In the fickle world of Hollywood, it's hard for a star to rise to fame — and exceptionally
easy for them to fall out of the public's good graces.
A couple of box office flops, some personal issues, or even a decision to take time off
could spell career disaster.
For these actors, their towering celebrity status just isn't what it used to be.
Here's why.
Dane Cook
Back in the early aughts, you couldn't go anywhere without hearing how Dane Cook was
the funniest dude alive.
But those days are long gone now, and he has a few bad films and joke choices to blame
for his rapid loss of luster.
For starters, his first major outing on the big screen was a serious flop, with 2006's
Employee of the Month being funny for all the wrong reasons.
His next attempt at being the leading man in Good Luck Chuck was also widely maligned.
"Uh oh uh oh uh oh uh oh, raise the habitat!
Haha!”
And despite dropping his loud funny guy schtick for a more dramatic role in Mr. Brooks, his
attempt at reinvention didn't impress enough to keep his silver screen career afloat.
He might've been able to sell tickets for his stand up routines, but audiences just
weren't interested in his acting.
Meanwhile, his comedic reputation also took a major hit when he was the subject of multiple
joke theft accusations, and — even worse — made an untimely joke about a mass shooting.
"That's really great.
Good for you, man."
He's recently had some progress turning things around with a voice role in Disney’s Planes
movies and a brief stint on American Gods, so don't count him out just yet.
"If it's gonna swing far and high this way, then you kinda know that it’s gonna, you
know, it’s gonna swing back the other, it's gonna settle.”
Jim Carrey
Back in his heydey, Jim Carrey was the undisputed king of the box office.
Films like The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, and Liar Liar regularly made bank and solidified
his status as a star.
He even had some success on the dramatic scene, with films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless
Mind and The Number 23 making an impression with audiences.
After a while, however, his on-screen wit alone wasn't enough, and Carrey started disappearing
into roles that went heavy on the special effects, like How the Grinch Stole Christmas
and Horton Hears a Who.
Eventually his star power started to fade, and films like Mr. Popper's Penguins and The
Incredible Burt Wonderstone proved he wasn't as secure a box office draw as everyone expected
him to be.
"This concludes our broadcast day."
His decline in demand also seemed to coincide with some personal issues Carrey was experiencing,
including the suicide of his ex-girlfriend Cathriona White, which spawned an ugly legal
battle.
Nowadays, he's taken up painting, and it seems he's quite good at it.
As he says in his new documentary, I Needed Color:
"You know, the bottom line with all of this, whether it's performance, or it’s art, or
it’s sculpture, is love."
Matthew Fox
Since Lost, uh, got lost in 2010, Matthew Fox's Hollywood career has taken a nosedive,
for reasons both professional and personal.
On the professional side, his movie career never quite took off.
His cinematic outing as the villain in Alex Cross failed to establish him as a big screen
staple, and his promising role in World War Z was basically scrapped and left to collect
dust in the editing room.
On the personal side, Fox has also been battling nasty headlines in recent years, including
allegations that he hit a female bus driver.
"You know it's been a very tough year for myself and my family.
It's difficult to be accused of something that you did not do."
And he was also busted for a DUI that he fully admitted to.
If that wasn't enough, Fox also hinted to Men's Fitness in 2012 that he may be ready
to give up acting anyway, saying, "If I don't get quality opportunities, you probably won't
see much of me.
I'll probably be doing something else."
Considering he hasn't been seen on-screen for several years, well, it looks like he's
making good on that promise.
Jessica Alba
At one point, Jessica Alba was a budding "it" girl in Hollywood, with her own TV show and
franchise roles to boot.
But that all fell apart once people started to wonder whether she was actually even a
good actress.
Thanks to films like The Killer Inside Me and Little Fockers, Alba won a Razzie for
"Worst Supporting Actress" in 2011, right around when the offers started drying up.
She ultimately began distancing herself from the cameras once she became a mother and began
a business empire with The Honest Company instead.
That company has honestly grown into a billion-dollar industry, and Alba hasn't had to do much screen
work to support her growing family as a result.
She's made a couple of on-screen appearances in recent years, like a cameo in Taylor Swift's
"Bad Blood" video and as herself in the film follow-up to Entourage.
But we probably won't be seeing "Jessica Alba" scrawled across the marquee again any time
soon.
"The only thing you got right was my name."
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Although she's probably best-known for her starring role in TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
Sarah Michelle Gellar also earned scream queen status thanks her work in films like I Know
What You Did Last Summer and Scream 2.
After her vampire-slaying days were finished, Gellar went on to reclaim her horror movie
moment with a starring role in The Grudge series.
But by then she'd endured a few flops like Simply Irresistible and the critically maligned
live-action adaptation of Scooby-Doo.
So, soon enough, she found herself starring in genre schlock like The Return and Possession.
Around the same time, her small screen career started going south as well, with back-to-back
cancellations of her shows Ringer and The Crazy Ones.
Even the attempted small screen revival of Cruel Intentions didn't pan out.
"You don't stand a chance.
Even this is out of your league."
But it hasn't been all bad news for Gellar.
She's found some success doing voice-over work for TV's Star Wars: Rebels series and
launched a "cooking and lifestyle brand" called Foodstirs.
She's also the proud mother of two kids, whom she had with actor and fellow '90s sensation
Freddie Prinze Jr.
Billy Zane
Playing the villain in what was then the biggest movie of all-time proved to be difficult for
Billy Zane, who spent years trying to convince audiences that he isn't always the snooty
British guy who tormented Kate Winslet in Titanic.
Unfortunately, Zane hasn't had all that much luck accomplishing that goal.
Instead, he starred in a whole string of movies you've probably never heard of.
Even his TV stints haven't stayed on the air long enough to keep his career afloat.
For example, Freeform canceled Guilt after just one season, and he starred in just a
single episode of Community.
However, Zane hasn't had any trouble keeping the lights on over the years.
Despite his lower profile, the actor has still been working steadily in smaller roles over
the years since his Cal Hockley days.
Tom Welling
After starring as a high school Superman in TV's Smallville for 10 years, Tom Welling
earned himself a break from Hollywood.
The actor retreated from the screen scene for a few years, occasionally popping up in
movies along the way like Parkland, Draft Day, and The Choice.
In recent years, however, Welling seems poised for a comeback on the small screen.
Although CBS declined to pick up a pilot starring Welling as a CIA black ops agent, he is expected
to join the third season of Fox's Lucifer.
Chances are good the gig won't last as long as his last television turn, but it may help
put his name back into the mainstream again sooner than later.
Christopher Mintz-Plasse
It's been a full decade since Superbad was released, but for many, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
is still best known as the nerdy McLovin.
The good news is that notoriety helped him score roles in pics like Role Models, Kick-Ass,
and Pitch Perfect.
The bad news is that he was totally typecast and his appearances felt like a rehash of
his fame-making role.
"Wait'll they get a load of me."
In recent years, Mintz-Plasse has branched out to other genres, including voice-over
work, music, and television, with some of those endeavors proving to be more successful
than others.
He celebrated his 28th birthday in 2017, so Mintz-Plasse is also growing out of his nerdy
youth and into a legitimately dapper dude, which could finally help him shed his Superbad
image once and for all.
​Katherine Heigl
The dramatic downfall of Katherine Heigl can be boiled down to two words: burned bridges.
In 2008, she infamously slammed Knocked Up, the Judd Apatow comedy that launched her film
career.
She told Vanity Fair the film was "a little sexist," and "paints the women as shrews,
as humorless and uptight," adding, "I had a hard time with it, on some days.
I'm playing such a bitch…
It was hard for me to love the movie."
That same year, Heigl heavily shaded Grey's Anatomy and its showrunner, Shonda Rhimes,
when she withdrew from the race for Emmy nominations, and said, "I did not feel that I was given
the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and in an effort to maintain the
integrity of the academy organization, I withdrew my name from contention."
Oof.
After that, Heigl continued churning out stale, increasingly unsuccessful romantic comedies
until her name became synonymous with the worst of the genre.
Through it all, rumors about her on-set difficulty swirled, which may or may not have led to
some high-profile shakeups within her management and PR teams.
"I'm not a rude person, I’m not an unkind or mean person, I would never go out of my
way or consciously try to hurt anyone’s feelings or make them feel bad or uncomfortable."
She still got a few more chances to prove her muster on the silver screen and television
circuit, but she's continued to bomb out on both mediums just as spectacularly.
Perhaps she should've kept any negative opinions she had about her projects to herself.
Jennifer Love Hewitt
After making a name for herself in the teen slasher series I Know What You Did Last Summer
and her small screen work in Party of Five, Jennifer Love Hewitt started enjoying regular
starring roles in pics like Can't Hardly Wait and Heartbreakers.
Unfortunately, her movie career started to slump with the Jackie Chan action-comedy flop
The Tuxedo and the Garfield movies.
She managed to rally on the small screen with successful runs in The Ghost Whisperer and
The Client List.
But after she was accused of being difficult on-set of the latter show — by reportedly
insisting that her real-life baby daddy be cast in the series — the whole show was
unceremoniously axed.
She went on to nab a role in Criminal Minds, but when she became pregnant with her second
child, Hewitt decided to leave the show after only one season.
Since exiting Criminal Minds in 2015, Hewitt has yet to log another screen credit, or even
have anything listed in production.
Granted, she also gave birth to her second child, so she's clearly putting her career
on some kind of hold to spend quality time with her kids.
Regardless, it doesn't seem like we'll be seeing her on the red carpet anytime soon.
Taylor Momsen
By the time Taylor Momsen was 17, she'd already been in the entertainment business for 15
years.
Her parents started her in the modeling industry at just two, an experience Momsen doesn't
fondly recall.
She later said, "My parents signed me up with Ford (modeling agency) at the age of two.
No two year old wants to be working, but I had no choice."
From there it was a breakout role as Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas
and then a big break on Gossip Girl that informed her showbiz career.
But that would be where Momsen's acting career ended.
Her growing displeasure with Hollywood and a gradual drift towards a music career essentially
tucked Momsen's SAG card into a file folder.
As her good-girl-next-door look morphed into a goth-inspired, raccoon-eyed rock frontwoman,
Gossip Girl producers reduced her role on the show until she was eventually dropped
as a series regular in Season 5.
There was no love lost for Momsen, who basically dove eyeliner-first into a music career as
the lead singer of The Pretty Reckless.
Julia Stiles
After her breakthrough role in 10 Things I Hate About You, Julia Stiles had a real shot
at the big-time.
However, her subsequent silver screen decisions did her no favors.
After dismal returns for A Guy Thing and Mona Lisa Smile, Stiles pivoted to smaller films,
including the critically panned remake of The Omen and a little-known film called Edmond.
"I'm trying some stuff out.
I'd rather do that than get stuck doing something I don't love."
Fortunately for her, she's had a small, but regular role in the Jason Bourne franchise
to carry her through.
Kat Stratford might not have been so concerned with A-list status …
"Where did you come from, planet loser?"
"As opposed to planet look at me, look at me?”
But Stiles herself does have a desire to stay relevant.
She told The New York Times, "I think audiences, producers and directors included, develop
crushes on actors (actresses in particular) and then lose interest and move on to the
next one.
There are a handful of actors who sustain interest because it's exciting to watch them
get better at what they do.
I want to be one of those actors."
Unfortunately, Stiles doesn't seem to be getting too many opportunities to improve anymore.
Hopefully for Stiles and her fans, that'll turn around sooner rather than later...
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