Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. has had some ups and downs in both his professional
and personal life. As with many Oscar winners, the road toward continued success is often
paved with lots of twists and turns. Here's why Hollywood won't cast Cuba Gooding Jr. anymore.
To get the elephant out of the room: The most obvious reason Cuba Gooding Jr. isn't being
sought out for roles anymore is that numerous women have accused him of sexual misconduct.
It started in June of 2019, when USA Today reported that Gooding was
being investigated for allegedly groping a woman while drunk at a bar in New York City.
Gooding was later arrested after turning himself in to the NYPD, as USA Today later confirmed.
He was eventually released pending a further trial.
In October of that same year, The New York Times reported that Gooding was indicted on
a separate sexual abuse charge. Though details about the new allegations weren't released,
they were serious enough that they delayed the trial for the June incident.
The same New York Times report also noted that Gooding denied all allegations against him,
and that his lawyers had tried unsuccessfully to get the original charges dismissed.
Some believe the trouble began earlier than 2019.
Page Six reported that ever since Gooding's divorce from his high school sweetheart,
Sara Kapfer, in 2014, the actor has spent his free time clubbing, partying, and drinking heavily,
while displaying some of the questionable behavior detailed in the assault allegations.
"I was in a club the other night, broke my ankle."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, I sprained it."
Not long after the second woman made charges against Gooding,
Page Six reported that three more women had come forward to accuse the actor of
misconduct. The report stated that these new allegations dated back as far as 2008,
and included instances of Gooding groping two of the women in similar ways on separate occasions.
By the end of 2019, NBC News reported that the number of women accusing Gooding of misconduct
had grown to 22, which included an additional seven women coming
forward with detailed stories that involved instances of forced kissing
and Gooding giving graphic depictions of sexual acts, among other inappropriate behaviors.
The coming year proved to be even worse for Gooding, as CNN reported the number of accusers
had grown to a staggering 30 women by August 2020. Gooding also officially got charged with
three counts of forcible touching and three counts of sexual abuse. He still denies all wrongdoing.
As of the time of the CNN report, Gooding's defense was working to
undermine the credibility of the accusers by using their past statements against
them and to question the procedural propriety of the police investigation.
In addition to the multiple criminal accusations, two women have filed civil
suits against Gooding. In August 2020, The New York Times reported that a lawsuit was
filed against the actor by a woman accusing him of sexually assaulting her twice in 2013.
The lawsuit stated that the woman, referred to as Jane Doe, met Gooding at a Greenwich
Village restaurant, and the actor invited her to have drinks with him at a hotel in
SoHo. Gooding eventually invited her to his hotel room; when the woman tried to leave,
she said Gooding attacked and raped her.
This follows a different lawsuit that was filed earlier in 2019 by one of
the many women who accused Gooding of groping. According to Page Six,
bartender Natasha Ashworth was working at a nightclub when Gooding approached her.
After denying his advances, Gooding then proceeded to grope her
several times. Unlike the 2020 suit, the same Page Six report
noted the events that transpired within the 2019 lawsuit happened a year prior.
In June 2021, Complex reported that Ashworth won her lawsuit in a default judgment—basically
meaning that Gooding simply failed to respond to the lawsuit at all.
Even before all the sexual misconduct allegations against him were revealed,
Cuba Gooding Jr.'s career wasn't what it used to be.
"Show. Me. The. Money!"
After the success of Jerry Maguire,
Gooding suffered the same career slump that has plagued many actors after they win an Oscar.
Despite starring in films like the well-received As Good As It Gets and
the box office hit Pearl Harbor, Gooding's post-Oscar resume is plagued by a series
of terrible comedies that have landed him several Golden Raspberry Award nominations.
Some of his more questionable career decisions included the Eddie Murphy
misfire Norbit, the poorly reviewed and little-seen Disney comedy Snow Dogs,
and the much-reviled family sequel Daddy Day Camp.
Even with films like the Ridley Scott crime drama American Gangster in between these mistakes,
it was clear that the days of critically acclaimed films like Jerry Maguire were long past Gooding.
Gooding has even acknowledged in an interview with Page Six that he made several bad decisions for
his career, including revealing he turned down roles in several acclaimed films like Amistad,
Ray, The Last King of Scotland, and Hotel Rwanda,
all of which went on to be nominated for three Academy Awards.
When asked why he made so many poor career choices,
Gooding denied that he was motivated by money. He said:
"For me, it was always about protecting the sanctity of that golden statue. Because I
felt I needed to show people that I can do more, I can do better."
After several critical and commercial failures, Gooding faded from the limelight,
but still managed to get work in the form of several direct-to-DVD films. In fact, between
the years of 2006 and 2013, Gooding appeared in almost nothing but direct-to-DVD pictures.
Like many movies that skip the theater,
these films mostly consisted of forgettable action flicks and lackluster family offerings,
from hardboiled crime films like Wrong Turn at Tahoe, which also starred a far-fallen
Harvey Keitel, to animated numbers like 2007's The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends.
After this series of debacles, Gooding made the jump back to feature films like
the Tuskegee Airmen war film Red Tails and the Robert Rodriguez-directed flick Machete Kills,
as well as supporting roles in Oscar-nominated pictures such as Selma in 2014 and Lee Daniels'
star-studded period piece The Butler (2013). It wasn't exactly a comeback,
but it seemed like a promising reprieve from all the dreck.
Gooding also made the jump back to television, with guest appearances in shows like the Fox
hip-hop drama Empire and the short-lived ABC drama Forever, as well as TV movies like Gifted Hands,
where he played neurosurgeon and presidential candidate Ben Carson.
"And then I read this screenplay and saw that he was raised by a single mother
who instilled his faith in God. And my mom was the exact same way."
While the latter film landed Gooding a Screen Actors Guild nomination for
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries-slash-TV Movie, none of these film
or television roles lit the entertainment world on fire the same way Gooding's past projects did.
Many actors retreat from the spotlight in order to focus on working behind the camera,
something that Gooding tried his hand at in 2018. Gooding's directorial debut
came in the form of Bayou Caviar, an action film that he also co-wrote.
In this film, Gooding starred as Rodney Jones, a retired boxer who gets mixed
up with Russian mobsters and is tasked with gathering information for a blackmail scheme
against a real estate mogul. The film also starred Famke Janssen as a photographer who
aids Jones on his quest and the legendary Richard Dreyfuss as the main mobster.
Despite a strong supporting cast, the film was not well received by critics.
And considering it came out a year before the misconduct allegations did,
it's not surprising that he hasn't stepped back into the director's chair.
Megaproducer Ryan Murphy cast Gooding in the first season of American Crime Story,
which covered the infamous O.J. Simpson trial and accompanying media circus.
Gooding was cast as Simpson, the disgraced former athlete and actor at the center of
the show. Playing Simpson was similar to the role that made Gooding famous. The actor said:
"I say this is my second stab at Rod Tidwell from Jerry Maguire,
because both of these personalities are born from this thing that happens
with athletes [...] One had a positive outcome and this one had a negative [one]."
Perhaps that's why both Gooding's performance and the series itself were critically acclaimed;
Gooding even scored an Emmy nomination for his performance.
"O.J., did you do it?"
"No."
Gooding followed up this well-received performance with another Ryan Murphy project,
as a main cast member of the sixth season of American Horror Story,
subtitled Roanoke. Gooding starred alongside Sarah Paulson as a
married couple terrorized by a group of killers after moving to North Carolina.
Though not as critically acclaimed as American Crime Story,
Roanoke still received positive reviews.
Both Ryan Murphy projects brought Gooding back into the spotlight for a short time,
but they also led to yet another controversial incident. During a 2017 event promoting his
American Horror Story season, Gooding was caught lifting up Sarah Paulson's skirt when she got up
to greet actress Kathy Bates at the event. Despite backlash for his actions, Gooding shrugged it off.
"I see Sarah Paulson as my sister."
After both his runs on American Horror Story and American Crime Story,
it seemed like Gooding would be hot on the screen market once again. Instead, he made
a slightly unexpected move with a brief stint on stage. He'd already appeared on Broadway for
2013's well-received play The Trip to Bountiful, but had yet to appear in a musical production.
In 2018, he was cast in the London West End theater revival of Chicago,
playing the role of sleazy defense lawyer Billy Flynn. A turn on Broadway can showcase
an actor's range while also earning them a good living, but Gooding said he just wanted to:
"See if I could pull off a musical. That was the main reason."
Reviews for Gooding's performance, and for the show overall, were mixed. While certain outlets
like The Guardian gave relatively positive remarks to both Gooding's performance and
the show as a whole, other reviewers like London Theatre were much more critical of
the lackluster production value and the uninspired take on the long-running show.
"I've played ice hockey 20 years. I've boxed almost professionally.
And nothing prepared me for singing and dancing eight shows a week."
Gooding's run as Billy Flynn was short-lived. He concluded
his run on September 1 of that year before being replaced by Brian Kemp,
though he returned to the role twice for brief runs in both 2018 and 2019.
The current-day problems that have surrounded Gooding have stalled his career almost completely.
As of 2021, the only notable film that Gooding starred in was the 2020 romantic drama film
Life in a Year, which starred Jaden Smith and Cara Delevingne as teenage lovers who decide to
live their lives to the fullest when Delevingne's character reveals that she has terminal cancer.
The film held promise; it also starred Nia Long and RZA, and was executive produced by
Jaden's parents, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith. But with negative reviews, limited streaming
distribution, and another star accused of sexual misconduct, the movie was quickly forgotten.
Despite various court appearances and no other film or television projects on the horizon,
the Daily Mail has reported the actor was recently seen partying in Los Angeles,
bar hopping and mingling with other patrons.
With another lawsuit pending and many other allegations still under investigation,
it's safe to say that Gooding won't be making another comeback anytime soon. With
sexual misconduct allegations being taken more seriously after the rise of the MeToo movement,
most Hollywood studios wouldn't dare employ someone as controversial as Cuba Gooding Jr.,
especially with a list of accusers as long as his.
Whether or not Gooding tries to mount a comeback — either by more Direct-To-DVD films,
another directing gig, or some other form of entertainment — remains to be seen.
But numerous pending court appearances will most likely keep him busy for a while.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault,
help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network
website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).