ever forget the mesmerising performance that introduced Margot Robbie to the majority of the movie-watching world,
01:35 with her stellar work as Naomi La Paglia in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street,
01:39 quickly establishing her as one of the biggest stars on the planet, seemingly overnight.
01:44 But with such a sudden injection of fame came the realisation very quickly,
01:48 that things may never be the same for the actor if she decided to fully commit to the life of a Hollywood superstar.
01:53 In fact, in the wake of The Wolf of Wall Street's release,
01:56 the star eventually admitted to Variety that she told her own mother,
01:59 "I don't think I want to do this" after feeling as though her family could be in danger,
02:04 due to the public's desperate need to catch a photo of her doing a grocery shopping, for example.
02:08 Instead of finishing her mainstream career before it properly got going though,
02:11 the Australian sensation soon realised that the only way was forward,
02:15 and went about forging one hell of a big screen CV in the years that would follow.
02:19 Number 8 - Nobody wanted to work with Natalie Portman after Star Wars
02:23 In the case of the unquestionably brilliant Natalie Portman,
02:26 her performance as the rather dull Padme Amidala in Star Wars Episodes I to III,
02:31 didn't do her many favours by the time Revenge of the Sith finally closed out the trilogy in 2005.
02:36 The eventual Oscar winner would explain to New York Magazine many years on from her disappointing time in the galaxy far, far away,
02:42 that despite appearing in the highest grossing movie of the decade,
02:46 no director wanted to work with the star of the wars.
02:49 Portman would even confess that she felt as though everyone thought I was a horrible actress.
02:53 Instead of her hopes of going on to enjoy a varied and long career being crushed by an underwhelming showing in Star Wars though,
02:59 Portman had a friend in director Mike Nichols,
03:02 who went out of his way to vouch for her to his peers and helped rebuild the star's reputation along the way.
03:07 Yeah, she did pretty alright for herself, didn't she?
03:09 Number 7 - Adam Sandler didn't know what to do after being fired from SNL
03:14 There's no getting around it, getting fired utterly sucks, doesn't it?
03:17 And after spending five solid years providing many a laugh as part of the Saturday Night Live cast,
03:22 Adam Sandler soon found himself feeling the sudden sting of unemployment in 1995.
03:27 After being dealt such a heartbreaking blow at a rather early stage in his career as an on-screen comedy actor,
03:33 Sandler, who was 28 at the time of his exit,
03:35 ultimately admitted to feeling hurt because "I didn't know what else I was gonna do."
03:39 Simply put, the star didn't feel like he was ready to leave behind the SNL team,
03:43 and the idea of now having to do something else with his time was likely a little terrifying at the time.
03:48 It all worked out in the end, of course, with Sandler going on to become one of the most successful comedy actors of all time.
03:54 And when he did eventually return to host SNL in 2019,
03:57 he unquestionably got the last laugh with his cheeky lyrics of
04:00 "I was fired, I was fired, NBC said that I was done,
04:04 then I made over $4 billion at the box office, so I guess you could say I won."
04:09 For those who don't feel all that confident about the concept of riffing on the spot during a scene,
04:18 the reality of walking onto a set without any scripted dialogue to fall back on can be fairly daunting.
04:23 And that was the terrifying situation Chris Hemsworth found himself in
04:27 during the shooting of the eventual comedy reboot flop that was 2016's Ghostbusters.
04:32 And after having a chat with director Paul Feig about the alarming lack of lines his character had printed in the script he'd been sent,
04:38 the star was told not to worry about it because they'd simply figure it out on the day.
04:42 But when said day actually arrived,
04:44 the horrifying realisation that he'd have to now attempt to improvise his way through a sequence with his co-stars left him thinking,
04:51 "This is not only the end of my career, but I'm going to ruin this film."
04:54 In the end though, the support he felt from the likes of Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig
04:58 helped him feel comfortable enough to have fun with the scenes he was involved in.
05:02 And while this particular Ghostbusters adventure may not have set the world on fire,
05:06 Hemsworth's career showed absolutely no signs of slowing down after yet another fine example of his comedy prowess.
05:12 Number 5 - Paul Bettany was told his career was over before getting a Vision phone call.
05:17 Getting that all-important call from Kevin Feige or another Marvel creative
05:21 has been known to be a life-changer for just about every actor who has ever wandered into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
05:27 But when it comes to eventual Vision star Paul Bettany,
05:30 it genuinely seemed as though his days as part of the acting industry were well and truly over
05:34 before his phone rang with Avengers Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon's number on it.
05:39 As the voice of Jarvis would explain at Ace Comic Con a few years back,
05:42 the Brits had just walked out of a particularly demoralising meeting with a producer a few moments before the director got in touch.
05:49 Simply put, said producer claimed that his career was over, that it was done and that he should pack his bags and go home.
05:55 Defiantly though, the actor told that person to "mind your effing manners"
05:58 before his legs eventually gave way as he reached the sidewalk on Sunset.
06:02 And just as the thought of "Wow, maybe my career's over" washed over him,
06:06 a number Bettany didn't recognise popped up on his phone
06:08 and Whedon soon delivered the news that he'd like him to play Viz in the MCU.
06:13 And the rest was Marvel Cinematic History.
06:15 Number 4 - Scarlett Johansson thought her career was over after being hyper-sexualised.
06:19 Black Widow actor Scarlett Johansson also went through a period in her life when she felt as though her career was done.
06:26 For an entirely different reason than her Avenger co-star Paul Bettany though.
06:30 As the actor would explain on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast,
06:33 after first making a name for herself at a rather young age,
06:36 it soon became clear to Johansson that she'd become objectified and pigeon-holed
06:41 to the point where she wasn't being offered the sort of parts that she really wanted to dive into.
06:45 Things got to the point where the actor felt as though everybody just assumed she was older
06:49 and had been acting in the industry for far longer than she actually had.
06:52 With this then leading to her getting pigeon-holed into this weird hyper-sexualised thing.
06:57 And as that frustrating reality sank in, the eventual Academy Award nominee admitted to thinking that her career was over.
07:03 Feeling that she'd never get the chance to play anything other than the role she had up to that point.
07:08 This obviously didn't turn out to be the case, thankfully.
07:10 And the star would also add that she's thankful that the rising stars of today
07:14 are allowed the freedom to be far more dynamic than Johansson was earlier in her career.
07:18 Number 3 - Robert Downey Jr. thought he was going to bury himself with 'Tropic Thunder'.
07:23 On the back of reigniting his career with a game-changing performance as Tony Stark in 2008's 'Iron Man',
07:29 Robert Downey Jr. was arguably one of the most in-demand actors on planet Earth.
07:33 So how did the revived star choose to follow up that early MCU entry?
07:37 With a character and movie that he felt held the potential to undo all of the goodwill
07:41 that he'd just generated with his much-loved Marvel outing.
07:45 Or at least, that's how RDJ himself saw it.
07:48 With the actor eventually noting to LA Times that after agreeing to appear in 'Tropic Thunder',
07:52 before 'Iron Man' ultimately went on to be a massive success,
07:55 he quickly thought, "I just buried myself."
07:58 By playing the role of a white actor trying to portray a black character throughout the comedy,
08:02 the star understandably worried that he was going to squander any goodwill I have.
08:06 Far from derailing his career revival in the same year it begun though,
08:10 his work in 'Tropic Thunder' as Kirk Lazarus actually led to a surprising Oscar nomination for RDJ.
08:15 And Downey would eventually go on to become one of the highest-grossing actors of all time.
08:19 Number 2 - Ryan Reynolds thought he was done after injuring Denzel in 'Safehouse'.
08:24 There was a pretty alarming moment there when Ryan Reynolds genuinely thought
08:27 he'd headbutted away his chances of ever having a successful career in the business.
08:32 Jumping back to that time when Reynolds was filming the 2012 action thriller 'Safehouse' opposite Denzel Washington,
08:37 one particular stunt involving the two wrestling in a moving vehicle
08:41 soon led to Ryan's head colliding with the legendary thespians.
08:44 In that moment, after connecting with Washington's eye,
08:47 the star admitted to David Letterman that he thought he was about to be sent home via crematorium.
08:52 And not only that, the actor also confessed to feeling that both his career and actual pulse were about to cease.
08:58 Being the pro he is though, Washington laughed off the accident and the pair attempted the sequence once more
09:03 from the other side to disguise the swelling appearing around his injured eye.
09:06 But unfortunately for Reynolds, the same thing only went and happened again, this time to the other eye.
09:12 Sitting on top of Washington soon resembling a rather sore Christmas ornament,
09:15 the eventual murk with the mouth quite rightly felt like he wanted to die there and then.
09:19 Can't exactly blame him.
09:21 Number 1 - Colin Farrell thought he'd been found out after 'Alexander'.
09:24 It's hard to believe there was ever a time when it looked as though Colin Farrell's career was in any serious trouble.
09:29 But nearly two decades before his most recent outstanding year on the big screen,
09:33 one which saw him utterly transform into the penguin in 'The Batman'
09:36 and receive a golden glow for his work in 'The Banshees of Inisheeran' and an Oscar nod as well,
09:41 the Irish actor admitted to genuinely questioning if he was actually any good at this acting thing.
09:46 After appearing in what would ultimately go on to become one of the biggest flops of the decade in 'Alexander',
09:51 a 23-year-old Farrell was quickly informed that the reviews being sent the 2004 historical epic were not good.
09:57 Farrell ultimately decided to escape the public eye for a while by taking a trip to a ski resort in Lake Tahoe.
10:03 But couldn't escape the feeling of being a crap actor
10:06 and questioned whether he'd just been found out after his initial success in the business.
10:10 This high-profile disaster couldn't fully derail the star's rise in the end though.
10:14 And after reconnecting with the version of himself who first walked into an acting class at the age of 17,
10:19 Farrell was eventually able to produce the sort of work that has since established him as one of the finest performers of his generation.
10:25 Keeping those fingers crossed for that Oscar, baby.
10:27 And that's our list! Know of any other exact moments actors thought they were finished?
10:31 Then let us know all about them in the comments section right down below
10:34 and do not forget to like, share and click on that subscribe button while you're at it.
10:37 Also, if you like this kind of thing, then go and head on over to WhatCulture.com
10:40 and find some more fantastic articles just like the one this video you're watching right this second is based on.
10:45 I've been Gareth from WhatCulture.com. Thank you as always for watching this lovely video today.
10:49 Hopefully I'll see your faces very, very soon. But in the meantime, be good to yourself. Bye bye!