10 Exact Moments Actors Thought They Were Finished
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 whether it was down to the fact that it seemed as though nobody wanted to work with them
00:03 after a high-profile misfire, or simply feeling as though they'd been found out as actors
00:08 after one rather disappointing showing.
00:11 The following stars very much felt as though their time in the spotlight was over at these
00:15 precise moments in time.
00:17 Gareth here from WhatCulture.com and here are 10 exact moments actors thought they were
00:22 finished.
00:23 10.
00:24 Matt Damon's career was going downhill before being offered the informant
00:28 As hard as it may be to believe, Matt Damon's career was actually in a little bit of trouble
00:32 in the early 2000s.
00:34 According to the star himself during a Hot Ones interview, before being offered the lead
00:38 role in Steven Soderbergh's The Informant, his career was very much heading in the wrong
00:43 direction.
00:44 At the time of chatting with the talented director, Damon's eventual hit Bourne series
00:48 hadn't been released in cinemas, and the star had been at the centre of a number of
00:52 big screen bombs.
00:53 And the actor was actually so convinced that nobody would be willing to give him a job
00:57 at the time of chatting with Soderbergh, that he didn't even realise he was being offered
01:01 the part by his eventual director.
01:03 So after double checking if he was merely being brought on board to write the script,
01:07 and being told that Steven most definitely just wanted him to star in the comedy crime
01:11 flick, Damon was all in.
01:13 And while it may have taken nearly a decade for the two to actually unleash the informant
01:17 into the world, by the time it was, Damon was a rather bankable Hollywood star.
01:21 And the feature went on to earn some pretty decent reviews too.
01:24 9.
01:25 Naomi La Paglia - The Wolf Of Wall Street Few will ever forget the mesmerising performance
01:31 that introduced Margot Robbie to the majority of the movie-watching world.
01:35 With her stellar work as Naomi La Paglia in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf Of Wall Street,
01:39 quickly establishing her as one of the biggest stars on the planet, seemingly overnight.
01:44 But with such a sudden injection of fame came the realisation very quickly, that things
01:48 may never be the same for the actor if she decided to fully commit to the life of a Hollywood
01:53 superstar.
01:54 In fact, in the wake of The Wolf Of Wall Street's release, the star eventually admitted to Variety
01:58 that she told her own mother, "I don't think I want to do this" after feeling as
02:01 though her family could be in danger, due to the public's desperate need to catch
02:05 a photo of her doing a grocery shopping, for example.
02:08 Instead of finishing her mainstream career before it properly got going, though, the
02:11 Australian sensation soon realised that the only way was forward, and went about forging
02:16 one hell of a big-screen CV in the years that would follow.
02:19 8.
02:20 Natalie Portman wanted to work with Natalie Portman after Star Wars
02:23 In the case of the unquestionably brilliant Natalie Portman, her performance as the rather
02:27 dull Padme Amidala in Star Wars Episodes 1-3 didn't do her many favours by the time
02:32 Revenge of the Sith finally closed out the trilogy in 2005.
02:36 The eventual Oscar winner would explain to New York Magazine many years on from her disappointing
02:40 time in the galaxy far, far away, that despite appearing in the highest-grossing movie of
02:45 the decade, no director wanted to work with the star of the wars.
02:49 Portman would even confess that she felt as though everyone thought she was a horrible
02:52 actress.
02:53 Instead of her hopes of going on to enjoy a varied and long career being crushed by
02:57 an underwhelming showing in Star Wars, though, Portman had a friend in director Mike Nichols,
03:01 who went out of his way to vouch for her to his peers and helped rebuild the star's
03:05 reputation along the way.
03:07 She did pretty alright for herself, didn't she?
03:09 7.
03:10 Adam Sandler didn't know what to do after being fired from SNL
03:13 There's no getting around it, getting fired utterly sucks, doesn't it?
03:17 Even after spending five solid years providing many a laugh as part of the Saturday Night
03:21 Live cast, Adam Sandler soon found himself feeling the sudden sting of unemployment in
03:26 1995.
03:27 After being dealt such a heartbreaking blow at a rather early stage in his career as an
03:31 on-screen comedy actor, Sandler, who was 28 at the time of his exit, ultimately admitted
03:36 to feeling hurt because "I didn't know what else I was going to do".
03:39 Simply put, the star didn't feel like he was ready to leave behind the SNL team, and
03:43 the idea of now having to do something else with his time was likely a little terrifying
03:47 at the time.
03:48 It all worked out in the end, of course, with Sandler going on to become one of the most
03:51 successful comedy actors of all time.
03:54 And when he did eventually return to host SNL in 2019, he unquestionably got the last
03:58 laugh with his cheeky lyrics of "I was fired, I was fired, NBC said that I was done, then
04:04 I made over $4 billion at the box office, so I guess you could say I won".
04:08 6.
04:09 Chris Hemsworth thought his improv skills would end his career in Ghostbusters
04:13 For those who don't feel all that confident about the concept of riffing on the spot during
04:17 a scene, the reality of walking onto a set without any scripted dialogue to fall back
04:21 on can be fairly daunting.
04:23 And that was the terrifying situation Chris Hemsworth found himself in during the shooting
04:28 of the eventual comedy reboot flop that was 2016's Ghostbusters.
04:32 And after having a chat with director Paul Feig about the alarming lack of lines his
04:36 character had printed in the script he'd been sent, the star was told not to worry
04:40 about it because they'd simply figure it out on the day.
04:42 But when said day actually arrived, the horrifying realisation that he'd have to now attempt
04:47 to improvise his way through a sequence with his co-stars left him thinking "this is
04:51 not only the end of my career, but I'm going to ruin this film".
04:54 In the end though, the support he felt from the likes of Melissa McCarthy and Kristen
04:57 Wig helped him feel comfortable enough to have fun with the scenes he was involved in.
05:01 And while this particular Ghostbusters adventure may not have set the world on fire, Hemsworth's
05:06 career showed absolutely no signs of slowing down after yet another fine example of his
05:11 comedy prowess.
05:12 5.
05:13 Paul Bettany was told his career was over before getting a Vision phone call
05:17 Getting that all-important call from Kevin Feige or another Marvel creative has been
05:21 known to be a life-changer for just about every actor who has ever wandered into the
05:25 Marvel Cinematic Universe.
05:27 But when it comes to eventual Vision star Paul Bettany, it genuinely seemed as though
05:30 his days as part of the acting industry were well and truly over before his phone rang
05:35 with Avengers Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon's number on it.
05:38 As the voice of Jarvis would explain at Ace Comic Con a few years back, the Brits had
05:42 just walked out of a particularly demoralising meeting with a producer a few moments before
05:47 the director got in touch.
05:48 Simply put, said producer claimed that his career was over, that it was done and that
05:53 he should pack his bags and go home.
05:55 Defiantly though, the actor told that person to mind your effing manners before his legs
05:59 eventually gave way as he reached the sidewalk on Sunset.
06:02 And just as the thought of "wow, maybe my career's over" washed over him, a number
06:06 Bettany didn't recognise popped up on his phone and Whedon soon delivered the news that
06:10 he'd like him to play Viz in the MCU.
06:13 And the rest was Marvel Cinematic History.
06:15 4.
06:16 Scarlett Johansson thought her career was over after being hypersexualised
06:19 Black Widow actor Scarlett Johansson also went through a period in her life when she
06:23 felt as though her career was done, for an entirely different reason than her Avenger
06:28 co-star Paul Bettany though.
06:29 As the actor would explain on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast, after first making
06:34 a name for herself at a rather young age, it soon became clear to Johansson that she'd
06:38 become objectified and pigeonholed to the point where she wasn't being offered the
06:42 sort of parts that she really wanted to dive into.
06:45 Things got to the point where the actor felt as though everybody just assumed she was older
06:49 and had been acting in the industry for far longer than she actually had, with this then
06:53 leading to her getting pigeonholed into this weird hypersexualised thing.
06:57 And as that frustrating reality sank in, the eventual Academy Award nominee admitted to
07:01 thinking that her career was over, feeling that she'd never get the chance to play anything
07:05 other than the role she had up to that point.
07:08 This obviously didn't turn out to be the case, thankfully, and the star would also
07:11 add that she's thankful that the rising stars of today are allowed the freedom to
07:15 be far more dynamic than Johansson was earlier in her career.
07:18 3.
07:19 Robert Downey Jr. Thought He Was Going To Bury Himself With Tropic Thunder
07:23 On the back of reigniting his career with a game-changing performance as Tony Stark
07:27 in 2008's Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. was arguably one of the most in-demand actors
07:32 on planet Earth.
07:33 So how did the revived star choose to follow up that early MCU entry?
07:37 With a character and movie that he felt held the potential to undo all of the goodwill
07:41 that he'd just generated with his much-loved Marvel outing.
07:45 Or at least, that's how RDJ himself saw it.
07:48 With the actor eventually noting to LA Times that after agreeing to appear in Tropic Thunder,
07:52 before Iron Man ultimately went on to be a massive success, he quickly thought "I just
07:56 buried myself."
07:57 By playing the role of a white actor trying to portray a black character throughout the
08:01 comedy, the star understandably worried that he was going to squander any goodwill he had.
08:06 Far from derailing his career revival in the same year it began, though, his work in Tropic
08:10 Thunder as Kirk Lazarus actually led to a surprising Oscar nomination for RDJ.
08:15 And Downey would eventually go on to become one of the highest-grossing actors of all
08:19 time.
08:20 Ryan Reynolds Thought He Was Done After Injuring Denzel in Safehouse
08:24 There was a pretty alarming moment there when Ryan Reynolds genuinely thought he'd headbutted
08:28 away his chances of ever having a successful career in the business.
08:32 Jumping back to that time when Reynolds was filming the 2012 action thriller Safehouse
08:36 opposite Denzel Washington, one particular stunt involving the two wrestling in a moving
08:40 vehicle soon led to Ryan's head colliding with the legendary thespians.
08:44 In that moment, after connecting with Washington's eye, the star admitted to David Letterman
08:48 that he thought he was about to be sent home via crematorium.
08:52 Not only that, the actor also confessed to feeling that both his career and actual pulse
08:56 were about to cease.
08:58 Being the pro he is, though, Washington laughed off the accident and the pair attempted the
09:01 sequence once more from the other side to disguise the swelling appearing around his
09:05 injured eye.
09:06 But, unfortunately for Reynolds, the same thing only went and happened again, this time
09:10 to the other eye.
09:11 And on top of Washington soon resembling a rather sore Christmas ornament, the eventual
09:15 murk with the mouth quite rightly felt like he wanted to die there and then.
09:19 Can't exactly blame him.
09:20 Colin Farrell Thought He'd Been Found Out After Alexander
09:23 It's hard to believe there was ever a time when it looked as though Colin Farrell's
09:27 career was in any serious trouble.
09:29 But nearly two decades before his most recent outstanding year on the big screen, one which
09:33 saw him utterly transform into the Penguin in The Batman and receive a Golden Globe for
09:37 his work in The Banshees of Innisheeran and an Oscar nod as well, the Irish actor admitted
09:42 to genuinely questioning if he was actually any good at this acting thing.
09:46 After appearing in what would ultimately go on to become one of the biggest flops of the
09:49 decade in Alexander, a 23-year-old Farrell was quickly informed that the reviews being
09:54 sent the 2004 historical epic were not good.
09:57 Farrell ultimately decided to escape the public eye for a while by taking a trip to a ski
10:01 resort in Lake Tahoe, but couldn't escape the feeling of being a crap actor and questioned
10:06 whether he'd just been found out after his initial success in the business.
10:10 This high-profile disaster couldn't fully derail the star's rise in the end though,
10:14 and after reconnecting with the version of himself who first walked into an acting class
10:17 at the age of 17, Farrell was eventually able to produce the sort of work that has since
10:22 established him as one of the finest performers of his generation.
10:25 Keeping those fingers crossed for that Oscar, baby.
10:27 And that's our list!
10:28 Know of any other exact moments actors thought they were finished?
10:31 Then let us know all about them in the comments section right down below and do not forget
10:34 to like, share and click on that subscribe button while you're at it!
10:37 Also, if you like this kind of thing then go and head on over to WhatCulture.com and
10:40 find some more fantastic articles just like the one this video you're watching right this
10:44 second is based on!
10:45 I've been Gareth from WhatCulture.com, thank you as always for watching this lovely video
10:49 today!
10:50 Hopefully I'll see your faces very, very soon, but in the meantime, be good to yourself.