Once upon a time, American actor and martial artist Wesley Snipes was the most in-demand
action star in show business—and for good reason.
Snipes' unique ability to be both athletic and charming led to some very successful performances.
These days, however, Hollywood doesn't seem to give him much work anymore, and here's
why.
Hitting it big
Wesley Snipes' career got off to a blazing start when he landed the role of Willie Mays
Hayes, the swift-footed base-stealer in the baseball-comedy classic Major League.
But while that showcase of quick wit might've been a home run with casting directors, he
let his overnight fame get to his head a little too quickly.
"I plan to put on a hitting display."
Snipes reportedly turned down the chance to star in the sequel, Major League II, which
ticked off some of his co-stars.
Corbin Bernsen, for one, said of the diss,
"I said, 'Hey, man, they're gonna make Major League II!'
And he was like, 'You're gonna do that?'
And I thought, 'Wow, how quickly they forget.'
He'd become Wesley Snipes.
That rubbed me the wrong way."
Although Snipes had earned the ire of his Major League team, he did earn quite a few
grand slams right out of the dugout, including Jungle Fever, White Men Can't Jump, Passenger
57, Demolition Man, and Murder at 1600.
But while he was never a critical darling, despite his box office prowess, his career
started to cool once a pattern of legal problems began to emerge.
Facing handcuffs
Snipes' first brush with the law wasn't his fault.
In 1991, he was arrested while driving a car leased by his production company and claimed
he was assaulted and humiliated by the police as a result of racial profiling.
But Snipes' second major run-in with the law was brought on, this time, by legitimate reasons—and
would put a dent in the actor's professional reputation.
In August 1993, Snipes was cited for carrying a concealed weapon loaded with half a dozen
rounds of hollow point bullets, after a fender-bending motorcycle accident in Hollywood.
Snipes received two years of unsupervised probation and was fined $2,700.
The following year, Snipes' reputation as a law-abiding citizen decreased even further
when the actor led a Florida state trooper on a 120 mile-per-hour high-speed chase, which
ended in the action star crashing his motorcycle.
Snipes got off with a citation for reckless driving and refused medical treatment, but
his reputation was immediately damaged by the unusual incident.
Bouncing back
Just when it seemed like Snipes' run-ins with the law and string of less-than-stellar performances
were on the brink of completely bankrupting his career, the action star bounced back with
his most iconic role yet: the title vampire-slaying superhero in Blade.
Despite only receiving mediocre critical reviews, the film was a massive success, spawning a
pair of sequels and cementing Snipes as both a household name and bona fide action hero.
After the commercial success of Blade, Snipes's career was on the upswing again.
Unfortunately for him, that second rise was followed by an even bigger fall.
Falling again
After Blade, the actor starred in a string of films that failed to court the same kind
of audience as his earlier pics.
First up was The Art of War, which was a massive failure, both critically and commercially.
Then there was ZigZag and Undisputed, which dug the hole even deeper.
The final nail in the coffin for Snipes was Blade: Trinity.
In addition to being the least-liked film in the series, it all but ensured major studios
would never work with Snipes again—especially after Snipes filed a lawsuit against New Line
Cinema and the filmmakers to the tune of $5 million.
Snipes alleged the filmmakers and supporting cast were all approved without his express
consent, which violated his contract.
He also claimed writer-director David Goyer made racist remarks regarding Snipes' professionalism
and refused to punish a crew member who wore a racist T-shirt while filming.
On top of that, Snipes claimed New Line Cinema intentionally hired only white individuals,
still owed him $3 million, and didn't help the actor obtain a tax exemption.
Co-star Patton Oswalt, however, claimed that Snipes was a problem during production.
"And Wesley Snipes was going crazy, and he wouldn't come out of his trailer…"
"He would only answer to the name Blade."
After that, Oswalt said, Snipes attempted to force director David Goyer to resign from
the film.
But his biggest problems were only beginning to take shape.
Uncle Sam slam
Perhaps the most notorious reas on Wesley Snipes' career soured is that he was convicted
on three misdemeanor counts for failing to file three years' worth of tax returns, which
apparently cheated Uncle Sam out of $7 million.
The prosecution blamed Snipes for following the advice of both his accountant and another
firm anti-tax proponent.
Snipes, who had already paid millions of dollars in taxes, was sentenced to three years in
prison in 2008, before being transferred to the New York Community Corrections Office
for home confinement.
As soon as Snipes got out of prison, the IRS piled on the civil tax collections, arguing
that the actor owed them close to $18 million.
Snipes decided he had enough, and filed a lawsuit against the government's tax collection
agency.
Snipes argued that the IRS was just arbitrarily throwing out figures in an effort to collect
as much money as possible.
Time for a turnaround?
Though Snipes doesn't get very many big-time movie offers anymore, he still gets plenty
of small-time movie offers.
Most recently, he starred in 2017's Armed Response and The Recall.
He also had a role in The Expendables 3—which served to put Snipes' name back into a big-budget
film.
Even more promising, Snipes played Cyclops in Spike Lee's Chi-Raq which is undoubtedly
the best project to involve the actor in recent decades.
"Okay, okay, them 30 poppers?"
He's also shown a new interest in dancing and musical theater lately.
"Doing movies was cool but it still wasn't fulfilling what I wanted to do—even to this
day.
If I have a choice between doing a movie or doing a dance show, I'll do the dance show
first."
On top of that, he's also been busy writing what he hopes will ultimately be a trilogy
of books, the first of which—Talon of God—is on shelves now.
All thing considered, it's not the time to write off Wesley Snipes.
Not yet.
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