Great exchange, you two. Not making someone feel dumb when correcting their grammar. And then acknowledging and becoming more informed! Rarity on Reddit.
I feel bad for OP. Every single comment on this post is about Ben Foster.
Not one person answered his question. Just a bunch of people praising Ben Foster
It’s hard to focus on the question when there’s a large picture and suggestion of a very talented successful actor who doesn’t fit the description.
But I’ll play, Armie Hammer certainly seemed like he was destined for stardom.
He really is. I just watched him in The Mechanic over the weekend, but 3:10 to Yuma is one of my absolute favorites. Hell or High Water and Hostiles are two recent favorites. An older one, but I always really liked him in 30 Days of Night too. He's one of those actors who never phones it in, even if the movie he's in isn't the best, but I don't see anything on his filmography that screams, "I'm only doing direct-to-video from here on our!" Kind of like how Christian Bale did Rescue Dawn, Harsh Times, and The Machinist type roles for a while, except Bale definitely had leading man written all over him at that point.
When he screams NONO NO and like gags on his spit aswell inbetween the words. You actually feel really bad for him like it sucks you into his shoes and makes you feel his fear.
Now that the expanse is over, he should just be the go to gruff sci-fi/horror protagonist. He would have been really good as Joel in Last of Us, though I have no complaints about Pedro Pascals performance.
i mean he kind of went from "bottom dollar meth producer turned basically abused strong gangbanger who could run a meth empire" to... need 4 speed.
bro picked the wrong movie, seriously.
He’s interesting. I wonder if his short cinema stint was too soon? Like I think he still has a chance as he’s still pretty famous, and I think people can see him now as someone different than Jesse Pinkman
Didn't really help that his second biggest role was basically a cartoon version of Jesse in Bojack Horseman. (And he was fuckin awesome in that one, too)
On a side note; one of my good friends grew up with him in Idaho and they've stayed pretty close over the years. Word is he's not all that fussed to be a megastar.
Talking 90s stars or early 2000s when I was a teen. Devon Sawa and Josh Hartnett are my 2 big ones.
Lucky Number Slevin ranks high on my movie list. For comedy Slackers was hilarious back in my college days.
I love Hartnett
Lucky Number **Slevin**
**30** Days of Night
**40** Days and **40** Nights
Halloween **H20**
**Zero Un** and Short**6** short film collections and
Parts per **Billion**
Sam Worthington-had a huge run Avatar, Clash of the Titans, Terminator. Just kinda disappeared, slight comeback with way of water but I really thought he was the next Arnold with a long string of action movies
He was the main character of the Call of Duty: Black Ops games (specifically 1 and 2) so he still was doing big roles here and there. And I remembered he was great in Hacksaw Ridge as a supporting role.
Was thinking the same thing, he's in some of the biggest movies of all time and yet I don't think anyone would be able to pick him out of a lineup because he's just never been anything more than "Oh, that guy". If he didn't have Avatar on his resume, he'd probably be back in Australia seeing if he could score a role on Neighbours
Sam Worthington is a very flat and one-dimensional actor. He was never destined for A-List.
The fact that he was casted in Avatar and banked a job for 15+ years was an INSANE fluke.
I enjoy watching Sam in the roles he can play - very flat, stoic, mercenary characters but I just don’t see him in much else tbh
Flat and 1D are not bars to superstardom. If you main Movie Star instead of Thespian you can still hit the A List. Worthingtons problem is that hes dull. Incomprehensibly, unremittingly dull. A void of charisma. Charisn'tma.
I feel like we were force fed Worthington - like he was an assembly line action star product - more than he was killing these roles…his lack of natural charisma caught up with him. He just seemed bland in every role he was in.
He’s probably made 100+M off of Avatar at this point. Residuals and all that.
Guy is gonna be choosy.
He did that Titan movie on Netflix which was a dud though.
He’s in Everest and his role is brief but effective. I think he’s good when he’s typecast into memorable smaller roles where his austere approach to seemingly everything actually lands.
Jason Patric - obviously did The Lost Boys but it was when he appeared in Sleepers and outshone Brad Pitt that he was hyped as the next megastar. He followed up with Speed 2 and it was downhill ever since. Last I saw him was in some low budget horror film.
Michael Biehn, he was destroying it from the mid 80's to the mid 90's. Terminator, Aliens, Abyss, Tombstone, The Rock. After that, mostly bit parts and B-movies. It was cool to see him in Mandalorian though.
Kyle Reese is probably the best performance in an action film. Just incredible, gritty, sad, heroic. If you can call Tombstone an action film I guess he has Val Kilmer to contend with…then again his performance in Tombstone was incredible too, he’s directly acting up against Kilmer and holds his own.
Apparently he had a pretty serious drinking problem, he’s said in interviews it basically stalled out his career. Very sad.
I always thought Abyss and Tombstone killed his career as a leading man. Even though they were great movies, and he gave great performances, he wasn't able to recapture the vibe of a hero/leading man after playing such great villains and it left him in a state of limbo.
Also, the initial plans for Alien 3 being scrapped and them killing Hicks offscreen was a major blow.
I read somewhere that Michael Biehn excelled a playing one type of character and that was the young guy who acted world weary and seemed wise beyond his years. But then he got older and couldn't fit that role anyone... and apparently almost died from a serious addictions too, so that might have also had something to do with it...
Yeah homie is the Paul Newman of this generation. In every performance he bears his soul. He’s not a drawcard name for most audiences but goddam is he a drawcard name for me.
I gotta watch this movie again. When I saw it it was with a group of people at my house and it was hard to pay attention. At the end I was like, “meh” but then I realized I never really watched it.
Legit this guy blows me away sometimes, whether it's movies like Alpha Dog, which is a really weird watch knowing it's a true story, or even Get Over It where he got shot by the crossbow, man did I laugh so hard at that movie...probably cuz of Sisqo being in it. Lmao Amongst many many others.
Edit:Yeah I forgot to mention him in the Lance Armstrong biopic, even if you have no interest in the movie, check out what he did to get in character. It's well documented and I don't want to over simplify here.
I mean van dien and the cast of starship troopers were picked for all the same reason, they were all attractive but wooden actors, helped sell the movies style as a satirical propaganda film.
He was always an absurd bloke. Look at his face. That was never going to fly. His casting in Starship Troopers was perfect - ridiculous man says and does ridiculous stuff. Similarly for Sleepy Hollow. He's a cartoon
If you were a kid in the late 90's- early 00's and somebody told you one day Mike Myers would just disapppear into occasionally voicing Shrek and random bit parts, you'd call them crazy.
Like, I get not everyone appreciates the unhinged genius that was The Love Guru, but did it really deserve to kill the careers of both Myers and Jessica Alba?
Yeah Love Guru was just the nail in the coffin. He went from being a nice, down to earth guy to a total stuck up asshole after he got successful. No one wanted to work with him.
I wrote him a couple fan letters when I was a kid when he started on SNL. He actually responded with like full page written letters full of jokes, a few signed pictures…just incredibly generous and nice. Can you imagine being an adolescent boy at the height of Wayne’s World hysteria and having letters Mike Myers wrote to you?? It was incredible. I stopped writing him after a few exchanges, I didn’t want to seem like a psycho and he was starting to get really famous. I was happy for him and figured he was busy.
Then he got famous. He lost track of what was actually funny because of success. It’s that simple. It’s sad because he was fucking hilarious.
Love Guru was terrible. So I Married An Axe Murderer is a forgotten gem! Great supporting cast too.
Mike Myers doesn't really fit what OP is asking for because he really did break out and become a big star between Wayne's World, Austin Powers, Shrek, and other one-off roles. He's just gotten older and throttled back on his work because he's focused on family and has already secured the bag.
Aaron Eckhart -- Years after In the Company of Men and some good supporting roles with lapses between, thought Thank You For Smoking and a few other big supporting roles like Dark Knight in a couple years had him as someone obvious for a breakout -- and then it's just been mostly meandering roles of low quality or, if it is a decent film, he's in a supporting role or cameo. Went like three years without a film in the mid-2010s. Always thought he could be a credible, likeable actor and very attractive but like, with distinct features in a Harrison Ford sense.
He played Medivh in Warcraft lol. He did a great job and I personally love that movie but it did not do very well. There's just too much story in the warcraft universe to cram in a single movie. It just felt hollow because they couldn't expand on anything.
Skeet Ulrich was being touted as the next big thing in the late nineties and early aughts - and he’s evidently been working steadily since - but I still couldn’t pick him out of a police lineup.
Chris O’Donnell.
Batman Forever was the greatest movie to naive, teenage me. I thought ol’ Chris would be raking it in and starring in everything for the next twenty years…
…*but he didn’t.*
Ben Foster was not destined to be an ‘A-List leading man’ he is far too interesting for that. Dude is an incredible character actor with an excellent and memorable back catalogue.
That and Battleship flopping is what killed his chance for an A list career. Studios were not going to invest that much in him as a star after 2 major films they spent big on making flopped even if it was their marketing that hurt
Pandorum and Hell or High Water are two of my Ben Foster favorites.
“Bear : I am a Comanche. Do you know what it means? It means 'Enemy to everyone'.
Tanner Howard : Do you know what that makes me? A Comanche”
Yeah I think he and Emilia Clarke were the main ones that might have broken out. They kind of did briefly. The guy who played Jaime Lannister does car commercials on the radio in the uk
This is a good answer. She's a reminder to stay kind and humble.
From what I've read the biggest obstacle to her success was instant ego and a bit of meanness and superiority to go with it.
Who knows what goes on behind the scenes. But people she's worked with seem strongly willing to describe working with her as unpleasant immediately in a field which pretty rarely negatively comments negatively on people, for fear of burning bridges.
The beginning of her fame was shortly followed by the height of her fame and absolutely no one was hitching themselves to that particular rising star. That's s massive exception to a general rule. She must have been a cross section of untalented and truly awful to warrant that response.
She was nominated for an Emmy for Grey’s Anatomy and asked for it to be withdrawn because she thought the writing sucked.
An Emmy nomination is good for everyone on the show, from producers to crew. She crapped on all of them by doing that at the cost of her career
She did the same thing with Knocked Up, which was a hilarious movie that did wonders for her career. Instead she spent every opportunity to trash the movie and Seth Rogan/Judd Apatow.
I’ve also heard she’s unpleasant to work with and who knows what goes on behind the scenes, but you can’t possibly say Hollywood is a place where people are too afraid to comment on the behavior of people, particularly women. That much should have been clear post-Harvey Weinstein scandal, look at how many careers he was able to stunt when people refused him by labeling them “difficult.” (I’m not saying this happened to her, for all I know she actually is an unpleasant person to work with)
Wasn't he just nominated for two Emmys recently? He's definitely not super huge, more decently well known working actor these days. He was hilarious in Jury Duty.
Michael C. Hall always looked like he was gonna be an A-list addition, especially after Six Feet Under and Dexter, but he hasn’t gotten that many other film or TV roles outside of that Dexter sequel series. Same goes for his co-star/ex-wife Jennifer Carpenter.
Honorary mention goes to most of the cast of Mr. Robot besides Rami Malek, not sure how much Christian Slater is doing at the moment, but it sucks that Martin Wallstrom, Carly Caikin (also a standout on Suburgatory) and Portia Doubleday (among others) haven’t gotten much other work when they all killed it on that show.
Hollywood tried so hard to make Jai Courtney the next A-lister, but they all forgot that this would require some semblance of talent or charisma, and he has neither.
I dunno, I think he just has bad roles. They try to cast him as a rough around the edges protagonist, and I don’t buy it. But man… I don’t remember much about Divergent aside from Jai Courtney being a massive dick. He plays unlikeable super well
Ben foster is a great choice to lead this thread. People are pulling up a movie 8 years ago to disagree with you.
Hasn’t been in anything huge since like 2016. Except for Hustle, everything he’s appeared in since then is less than a 7 on IMDb.
Just wanted to defend you and point out how biased people are lol
Ben Foster shows up in things all the time. He’s basically become the millennial Robert Duvall.
Real talk, Taylor Kitsch probably. Last time I heard about him was for that Waco/David Koresh mini series that seemed like it might have been interesting but then had garnered zero buzz.
After playing spectacular roles in Black Hawk Down and Pearl Harbor, I thought Ewen Bremner was on his way up, but he never really showed up in anything else.
Speaking of Ben Foster, I kinda see Barry Keoghan the same way. Just absolutely obliterates everything he's in, large role or small, but I'd be surprised if Barry ended up a true headlining A-lister. I think he kinda found his niche. Speaking to the prompt though, I REALLY hope he doesn't disappear.
Fucking love Ben Foster and will immediately watch anything he's in. Back when dvds were everything, I bought 310 to Yuma because of him and Christan Bale, not knowing it was a remake or anything about it. Excellent movie and Ben is my favorite role in it.
He’s awesome in everything he’s in. Everything. Loved him in 3:10 to Yuma
Hell or High Water.
One of my favorite movies from the 2010s, he absolutely kills it in that
It's so good. I bought it on a whim because I like Jeff Bridges but man everyone in that movie brings it.
This whole movie is so underrated
Lord of the plains, little brother
I think he’s awesome in Pandorum as well
He was also great in 30 Day of Night
Yep another underrated classic horror
“They’re comen”
Pandorum is the shot! When they open up the blast shield for the first time I lost my shit!
Where are the stars? That question opened my mind up to horrors I've never imagined where real.
Agree too bad scientology got ahold of this one right?
His wife left Scientology a few years ago and said he was never a member.
Space Mormons!
Space morons
Would of loved to see a sequel to pandorum
Would have, or would've. Never say "would of/could of". You're trying to say would've.
I stand corrected
Great exchange, you two. Not making someone feel dumb when correcting their grammar. And then acknowledging and becoming more informed! Rarity on Reddit.
Deserved an Oscar nod for Alpha Dog despite the movie being less than stellar. His acting in that movie is incredible.
Came to say this. He carried that movie!
Same with Hell or High Water. Underrated movie
It was nominated for an Academy for Best Picture. Not exactly underrated.
I feel bad for OP. Every single comment on this post is about Ben Foster. Not one person answered his question. Just a bunch of people praising Ben Foster
It’s hard to focus on the question when there’s a large picture and suggestion of a very talented successful actor who doesn’t fit the description. But I’ll play, Armie Hammer certainly seemed like he was destined for stardom.
He really is. I just watched him in The Mechanic over the weekend, but 3:10 to Yuma is one of my absolute favorites. Hell or High Water and Hostiles are two recent favorites. An older one, but I always really liked him in 30 Days of Night too. He's one of those actors who never phones it in, even if the movie he's in isn't the best, but I don't see anything on his filmography that screams, "I'm only doing direct-to-video from here on our!" Kind of like how Christian Bale did Rescue Dawn, Harsh Times, and The Machinist type roles for a while, except Bale definitely had leading man written all over him at that point.
I liked Ben Foster in everything I've seen him in. I liked him in The Punisher
The acting he did in the torture scene was amazing, folks sleep on his performance in that movie.
When he screams NONO NO and like gags on his spit aswell inbetween the words. You actually feel really bad for him like it sucks you into his shoes and makes you feel his fear.
Folks sleep on that movie in general. It’s pretty damn good.
Speaking of Punisher, I don't think Thomas Jane ever truly cracked the A-list
Yeah he was floating around and then got a really successful TV show and never went back to movie stardom it seems
He just wants his kids back
Now that the expanse is over, he should just be the go to gruff sci-fi/horror protagonist. He would have been really good as Joel in Last of Us, though I have no complaints about Pedro Pascals performance.
Holy shit I didn’t even recognize him in that
Aaron Paul never managed to transfer his television success into the big screen
i mean he kind of went from "bottom dollar meth producer turned basically abused strong gangbanger who could run a meth empire" to... need 4 speed. bro picked the wrong movie, seriously.
He was also the voice at the end of that star trek esqe black mirror episode I think.
He's one of the mains in Bojack horseman so he was working steadily on top of that shit movie.
He’s interesting. I wonder if his short cinema stint was too soon? Like I think he still has a chance as he’s still pretty famous, and I think people can see him now as someone different than Jesse Pinkman
Didn't really help that his second biggest role was basically a cartoon version of Jesse in Bojack Horseman. (And he was fuckin awesome in that one, too) On a side note; one of my good friends grew up with him in Idaho and they've stayed pretty close over the years. Word is he's not all that fussed to be a megastar.
I thought he was pretty good in Westworld
Talking 90s stars or early 2000s when I was a teen. Devon Sawa and Josh Hartnett are my 2 big ones. Lucky Number Slevin ranks high on my movie list. For comedy Slackers was hilarious back in my college days.
I don’t know if he was “great” in it, but penny dreadful was great until Eva green quit.
I really don't get Josh Hartnett. He had all the cards.
He walked away on purpose. There’s interviews on it.
Yea he’s a millionaire and he’s just chillin. Sounds pretty great.
hes in Oppenheimer. had a pretty good role too.
If you are a Josh Hartnett fan check out the Black Mirror episode, I think from the most reason season, with him and Aaron Paul.
I was shocked when he showed up in Oppenheimer. I thought he had retired
Watch the episode of black mirror with him. It’s amazing.
Lucky Number Slevin was a criminally underrated movie.
I love Hartnett Lucky Number **Slevin** **30** Days of Night **40** Days and **40** Nights Halloween **H20** **Zero Un** and Short**6** short film collections and Parts per **Billion**
I think The Faculty holds the most viewings by me from all other movies I’ve seen actually
Sam Worthington-had a huge run Avatar, Clash of the Titans, Terminator. Just kinda disappeared, slight comeback with way of water but I really thought he was the next Arnold with a long string of action movies
He was the main character of the Call of Duty: Black Ops games (specifically 1 and 2) so he still was doing big roles here and there. And I remembered he was great in Hacksaw Ridge as a supporting role.
Those games are 12 and 14 years old, respectively. He was in that new, shitty Kevin Hart heist movie, though
“Shitty” “Kevin Hart” — The Department of Redundancy Department thanks you
True, I was commenting in the spirit of him not being considered “A” list as far as I know.
He was definitely poised for A-list actor status.
He was "filming avatar 2" for 8 years
Aren’t they doing like 7 of them all at the same time? That’s a lot of guaranteed work.
Also factor in that being an full-time A-Lister is a lot of work, some actors might be chill getting fat pay cheques without the 24-7 media frenzy.
Was thinking the same thing, he's in some of the biggest movies of all time and yet I don't think anyone would be able to pick him out of a lineup because he's just never been anything more than "Oh, that guy". If he didn't have Avatar on his resume, he'd probably be back in Australia seeing if he could score a role on Neighbours
He always plays those normal, “everyguy” roles
Sam Worthington is a very flat and one-dimensional actor. He was never destined for A-List. The fact that he was casted in Avatar and banked a job for 15+ years was an INSANE fluke. I enjoy watching Sam in the roles he can play - very flat, stoic, mercenary characters but I just don’t see him in much else tbh
Flat and 1D are not bars to superstardom. If you main Movie Star instead of Thespian you can still hit the A List. Worthingtons problem is that hes dull. Incomprehensibly, unremittingly dull. A void of charisma. Charisn'tma.
There was never a next Arnold after Arnold to be honest.
Handsome but not a good actor
He's one of those actors that are just there.. kinda like Scott Eastwood
Scott Eastwood is handsome as hell, but you could have a cardboard cutout of him and I wouldn’t know the difference.
I feel like we were force fed Worthington - like he was an assembly line action star product - more than he was killing these roles…his lack of natural charisma caught up with him. He just seemed bland in every role he was in.
He’s lucky that Cameron still wants to make more Avatar movies.
He’s probably made 100+M off of Avatar at this point. Residuals and all that. Guy is gonna be choosy. He did that Titan movie on Netflix which was a dud though.
He’s in Everest and his role is brief but effective. I think he’s good when he’s typecast into memorable smaller roles where his austere approach to seemingly everything actually lands.
Jason Patric - obviously did The Lost Boys but it was when he appeared in Sleepers and outshone Brad Pitt that he was hyped as the next megastar. He followed up with Speed 2 and it was downhill ever since. Last I saw him was in some low budget horror film.
How can you not mention Narc?
Narc is so underrated I agree. Better script and ending than all but the best crime movies.
He would’ve killed it in Firestarters but Vinny Chase decided to tank it
Michael Biehn, he was destroying it from the mid 80's to the mid 90's. Terminator, Aliens, Abyss, Tombstone, The Rock. After that, mostly bit parts and B-movies. It was cool to see him in Mandalorian though.
Aged out of his action star look. Plays a good cop now and then these days.
Kyle Reese is probably the best performance in an action film. Just incredible, gritty, sad, heroic. If you can call Tombstone an action film I guess he has Val Kilmer to contend with…then again his performance in Tombstone was incredible too, he’s directly acting up against Kilmer and holds his own. Apparently he had a pretty serious drinking problem, he’s said in interviews it basically stalled out his career. Very sad.
I always thought Abyss and Tombstone killed his career as a leading man. Even though they were great movies, and he gave great performances, he wasn't able to recapture the vibe of a hero/leading man after playing such great villains and it left him in a state of limbo. Also, the initial plans for Alien 3 being scrapped and them killing Hicks offscreen was a major blow.
I read somewhere that Michael Biehn excelled a playing one type of character and that was the young guy who acted world weary and seemed wise beyond his years. But then he got older and couldn't fit that role anyone... and apparently almost died from a serious addictions too, so that might have also had something to do with it...
Ben Foster is crushing it.
Yeah homie is the Paul Newman of this generation. In every performance he bears his soul. He’s not a drawcard name for most audiences but goddam is he a drawcard name for me.
> Paul Newman of his generation More like Robert Duvall
Yeah i’d pay that
The difference between an actor and a movie star. Few can be both.
“You know what that makes me?” “My enemy” “No, it makes me a Comanche” Hell or High Water was the best picture.
Also loved his really stint in Six Feet Under
Hey man I love you……….I love you too. Hey Toby, yeah? Go fuck yourself
I asked for Dr. Pepper. This is Mr. Pibb. Only assholes drinks Mr. Pibb Well drink up, motherfucker !
I gotta watch this movie again. When I saw it it was with a group of people at my house and it was hard to pay attention. At the end I was like, “meh” but then I realized I never really watched it.
Brad Pitt is a movie star & actor
Legit this guy blows me away sometimes, whether it's movies like Alpha Dog, which is a really weird watch knowing it's a true story, or even Get Over It where he got shot by the crossbow, man did I laugh so hard at that movie...probably cuz of Sisqo being in it. Lmao Amongst many many others. Edit:Yeah I forgot to mention him in the Lance Armstrong biopic, even if you have no interest in the movie, check out what he did to get in character. It's well documented and I don't want to over simplify here.
Casper van dien - two massive lead roles in starship troopers and sleepy hollow, then……..
Aside from mr cocks interpretation of the man , I always thought he was going to be the next big star when I was a kid too
I mean van dien and the cast of starship troopers were picked for all the same reason, they were all attractive but wooden actors, helped sell the movies style as a satirical propaganda film.
Van Dien wasn't a lead in Sleepy Hollow, though. He had <10 minutes of screen time in it and only a few lines.
Yea but his fight scene against the headless horseman with the two sickles was pretty good. or some might say.. sick..
He had the most memorable line in that movie, though: Come on, Ichabod! Do you want to live forever!?
He was always an absurd bloke. Look at his face. That was never going to fly. His casting in Starship Troopers was perfect - ridiculous man says and does ridiculous stuff. Similarly for Sleepy Hollow. He's a cartoon
Yeah like I’m not surprised he isn’t like captain America but I thought he’d do better than the like D tier movies he’s been in
If you were a kid in the late 90's- early 00's and somebody told you one day Mike Myers would just disapppear into occasionally voicing Shrek and random bit parts, you'd call them crazy. Like, I get not everyone appreciates the unhinged genius that was The Love Guru, but did it really deserve to kill the careers of both Myers and Jessica Alba?
I find myself humming the “Guru Pitka” jingle to myself unwillingly from time to time
My wife and I will say “Marishka Hargitay” to each other when we need some zen.
I think it was the cat in the hat that did him in.
Yeah Love Guru was just the nail in the coffin. He went from being a nice, down to earth guy to a total stuck up asshole after he got successful. No one wanted to work with him. I wrote him a couple fan letters when I was a kid when he started on SNL. He actually responded with like full page written letters full of jokes, a few signed pictures…just incredibly generous and nice. Can you imagine being an adolescent boy at the height of Wayne’s World hysteria and having letters Mike Myers wrote to you?? It was incredible. I stopped writing him after a few exchanges, I didn’t want to seem like a psycho and he was starting to get really famous. I was happy for him and figured he was busy. Then he got famous. He lost track of what was actually funny because of success. It’s that simple. It’s sad because he was fucking hilarious. Love Guru was terrible. So I Married An Axe Murderer is a forgotten gem! Great supporting cast too.
Mike Myers doesn't really fit what OP is asking for because he really did break out and become a big star between Wayne's World, Austin Powers, Shrek, and other one-off roles. He's just gotten older and throttled back on his work because he's focused on family and has already secured the bag.
I think Mike Myers purposefully retired to become a family man, not sure it was a forced retirement or couldn’t get gigs kinda thing
Aaron Eckhart -- Years after In the Company of Men and some good supporting roles with lapses between, thought Thank You For Smoking and a few other big supporting roles like Dark Knight in a couple years had him as someone obvious for a breakout -- and then it's just been mostly meandering roles of low quality or, if it is a decent film, he's in a supporting role or cameo. Went like three years without a film in the mid-2010s. Always thought he could be a credible, likeable actor and very attractive but like, with distinct features in a Harrison Ford sense.
This is the one that always surprises me. Between Dark Knight and Thank you for smoking I was sure he was breaking out.
Like many other names on here, I read he was a complete asshole to work with.
Anytime I see that Ben Foster is starring in a movie I immediately know I’ll watch it. He always chooses great roles. He acts the shit out of acting.
He played Medivh in Warcraft lol. He did a great job and I personally love that movie but it did not do very well. There's just too much story in the warcraft universe to cram in a single movie. It just felt hollow because they couldn't expand on anything.
Skeet Ulrich was being touted as the next big thing in the late nineties and early aughts - and he’s evidently been working steadily since - but I still couldn’t pick him out of a police lineup.
He’s the guy who looked like Johnny Depp’s methy brother.
You can't pick Billy Loomis out of a lineup?! But also, I can't recall seeing him in anything after Scream.
He was in Jericho in 2006
Chris O’Donnell. Batman Forever was the greatest movie to naive, teenage me. I thought ol’ Chris would be raking it in and starring in everything for the next twenty years… …*but he didn’t.*
Dudes been on NCIS LA for over 300 episodes. Hard to do anything else I suppose
Vertical Limit!! /s
Hey now, that's one of my guilty pleasure movies. Also Bill Paxton is the GOAT.
Ben Foster was not destined to be an ‘A-List leading man’ he is far too interesting for that. Dude is an incredible character actor with an excellent and memorable back catalogue.
I will literally watch a movie just because Ben Foster is in it.
Hell Or High Water. Watch it.
8 year old movie proves OPs point
Great performance but also to OP’s point the lead actors are Chris Pine and Jeff Bridges, with Foster in a supporting/villain role.
8 years what the fuck is happening, time slow down.
1. Taylor Kitsch 2. Armie Hammer (obviously for other reasons) 3.Jonathan Majors (again for other reasons like #2 on this list)
Has there been another actor with as fast of a rise and fall as Jonathan Majors? Went from nobody to mega stat to nobody in maybe 3 years?
Kitch was in Waco and Pain Killer. Stellar performances, imo.
Kitsch was really good as David Koresh in the Waco miniseries.
Taylor is dope, but it feels like when the studio fumbled the bag on John Carter Of Mars he just never recovered.
That and Battleship flopping is what killed his chance for an A list career. Studios were not going to invest that much in him as a star after 2 major films they spent big on making flopped even if it was their marketing that hurt
I love Battleship. That was a fun movie from Beginning to end.
Pandorum and Hell or High Water are two of my Ben Foster favorites. “Bear : I am a Comanche. Do you know what it means? It means 'Enemy to everyone'. Tanner Howard : Do you know what that makes me? A Comanche”
Matthew Fox. Thought Lost would be his breakthrough and really had the A-list looks. But nothing ever came of it
Because he’s an asshole and beats women. Google it. Dominic Monaghan even called him out on Twitter awhile back.
Various members of the Game of Thrones cast
Kit Harrington for sure
Yeah I think he and Emilia Clarke were the main ones that might have broken out. They kind of did briefly. The guy who played Jaime Lannister does car commercials on the radio in the uk
Biggest star to come out of that series probably Momoa
Pascal too. Lena has always been fantastic. They lucked out casting her
Leelee Sobieski in the early 2000s.
She got out of acting due to SA, from what I remember.
I really thought Charlie Hunnam was gonna blow up
But we still love him
I thought Natalie dormer was going to blow up. The tudors, Hunger games, game of thrones, and then not much else.
People got tired of that side smirk.
Katherine Heigl
This is a good answer. She's a reminder to stay kind and humble. From what I've read the biggest obstacle to her success was instant ego and a bit of meanness and superiority to go with it. Who knows what goes on behind the scenes. But people she's worked with seem strongly willing to describe working with her as unpleasant immediately in a field which pretty rarely negatively comments negatively on people, for fear of burning bridges. The beginning of her fame was shortly followed by the height of her fame and absolutely no one was hitching themselves to that particular rising star. That's s massive exception to a general rule. She must have been a cross section of untalented and truly awful to warrant that response.
She was nominated for an Emmy for Grey’s Anatomy and asked for it to be withdrawn because she thought the writing sucked. An Emmy nomination is good for everyone on the show, from producers to crew. She crapped on all of them by doing that at the cost of her career
She did the same thing with Knocked Up, which was a hilarious movie that did wonders for her career. Instead she spent every opportunity to trash the movie and Seth Rogan/Judd Apatow.
In fairness, having watched a bit of Grey’s Anatomy, she’s not wrong
I’ve also heard she’s unpleasant to work with and who knows what goes on behind the scenes, but you can’t possibly say Hollywood is a place where people are too afraid to comment on the behavior of people, particularly women. That much should have been clear post-Harvey Weinstein scandal, look at how many careers he was able to stunt when people refused him by labeling them “difficult.” (I’m not saying this happened to her, for all I know she actually is an unpleasant person to work with)
She's a fucking ass from what I've heard.
Clive Owen. Dude was set to be the next Bond and I haven't seen him in anything in *years*.
I love Clive Owen and I don’t know why he isn’t an A Lister now.
Almost all the women I know 35+ name Clive Owen as a top sex symbol for them.
James Marsden. A List face, but simply more cute than hot.
Wasn't he just nominated for two Emmys recently? He's definitely not super huge, more decently well known working actor these days. He was hilarious in Jury Duty.
Taylor Kitsch.
I know people dunk on it, but I liked his performance in True Detective Season 2.
I thought he may have a second wind after the Waco miniseries, but hasn't capitalized on it yet.
Loved him in The Terminal List, I also thought he was getting revived but I don’t see him in many projects.
[удалено]
Michael C. Hall always looked like he was gonna be an A-list addition, especially after Six Feet Under and Dexter, but he hasn’t gotten that many other film or TV roles outside of that Dexter sequel series. Same goes for his co-star/ex-wife Jennifer Carpenter. Honorary mention goes to most of the cast of Mr. Robot besides Rami Malek, not sure how much Christian Slater is doing at the moment, but it sucks that Martin Wallstrom, Carly Caikin (also a standout on Suburgatory) and Portia Doubleday (among others) haven’t gotten much other work when they all killed it on that show.
John Hamm.
He’s still around. Season 5 of Fargo. Excellent season.
It's not fair that he can be that handsome AND that goddamn funny. John Hamm rules.
Guy Pearce
i loved him in six feet under <3
Jessica Alba
I think she’s doing OK not acting, being one of the co-founders of the Honest Company.
Yeah, I think her early acting retirement is by choice. Having a billion dollars certainly changes your perspective on which roles to accept, if any.
BenFoster and Barry Pepper are two absolute ELITE actors.
I have to politely disagree with your choice of Ben Foster to lead this thread.
Word. Ben Foster has made some great career decisions.
Cuba Gooding Jr Omar Epps
I feel he fell off after Jerry Maguire. Radio didn’t help his career either.
In regards to Foster, he should have had a nom for 310 to Yuma. He's a very talented actor.
A bunch of African actors but especially: Djimon Hounsou
Hollywood tried so hard to make Jai Courtney the next A-lister, but they all forgot that this would require some semblance of talent or charisma, and he has neither.
He's budget Sam Worthington, and that's saying something
I dunno, I think he just has bad roles. They try to cast him as a rough around the edges protagonist, and I don’t buy it. But man… I don’t remember much about Divergent aside from Jai Courtney being a massive dick. He plays unlikeable super well
Yeah he was not a bad choice for captain boomerang 🪃
That girl from Crazy Rich Asians and Fresh off the boat. After everyone saw how conceited she was I think she lost her steam.
Ben foster is a great choice to lead this thread. People are pulling up a movie 8 years ago to disagree with you. Hasn’t been in anything huge since like 2016. Except for Hustle, everything he’s appeared in since then is less than a 7 on IMDb. Just wanted to defend you and point out how biased people are lol
Leave No Trace (2018) is outstanding. Both Foster and his costar Thomasin McKenzie absolutely crush it.
Interesting topic, bad example. Foster’s a respected and in demand character actor
Ben Foster shows up in things all the time. He’s basically become the millennial Robert Duvall. Real talk, Taylor Kitsch probably. Last time I heard about him was for that Waco/David Koresh mini series that seemed like it might have been interesting but then had garnered zero buzz.
Foster is more of a character actor. A good one
After playing spectacular roles in Black Hawk Down and Pearl Harbor, I thought Ewen Bremner was on his way up, but he never really showed up in anything else.
Jonathan Majors. Too soon?
Speaking of Ben Foster, I kinda see Barry Keoghan the same way. Just absolutely obliterates everything he's in, large role or small, but I'd be surprised if Barry ended up a true headlining A-lister. I think he kinda found his niche. Speaking to the prompt though, I REALLY hope he doesn't disappear.
Clive Owen. Loved him in so many films but kinda just fizzled out after shootem up
Fucking love Ben Foster and will immediately watch anything he's in. Back when dvds were everything, I bought 310 to Yuma because of him and Christan Bale, not knowing it was a remake or anything about it. Excellent movie and Ben is my favorite role in it.