Five movies so bad they almost killed an actor’s career

Sometimes, a film is so catastrophically bad that it’s impossible not to feel sympathy for the actors involved. Watching a performance in such a disaster can leave you genuinely concerned about how they’ll recover from a flop so monumental it threatens to derail their entire career.

There are some actors who possess an almost magical ability to elevate even the dodgiest entries in their filmography. Through sheer charisma, charm, or raw talent, they can transform a film that’s objectively awful into something oddly captivating—if not entirely worth watching, then at least impossible to turn away from. It’s a rare gift and one that reminds you of their star power, even in the unlikeliest of circumstances.

But there are some cases where a film is so catastrophically awful that it casts a long shadow over an actor’s career. The fallout can make it difficult for them to salvage their public image, leaving them to struggle to be taken seriously as a performer ever again. In such instances, the damage goes beyond a bad review—it becomes a career-defining stumble.

While it is unfortunate, here are five films so bad that they single-handedly killed an actor’s career.

Five movies that nearly killed an actor’s career:

Sofia Coppola in The Godfather III

While Sofia Coppola has been praised for her directorial work and for giving a voice to the inner world of young women on screen, she has been widely criticised for her performance in The Godfather III.   

With a distinct lack of energy or life in her portrayal of Mary Corleone, many people were baffled over Francis Ford Coppola’s decision to cast her in the movie, bestowing her the sole responsibility for the film’s floppery. While I feel that this is very harsh, especially given that she was only 18 at the time and famously only stepped in because of Winona Ryder’s sudden departure from the project, her performance is notably stiff and awkward, and she was awarded the Worst Actress award at the 1990 Golden Raspberry awards.

Mamy people expected this criticism to crush Coppola, however, she maintained that she was able to brush over it due to her complete disinterest in pursuing a career as an actor. And so, when her career behind the camera emerged from the ashes of her father’s film, audiences were surprised to see her re-enter the world of showbiz. But, alas, while the film temporarily killed her career, she was reanimated from the creative graveyard and proved that one failure would not define her legacy.

Elizabeth Berkley in Showgirls 

After a breakout role in Saved by the Bell, Elizabeth Berkley was predicted to be a huge Hollywood success. However, her 1995 film Showgirls, directed by Paul Verhoeven, caused such a negative stir that the actor felt the negative repercussions of this role for many years after. It caused controversy for its explicit sex scenes, to which Berkley was partially blacklisted from the industry and struggled to find subsequent acting work, ridiculed and publicly mocked. However, she was entirely blamed for the film’s failure despite giving a solid performance that catered to the directors’ vision.  

When asked about the experience later on, Berkley said, “It changed me… It was a life moment, and I cannot help but say I would be a different person had I not gone through the depths of what it taught me.”

Taylor Lautner in Abduction

After rising to fame as the heartthrob of a generation in Twilight, fans eagerly awaited the next steps in the actor’s journey toward global stardom. However, his post-Twilight trajectory took a hit with John Singleton’s 2011 film Abduction, which was met with widespread criticism and became a significant misstep in his career.

There might’ve been a chance at resurrection if the actor hadn’t signed onto the disastrous Grown Ups 2, which was heralded as one of the worst sequels ever made. Lautner’s acting journey shortly came to a halt, but perhaps this was for the better. The actor seems perfectly happy in his life away from the cameras, hosting a podcast with his wife where he sometimes discusses the pressure and intensity of being a young actor. 

Sydney Sweeney in Madame Web 

When Euphoria was first released in 2019, it became a huge cult phenomenon that shattered HBO’s records and changed the nature of television as we know it. It created a daring new visual style that highlighted the agony and ecstasy of teenage life, inspiring a new era of fashion through the bold costume and makeup looks, as well as launching the careers of several rising stars in Hollywood. 

Sydney Sweeney was one of the actors predicted to have a glittering career after her breakout role as Cassie, but has since made a number of questionable career decisions that have led her to be the subject of intense scrutiny on the internet, with people wondering whether she can act at all. While I feel this is harsh, her recent choices are truly baffling, recently starring in the disastrous Madame Web that has been endlessly mocked for every aspect of production.

While I hope that this is a mere blip in her career, it does not bode well, and I’d be curious to see what she plans on doing next.

Adam Driver in Megalopolis

Oh, Adam, what are we going to do? After a nuanced and deeply introspective performance in Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, Driver (or his agent) exploited the film’s success by agreeing to work with every household name they could think of, but seemingly without questioning whether they were actually good scripts. Driver now seems to only be drawn to working ageing and haggard directors who, quite honestly, need to hang up their hats, working with Francis Ford Coppola, Ridley Scott and Michael Mann on sad passion projects that display nothing but their aggressive egos and unwillingness to retire. 

After the colossal failure of Megalopolis, I’d be curious to see how Driver manages to revitalize his career with a resume that only shows a list of recent flops after his Oscar nomination. Maybe all we can do is hope that he has exhausted all options on his career bucket list and that he’ll go back to meaningful and heartfelt indie projects that truly showcase the depths of his talent.  

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