8 Oscar Winning Actors Who Failed To Capitalise On Their Success

The Oscars have long been the epitome of success in Hollywood; lucky recipients can often see it as the start of a burgeoning career or the culmination of a great one. But they are some for whom Oscar success is as good as it gets (apart from Jack Nicholson, of course). The little gold statuette can often represent the peak in an actor’s career, and what follows may not return to an upwards gradient.

 

1. Adrien Brody

In 2002 Brody became one of the few people to ever beat Daniel Day-Lewis to an Oscar, not only that he became the youngest ever winner of the Best Actor award at twenty-nine years young. He also made his victory infamous by getting rather rambunctious with the unsuspecting, but clearly not unwilling Halle Berry.

Brody’s performance in The Pianist was a haunting, stripped-back examination of survival against extreme odds, which belied his youthful appearance. Such a mature performance from a man still under thirty was surely the start of great things, right? Well in the fifteen years since, Brody has continued to work steadily, but The Pianist represents very much the summit of his career so far.

Oscar victory was certainly good exposure for Brody, landing a role in King Kong and also starring in ambitious but flawed films such as The Village, The Jacket, The Brothers Bloom and Splice. The attempt at making interesting career choices hasn’t been particularly successful for Brody. Though he has starred in big films, their reception pales in comparison to The Pianist and their quality has begun to decline.

Films like Predators, InAPPropriate Comedy and American Heist have either been critical bombs or failed to make money and seem like strange choices for an Oscar winner. Good roles appear to be hard to come by for Brody; he may remain a favourite of Wes Anderson, but leading roles with him are more likely to come in adverts than in films.

This has led to a more recent move into television, starring as Harry Houdini in Houdini and being cast in Peaky Blinders. Television is becoming a more common refuge for those whose cinematic careers have stalled and may provide a different avenue for success for Brody, but there is still no denying that The Pianist towers over the rest of Brody’s career. It may have been a once in a lifetime opportunity for his talents.

 

2. Cuba Gooding Jr.

In 1996, Cuba Gooding Jr. became synonymous with one phrase after winning Best Supporting Actor for Jerry Maguire. Having made a name for himself with roles in Boyz n the Hood, A Few Good Men and Outbreak, his Oscar win at twenty-eight showed promise of a bright career to come.

Gooding’s work post-Maguire has had some notable moments, but his career has two clear paths: drama and comedy. The latter provides the evidence an alarming downfall. Comedic roles dominate Gooding’s later career, easily understandable given the nature of Jerry Maguire, but the quality is extremely worrying.

Post-Oscar, Gooding has garnered four separate Razzie nominations for Boat Trip, Radio, Norbit, and Daddy Day Camp. Those last two both came in 2007 and have clearly damaged his career. From 2008 to 2011, Gooding appeared in twelve films, all of which went straight to DVD, with titles such as The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends. That’s a pretty embarrassing fall for an Oscar winner.

Gooding seems to have noticed this and his performances have bettered of late, with roles in The Butler and Selma, and also gaining recognition for The People Vs. O. J. Simpson. But it is undeniable that some of his output post-Oscar has been flat-out awful, and any hopes of a new, more mature Gooding are not going to be helped when you’re reduced to lifting skirts onstage.

 

3. Forest Whitaker

2006 saw Whitaker become only the fourth black male to win the Best Actor award for his terrifying performance as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland.

Having started off in smaller roles in The Color of Money, Good Morning Vietnam and The Crying Game, and even overcoming the disasterpiece that was Battlefield Earth, Oscar victory should have been the showpiece for his very clear talent.

There are some instances where you feel the actor has been born to play the role, George C Scott as Patton, Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta and, er, John Goodman as Fred Flintstone. Whitaker as Amin is no exception; he nails the physicality and the accent, becoming every bit as imposing as you would expect from an infamous dilatant, but perhaps the role was too great. Whitaker since has not been able to attain such heights.

The following decade has seen some bad choices for Whitaker with Street Kings, Powder Blue, Our Family Wedding and Repo Men all ending up as critical and commercial flops. Lead roles also were hard to come by; it wasn’t until 2013 with Lee Daniel’s The Butler that Whitaker gained awards recognition again.

Supporting roles have become more common for Whitaker, and recently they have proved more lucrative. With roles in the hugely successful Rogue One and Arrival, this may provide a new path for Whitaker to excel in; his talent has always been clear. But for now he hasn’t managed to overcome the heights of The Last King of Scotland, an iconic role that will likely shadow the rest of his career.

 

4. Halle Berry

In 2001, Halle Berry righted a rather worrying statistic and became the first black recipient of the Best Actress award for Monster’s Ball (leading to her handing Brody his award the following year). Shouldn’t have this led to better things? Well, certain career choices didn’t help, namely Catwoman.

In the days when a superhero spin-off film wasn’t guaranteed box office gold, Catwoman was a risky proposition, the Batman franchise was still at a low post-Schumacher era and Marvel hadn’t turned the comic book genre into a global behemoth. Needless to say, the risk didn’t pay off; the film flopped on all accounts.

The film ‘won’ four Razzies, including Worst Actress for Berry, making her a member of an unfortunate club to both win an Oscar and a Razzie, and she was famously one of the few to actually accept in person. This has set the tone for her career since, with successes few and far between.

She has been a stalwart of the X-Men franchise, a more successful comic book franchise for her, but the flops have piled up, including the universally derided Dark Tide, New Year’s Eve, and Movie 43. Even a move into television hasn’t paid off, with her series Extant being cancelled after two seasons – it’s a long fall when an Oscar winner can’t carry a television series. Catwoman has been a real curse for Berry, putting her alongside Chris O’Donnell and Alicia Silverstone as actors whose careers were killed by the Batman franchise.

 

5. Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage has had a career that has been, let’s say, “eclectic”. It has been so long since his Oscar success for Leaving Las Vegas in 1995 that some may be surprised to learn he has an Oscar at all. His output since has been– let’s stick with eclectic.

Cage is clearly a dedicated performer, he throws himself 100% into a performance and isn’t afraid to go too far, which has worked in films such as Bringing Out The Dead, Adaptation and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. But he has become infamous for this style of performance in much worse movies like Vampire’s Kiss, Ghost Rider, Bangkok Dangerous, Season of The Witch and, of course, The Wicker Man.

Cage has some great performances to his name, but the bad far outweighs the good, the number of flops post-Oscar is alarming and far too numerous to list here. It’s hard to imagine another Oscar winner who has become the subject such ridicule, who has become so meme-worthy; he even has a Majora’s Mask mod devoted to him. Whatever success Cage has had, his career will forever be synonymous with the phrase “Not The Bees!”

 

6. Gwyneth Paltrow

Shakespeare in Love saw one of the greatest upsets in Oscar history, beating Saving Private Ryan to the Best Picture award. The film also garnered the Best Actress award for Gwyneth Paltrow. Prior to victory, she had appeared in a number of successful films including Se7en, Hard Eight and Emma. Her Oscar capped a sterling early career, but it’s fair to say Paltrow has garnered more fame for other reasons in the time since.

While the roles have never dried up for Paltrow, her life in the public eye has always gathered more attention with her marriage to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin and her involvement in health and charitable concerns. Acting has taken the backseat somewhat. Her most famous role post-Shakespeare has come in the Iron Man franchise, but her performances outside the comfort of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have dwindled in quality over the last decade.

This can be put down to motherhood, but the films themselves have flopped regardless, culminating with 2015’s Mortdecai. In fact, Paltrow hasn’t appeared in a film since. There’s nothing wrong with devoting more time to your personal life, but the effect on Paltrow’s acting career is clear to see, having never gained attention to the level she received for Shakespeare in Love. She now gains more media coverage for naming her child Apple, rather than people focusing on her work.

 

7. Tim Robbins

In 2003, Mystic River was one of the few films to pick up any Oscars whilst facing competition from Return of The King: Sean Penn won Best Actor and Tim Robbins Best Supporting. But this was a change for Robbins who had mainly been focused on leading roles prior to Mystic River.

The nineties was a lucrative time for Robbins with leads in Jacob’s Ladder, Bob Roberts, The Player and The Shawshank Redemption, but the turn of the century saw a downturn in leads, though turning to supporting roles clearly brought success with his Oscar for Mystic River.

The quick success of Robbins’ career re-focus could have signalled the start of a lucrative supporting career in the vein of someone like Tommy Lee Jones after The Fugitive. Instead it has taken a stranger turn. Oscar victory often results in an upturn of output for any recipient in quantity and quality. In Robbins’ case though, he hasn’t really done much.

Robbins has continued to work regularly, but the quality has hardly been noteworthy. It has also been unfocused, with Robbins popping up in films like War of The Worlds, Green Lantern, City of Ember and Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. Robbins’ clear affection for comedy as well as drama has been clear throughout his career, but he hasn’t had films like The Player to showcase it since Mystic River. However enjoyable it is to see him chop off Luke Wilson’s arm with a machete in Anchorman, it shouldn’t be an Oscar winner’s most memorable moment post-victory.

 

8. Renee Zellweger

Zellweger was one of the few others to nab an Oscar in 2003, winning best supporting actress for Cold Mountain. After gaining recognition with Jerry Maguire, Chicago and her most famous role, Bridget Jones, Oscar victory should have ignited a bright early career, and it did. Sort of.

After Cold Mountain, Zellweger went on to deliver composed performances in Cinderella Man, Miss Potter and Appaloosa, but these were decent films that went under the radar. She also made some less successful choices with Shark Tale, Cowboys and Aliens and Case 39.

Her output post-Oscar had been numerous, but wavering in quality. This came to a head with My Own Love Song, a film that gathered so little recognition that it went straight to video and doesn’t even have its own Wikipedia page. This led to a six-year absence from acting, starting in 2010. Zellweger put this down to fatigue, mainly.

Whilst a self-imposed break from acting may have been a good personal choice, it marked a rather sad low point for a once promising career. Her return for the Bridget Jones series was well received and may well yet mark a revival, but for now Cold Mountain represents an unfortunately ironic peak.